Thread: Trailer add ons share them here

Originally Posted by Oldneweng

Regarding welding across the draw bar, I think that from my experience this issue may be exaggerated. Sorry Yonnee but I have hammered the he## out of this trailer, bent the original axle, bent the draw bar, loaded it to higher than the cage with redgum firewood etc etc. The original draw bar is I think 1/4 inch x 2 inch angle. It has not cracked. Maybe the thickness protects it. Due to the bending I welded another piece of similar angle on underneath to form a box. Cut it and pulled it straight etc.

I do understand the risks when using lighter materials and if I weld my draw bar on when I rebuild I will certainly not weld across the top of it. A weld in that position will weaken the metal at the most vulnerable point.

Yonnee, you must see a lot of bad stuff. People usually only get something fixed if it is broken. Your advice is good when building a new trailer but if someone has an old heavy built trailer from long ago what are the chances of a crack occurring.

All I am saying is that if you have a trailer that is welded across the top of the draw bar it is not necessarily going to fail. Look at it in context. Heavy thick steel is less affected by welding and I personally have heard of a number of failures over the years but not this one. Where I live vehicles get hammered. Driving up and down gutters is nothing to what I put trailers thru out in the bush.


Dean

I missed this earlier.
The 2 keys here are the thickness of the angle iron (1/4" or 6mm), and the fact that it's angle iron. Even when welded across the grain, angle iron will still flex due to it not being boxed (And even when you boxed it, the wall thickness was still massive). If you built a trailer from 6mm walled RHS, you'd probably never have an issue with it cracking if you welded it across the bar at that point. The problem these days is trailers being manufactured to be as light as possible, and so thin walled RHS is used.

Originally Posted by rusel

Another question; Insurance. Is your trailer covered by the cars third party insurance. Eg you back your car with trailer into the Rolls Royce.
Are you covered, should I be doing something about this?

As far as I am aware, while the trailer is connected to the towing vehicle, it is covered by the tow vehicle's insurance, including TAC. If the trailer should become detached from the tow vehicle, then it's on its own, and must have its own cover, including rego to be covered by TAC. However, this could well differ from insurance company to insurance company, and maybe even from state to state.

Yonnee is correct.

I spent 40 odd years in motor Insurance and I've never seen a policy issued by any company based in Austraila that didn't cover a trailer for Third Party PROPERTY damage whilst attached to an insured vehicle.

Note this is property only not bodily injury.

Thanks for clearing up the insurance question guys.
Russell

I was only thinking about that this morning.

I remember in the early 80's (around about Ash Wednesday) a trailer travelling on a rural road in Victoria had a wheel bearing seize and the wheel and hub came off, rolled into the bush and started a fire that did $$$ damage.

The cause of the fire was tracked back to the trailer and the owner was held responsible.

The insurer of the trailer (AMP) had to pay quite a few million$ to settle the loss.

Of course if the car wasn't insured the owner would have been bankrupted. Goood reaon to not drive around uninsured, as many people do.

Originally Posted by zuffen

Of course if the car wasn't insured the owner would have been bankrupted. Goood reaon to not drive around uninsured, as many people do.

Unfortunately when there is an incident involving an uninsured driver, who is at fault, while that person may be liable there is frequently little likelihood of recouping a loss.

Rights of recourse are there, but if there is no money, no income, no assets and no insurance you have buckley's chance of redeeming your loss.

Regards
Paul

I owned/ran a specialist motor insurance agency that only insured prestige and performance cars for almost 20 years before retiring.

Over those years we would have lost 40% of the money owed to us by other drivers at fault through them not having insurance.

As I type we're settling the last claim where a truck forced a Ferrari up against a gutter. The at fault driver is paying us off at $5,000.00 per month and will be for some time to come.

The only way we got any money was by legal action to de-register his compalny and hence force him into bankruptcy.

We've bankrupted dozens of people over the years and have no sympathy for any of them.

A mate of mine's brother spent 15+ years paying off a nearly new car he wrote off by "T" boning it with his uninsured car. Even when he was out of work, the court order still required him to pay $5 a week.

And as riveting as this discussion has become, it's not about trailer add-ons...

Originally Posted by Yonnee

I missed this earlier.
The 2 keys here are the thickness of the angle iron (1/4" or 6mm), and the fact that it's angle iron. Even when welded across the grain, angle iron will still flex due to it not being boxed (And even when you boxed it, the wall thickness was still massive). If you built a trailer from 6mm walled RHS, you'd probably never have an issue with it cracking if you welded it across the bar at that point. The problem these days is trailers being manufactured to be as light as possible, and so thin walled RHS is used.

Ok. Got it.

Dean