Trailer kingpin refurbished

Prolly depends on what kinda trailer re: cheaper than replacement.

I never heard of that type of repair. Sounds reasonable that it is done on some equipment tho.

 

When i worked at the feed mill, they had a guy come to "rebuild" the king pins on two of the frameless end dumps. He built up layers of weld, then setup this rotating grinder thing...

The whole rig spun around the king pin while the grinder did its job. The guy would adjust depth and location (up/down on the pin itself). Took most of a day for each trailer.

I was in getting tires, so i hung around for an hour or two chatting with him. Never asked what it cost, but the mill was kinda "thrifty", so its must have been cheaper than replacing them

 

Would that not be cool! Scares me a lot! How is their insurance? I have cut s cams in half and welded them back together to shorten them, ####### trailers, but thank I'll pass on that one. I am not a metallurgist or an expert on metallography but have had the opportunity to learn from some very knowledgeable people. In such cases there are concerns that the metal can crystallize and fracture. It was already worn, many miles and if it had a fracture heating and cooling wound make it worse.
It is a two inch pin that holds a 65,000 pound loaded trailer to a 25, 000 pound truck. Do you really want to patch it? I would rather dump it at the auction.
xcetra: I just thank it is a bad idea. A day with the axle surgean is about $800 so I would expect about the same. You should be able to get a new pin in a flat for less than that.

 

If the kingpin is worn away the apron is probably on its way out, too. Pin and plate usually only runs about $2000 fabricated and installed.

 

I am with the idea of replacing the pin and plate area completely at the same time. Or getting rid of the trailer....

 

There are a couple of Youtube Videos on the process. Same with web sights. Somewhere there I got the notion it runs int $500-$800 dollar range.

That is the same price ($800) the local KW/Pete dealer has on the board for replacing the kingpin. I am sure the price goes up from their as some trailers are more complex.

I would have issues with the welded up kingpin. I might do it if I was stuck in a situation with a problem child trailer like a lined reefer, but I would prefer just replacing the kingpin if at all feasibly in the same price range.

Interestingly, of the things I have seen of critical structural integrity welded up, most welders that claim they can do it fail short in my opinion. Camshafts are a common one I have seen. It is common to hard face weld one under submerged arc and regrind for repair. Well those that do claim they have few failures. Well I seen a lot more then a few.

 

Has anyone every had a trailer come off?