Axel mounts bending and cracking?

Well i see the crack. Also, ill bet the original hanger bolts have been broken or sheered off already. Those dont look like the factory bolts holding the hangers to the bottom of the beam.

You better really inspect that bottom rail of the beam really well for cracks. If hes been abusing that trailer twisting it that much to where hes tearing up hangers, you need to inspect it close. You break the bottom part of an aluminum beam like that, your done or your gonna be good at welding it all the time. Good luck

 

Also, i forgot to answer your questions.

#1, Thats a Hendrickson suspension. Prolly a HT250 or 300. Those hangers can be bought and any major trailer repair shop. Kind pricey though. Plus, you will need them to line it back up for proper alignment.

#2, i have an aluminum east 48 flatbed, a east aluminium 48 stepdeck, and an all steel fontaine stepdeck, and ill be honest, i have loaded some REALLY heavy loads on any 3, and i aint NEVER beat the hell outta a suspension that bad. I have a feeling he was REALLY REALLY twisting it up hard with more than 40k on them. I think the ole boy might be stuffin your boots alittle bit about how "normal" it is to treat a piece of equipment that way. Just my opinion though.

 

As long as the main beams arent bad, i think youd be ok. Depends how critical you wanna be. Theres alot of guys that will just run it the way it is for a while or until it breaks.

I say if the floor aint tore all to hell, you can get it really cheap and you have some time to fix it up a little, go for it. Cheap being the main goal.

What brand is this unit?

 

That is a nice set of cracking you got going there.

Im not going to speculate at what you will have to load that poor thing heavy enough to where structural failure is a possiblity. Bolts breaking is one thing, springs going out is another. Main beams cracking? Oh boy...

I would not want that trailer. Poor thing. You might discover a better trailer for what you are fixing to dump into this old one in parts and tears. The story you are being fed is just that a story. Im pretty certain there is a huge amount of hidden facts in it's history untold. No wonder it's so cheap... cheap and good are two things incompatible with each other.

Ive had trailers that were tired. But nothing like that. I think Ive only witnessed about 3 trailers in my life time that failed in interesting ways when loaded one time too many.

 

I've a feeling that the first time DOT sees that crack, you are shut down until it is taken care of.

 

I agree, i ment AFTER he fixed the crack in the hanger. I would not not by any means want something like that going down the road. Guess i should have clarified that.

If you buy that trailer, FIX that hanger BEFORE you run it.

 

It is probably from what they call rust jacking. In other words the aluminum is corroding from contacting the steel hanger. Electralisis I would stay away from it! Ravens are notorious for cracking the frame in that area.there is usally a thin sheet of liner between hanger and frame. If it is gone or missing your just asking for trouble.