Mechanical rgn sagging -- stretched locking plate?

If it is stretching I would order a new set from Trail King and continue to use the shim until they come in. Change them at your earliest convenience and save the old ones as spares.
measure the old and new and see how much they stretched and ask T K how much is too much.
I know that Arnes trailers in the 80's set a limit of 3/16" of deflection and 1/8" of permanent stretch. We carried a new set in stock after I broke the first ones and the shop did quarterly checks afterward.

 

The goosenecks all seem to wear some, and need periodically rebuilding. My next HH trailer is being built in early 2019, and I am going old school, no more detachable neck which seems to be the week point of any trailer with them. I would have a good welder build it up, then machine it out as needed.

 

You are ordering a new lowboy with a fixed neck? Seems like that would really limit your loads.

 

No it will not.
Its lost on me why so many people assume equipment must be loaded on the front of trailer, detached from the neck.
But I also believe in freedom of choice. So we should all do loading the way it works best for us.

 

Absolutely for that sort of stuff.
You definitely should have a gooseneck.

 

Read where he is from...mostly they run around 17’ tall cause there ain’t much to hit. He is talking about combinations that are typical in Weatern Canada - they run fixed neck 16 wheel 10 or 11 it 12 wide trailers all the time. Think backwoods type crap.

 

Not that bad.
I have the choice to use a 3 or 4 axle tractor, to pull a tandem axle or tri axle jeep, with the trailer as a 3 axle or with the 3 plus 2 axle booster.
So i will have choices up to 12 axles. Hydraulic rear load ramps onto the back as a 3 axle trailer, and then when the booster is on it takes 1 minute to unhook it and load the dozer, excavator, wheel loader, rock truck, grader or whatever, and then 1 minute to hook the booster back up. With any combination i want from 6 to 12 axles, it will fill all my needs.
The old lowbeds will be staying so i can also choose from them depending on the job. The gooseneck peerless 55 ton is also staying for days something just has to be front loaded because it can't climb the back of a conventional lowbed. I sometimes just side load equipment as well. Dump the airbags on truck and trailer and just drive the equipment right on like nothing. Or dump the trailers bags and up the beaver tail. The first decade plus I did lowbed work, i had no gooseneck to use, so loading was always side or beavertail. With the new long ramps i ordered as an option for the new trailer, the load angle will be piddly compared to the way I've been doing things for over 3 decades. Things that i truly enjoy in the trucking world are HH of equipment, and heavy recovery tow truck. Other stuff is fine, but something satisfying about those things to me. Pulled just about everything there is to pull at some point in the last 31 years, but HH of equipment is still my favorite. Just the same as some love OTR pulling a van. Makes me glad they like it, but for me it would be excruciating to do that sort of work. Just the same as many people would hate what i do. I even enjoy the directions scribbled on a napkin, of where to drop off or pick up a D9, or a processor in the bush. I can pull off the hwy onto bush roads, and not see or hear another person for 10 hours. It's a nice break from society.

 

To each his own I guess. Especially on big wide stuff, I just don’t like going over the back, and side loading is awfully hard on the trailer. Ive seen lots of people side load, and I’ve done it myself on somebody else’s trailer, but there would just have to be no other way to do it for me to side load my trailer. Over time it chews up your floor and can roll the outer flange.

 

Probably not a good idea to ever see what we drag the beds through up here if scratches upset you. Since redecking is cheap and easy, so I'll not sweat the redecking every 8 years. Guy about 5 kms away has a custom cut sawmill and makes all the locals new decking custom cut. Tough stuff, and a small job.
I dropped him off my 8 year old bed a couple years ago, picked it up the next day, now a couple years later looks almost like new still. But hey I'm still new at this game, only 31 years of hauling, I'll let the old guys with 50 plus years experience in HH chime in with their experience. My uncle taught me HH in his own truck and trailer, but he only had 35 years experience when he taught me, so he probably forgot a lot of the big important things to teach me.
Ps. I just drove the loader right on today, sorry i didn't break the neck apart when i loaded it. The loader didn't appear to have any damage from its experience, or my peerless bed. I got off lucky i guess.