Building my own hotshot truck bed

Yeah, I was more than happy with the price. The problem was when I took the trailer to their shop the day I bought it, they kinda flaked out on me.
I know they can handle the job, they do good work and custom build trailers. The problem was they realized the trailer was bigger than their shop so they couldn't lock the doors...

(They built mostly dump trailers and equipment trailers)

Orginally, I was going to get them to do it to my old trailer that was 36ft car trailer. But I was also going to need to upgrade it to 10k super single axles so it made more sense to just buy the heavier duty trailer and have it upgraded. The old trailer would just barely fit in their shop.. so the extra 4ft..lol


Anyway, now that I have the semi 5th wheel on the truck I'll start looking a lot more seriously for another shop to do it. Sad part is the new trailer already has about 70k miles on it now....

But I just road tested my new 5th wheel from FL to Cali with 2 1ton trucks on it. Worked great and seems to feel a bit smoother. Although 2 1ton crewcabs did squat the backend of the truck a bit so my fenders rubbed a little. I had to adjust them a little.

 

Well, I don't think I've experienced enough welding to make the call on the main frame rails (ie the replacement of the gooseneck with the i beams) I mean I think I could do it, but I just wouldn't feel right about it. Now on the other hand if I had someone just to rebuild the goosneck to the lowered 5th wheel set up I'd happily build the deck on it. (that I'd mig weld because I'm the most comfortable with those)

Now the one thing, I do know a guy down the street from me who is a structural welder with a mobile unit. He has his own company and he does contract welding for construction on steel buildings. If it came down to it I'm sure if I did all the fab work, I could then get him to do all the structural welding.

I was really trying to get a trailer shop to do it though so they could recertify the trailer.. DOT is funny about that.. I could legally build and use a trailer I built from the ground up, but I can't legally alter the frame on a trailer that was bought from another manufacturer. However, I can have a trailer shop do it who is a manufacturer and they can recertify it. That's kinda why I shy away from the DIY even if using a certified welder guy.