Sourcing Parts For an Old Trailer

Parts are easy. Not really any difference in the trailers from the late 90's to now

 

I have a 96 Aspen. Brake and suspension parts are readily available. Hydraulic parts are standard. Wiring is wiring, but no ABS on mine.

 

The problem with 25 year old RGN’s, if they have been used in a commercial capacity they have had the guts beat out of them. Rust issues underneath, cracking welds, main beams that have lost strength and go negative camber. All that can be fixed but at some point it’s more than the trailer is worth. Save yourself some headaches and buy a new trailer.

In a few months it’ll look like it’s 25 years old.

 

I guess I have been lucky as the previous owners nor I run the trailer consistently. It needs sandblasted and re-painted, but no crack or camber issues. I paid $30k in 2009 for it and could probably sell it for about that now. I haven't priced new ones, but I would guess a 55 ton would be over $100k now aren't they?

 

If you find a good contractor trailer that wasn’t worked hard every day you may can find a good one, but some contractors will overload the snot out of one and beat on them. Side load them and such.

A new 55 ton are north of 120 right now. Prices may have fallen a bit recently but I haven’t been looking.

 

There are different grades of RGN’s too. Commercial grade is generally a little lighter in weight but not as beefy. Construction grade is beefy and heavy. It will last a lot longer, but generally have shorter wells and weigh a fair bit more.

 

I wouldn’t be scared to get a late 90s rgn but you need to look very hard at it in person because there’s some good ones and a lot of rusted out ones that have cracks everywhere. I have a 94 and it’s a pretty clean trailer for its age. It’s also more of the over spec design and is quite heavy. I probably wouldn’t buy one with a fresh paint job unless there were pictures of the project for the simple fact of how well it was prepped.