Best fix to stop transcrafts from cracking

A friend of mine bought one and he paid me to move his conestoga off his old trailer on his Utility. He ran it for years until someone ran a stop sign and went under the trailer. He had zero issues with it only hauling lumber. Only sold it because he couldn't afford to be down while it was being fixed. Trailer ran over the hood of the car (loaded light and at 55mph) and the only repair needed was to the conestoga. When the trailer jerked hard when it went over the car and racked the last 4 cars on the rolling tarp. So I bought it from him, fixed it and re-sold it. Only real issue was the floor was coming up at the rear where the previous owner must have done a lot of dock loading and the forklifts tore it up. I still think it's a better trailer than a Transcrack.

 

I would never use my dump valve. I used to. which ever axle is dumped, the other is taking all the weight & that is where it will crack. if you weld good & do not use dump valve, cracking will almost cease. this will cause tires to wear a lil faster, but better than a cracked trailer.

 

It's not carrying anymore weight than the suspension will lift. If the trailer is loaded heavy and the rear axle is dumped the front axle will just bottom out and the weight will again be on both axles. People love to blame the dump valves but why is it Transcraft is the only brand with major cracking issues? They're certainly not the only brand with dump valves. Again one of the 2 we had that cracked did so at the REAR axle, dump valve did not cause that. It's crap steel and a crap design, in the last 20 years we've ran Fontaine, Transcraft, Dorsey, Benson, East, Wilson and Mac spread axle flats. All have had dump valves and only one brand has cracked.

 

Ravens used to crack like that also. The old 45' Magnums were known for it. It was related to the design and the dump valves.

I've seen all trailers aluminum and steel with cracks around the front axle, some just take alittle longer than others.

Its all in how you use the dump valve.

 

I have a 94' 48' 96'' when I first got it, people told me to use dump valve. I did. on mine it would dump the front axle. after having small cracks only in front of rear axle, I decided to not use dump valve. did not crack at that position anymore. few years later, it had to be welded at other places, but the non use of dump slowed the amount of cracks & having welded once every year or so was better than every 3 months. it helped some for sure, thats all i'm saying.

 

call transcraft and get their tech service guy on the phone. they will send you a drawing as to where to put the additional braces. did mine , no more cracking. also what kind of floor attachment system was used ? the "nails" are truly junk. i trailer screwed the entire al. floor down and that made a world of difference. hope this helps , johnny

 

No idea why anyone would ever put a dump valve on the front axle. I realize you probably bought it that way it just make no sense. Most flats have different weigh ratings depending on where the axles are spaced. Most are standard with a 122" spread. If you order the same trailer with a fixed tandem at the rear the weigh ratings drop dramatically (which is basically what your doing when you dump the front axle.)

I understand totally what your saying. My point is companies like Transcraft blaming the cracking issues on a dump valve is like Ford blaming the Pinto fire issues on the brand of gas. If your exeding the trailer ratings and have issues then it's your problem. But when all we hauled was legal loads of lumber distributed evenly the entire length of the trailer and still have issues, it's the trailer.

 

I replaced my entire floor. apitong flooring with the torx bit flat head. same wood & bolts that were used original. thanks for the tip on the tech service.