trailer tongue cracks

[mccloud]

You've seen the story by Ken Kelly in the October 2012 Wooden Canoe about the problem he had with a crack developing between the tongue and trailer body. I had a near identical crack, much different trailer, heavier, box plus 4 canoes, where the tongue joins the body. At the shop where it got re-welded and strengthened the guy told me that the problem occurred because I had the pressure in the tires too high. He said that with hard tires all the bouncing and vibration was transmitted to the tongue, but with low tire pressure the tires themselves dampened much of the bouncing. Ever since then I've run the trailer tires at 25 lbs and have not had a recurrence of the problem. Anyone else have experience in this or a different opinion? Tom McCloud

 

[Andre Cloutier]

I've always run trailer tires somewhat softer to absorb shock and keep the trailer from hopping or going airborne over bumps, but without seeing the failure i wouldnt venture a guess, but typically it comes down to design. A lot of manufacturers build quickly and economically these days, and reinforcing or gussets arent high on their list of priorities. Some are just poorly engineered. A weld is strong, but the metal behind it often can be weakened. I've built a few, and the one i use most was built by a trailer manufacturer about an hour away. These guys know how to build - having said that it is rather large, and not for compact cars but a mini van handles it just fine. Its overbuilt for canoes as far as weight goes (these guys build some huge trailers and sailboat crades etc) but on a wilderness road with miles of washboard i dont give it a second thought. With a 2500 lb axle i removed the second leaf from the spring pack and with softer tire pressure it runs just fine. Here's some pictures of the gussets they build into it at the critical points. I've built some from the offshore trailers that show up, and usually end up doubling the weight with reinforcing or swapping out the lightweight metal.