Here is my story with Texas Pride with pictures.
Ok, June 27 I went to pick up my 4 car texas pride trailer. It was a 2019, right out the factory and fully loaded. Paid $21,100 before tax and titles.
I pulled out of the texas pride lot and headed down the road to Miami where I would be parking my trailer for almost 2 months waiting on my paperwork to be finished. I pulled in to a rest area to sleep for the night and head out in the morning. Before the sun went down I took a walk around my trailer.
Every single D ring and every moving part was glued to the trailer from the paint. Thought no biggie and pried them off. They were only painted on one side! Didn't want to be nitpicky about it. Bought a can of gloss rustolium and repainted the parts that needed painting. I thought that would be the end of that.
Top floor would come down and sit about an inch or two to the side. Figured it was just some play and not a big deal.
2 months my trailer sat in a secured lot. I hook up and am ready to hit the road. Couldn't find a load out of Florida being so new and central dispatch had a 7 business day wait that turned out to be more like 14 business days and I wanted to reach NY and see my father before I head out to work.
I drive up the i95, sun went down and it got dark. An accident happens infront of me and I have to brake a little hard and went over a small piece of metal that was on the road. Next thing I know I don't have running lights on my trailer. Pitch black and no lights except brake lights, turn signals and hazards. I drive with my hazards on till I can find a place to stand and see what's wrong. I went through the whole trailer and can't find an issue with any of the wiring. I find the fuse and it's burned. I pull it out and put a new one in and it burns instantly. I assume just a bad fuse. I go through all the wires multiple times and can't find an issue still. Checked and rechecked all the connections. In the morning I head to Autozone and buy a few fuses. Pop a new one in and it burns immediately. Can't find anyone to fix it where I was so just decided to run during daylight to reach my destination.
I get to NY and park the trailer. I get an electrician to come to me and take a look. He followed every wire from the fuse box to the tail of the trailer. Inside the bottom tool box he found a small home depot wire box.
Top picture is what my trailer got,
Bottom picture is off their website.
Inside that box we found the wiring was a mess and spliced poorly. He fixed what he could and I replaced the fuse and I had running lights working.
By the way, I had to mop up hydraulic fluid out of the box, figured it was just excess. (By the end of this review I mopped up the hydraulic fluid about 4 times.)
After mopping it the first time:
I get my first load! I am so happy! I bring a Nissan Rogue to the top front. I go under the trailer to hook it up with the chains... I hope you guys can see what the problem here is...
Cant winch down the chain because when you put the winch bar in it can't go up or down! A car above and a battery right below. All the winches are right hand parts!!!!
I pull off the chains and use over the wheel straps instead. Now I can only strap the top floor with a ladder.
There are 2 D rings right in the center of the top load floor. Line up one side and the other is off center. Strap it diagonally across the tire and restrap it every couple hundred miles because it keeps coming off.
Not a problem, just bad engineering and planning.
Oh looky here, a cable holder loop thingy that was put on probably after the rest of the trailer was already painted!:
Oh and lets run the cables lazily too:
Ok, I load 4 and head out to work. Top floor comes up crooked by a couple of inches. There are 6 holes for the safety pin to go into. When the driver side reaches the sixth the passenger side just finishes getting past the fifth. Couldn't get a picture to show it happening clearly.
I make my first drop, and load up a second four car load and head to FL. The heaviest car to ever be on the hydraulic lifted part was 4400 lb. This is relevant later on. Every heavy car gets to sit on the tail end to balance some of the load off my rear axle.
After 2 weeks working I've had enough. I call TPT and make an appointment to come into their Madisonville location to get these things fixed. I wanted a refund.
I run a 3 car load to texas, practically breaking even. Reset in houston and get to TPT Monday at 5am like my appointment was set.
I get to meet the head mechanic (HM=head mechanic) or something. I go through the trailer with him and all the minor things he says he will take care of it until I mention the hydraulic leak and the top floor coming down off center since the day I bought it. Pulled up a picture from the rest area I pulled into right after leaving TPT when I bought it and it clearly shows it off center. Zoom in on the picture and see were the top floor is on the bottom one. The other side sticks out a couple of inches. Showed him the time stamp even, 6/27/2019 at 4:48pm
He got defensive and said it was crooked because I bent the pipe that is the hinge between the lifted part and the static part. I asked him what the load limit was 10 times and he couldn't tell me. I told him that is how I got it and the picture was proof. He said I probably edited the pic/timestamp... I told him he can check my work sheets that show every car I loaded and he wouldn't find one over 4400 lbs. I was again accused of probably lieing and spoofing the worksheet to hide something.
HM also noticed that that my winch battery wasn't even wired to the truck, something I didn't know at the time. Also showed him that the main power line to the hydraulic battery came loose and I just caught it the day before while I was mopping up hydraulic fluid.
There is a power controller something on the side flashing a red light 3 times. He said that means I used the system when it was below 6 volt. I often checked the battery's power level especially before use and it always showed 100% power. If that battery was ever below 6 volt it wasn't while I used it. He said I probably damaged the hydraulic pump and that's why the fluid was leaking out...
Texas Pride review.
Discussion in 'Expediter and Hot Shot Trucking Forum' started by 24kHotshot, Oct 2, 2019.
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I had enough and waited for the warranty officer to come. He was a nice guy, very understanding. I showed him the trailer and in his words he was ashamed something like this came out of his factory.
They offered to completely refurbish the trailer. Take it apart and rebuild it instead of "slapping a band aid" on it. That would take 2 days. I didn't want a refurbished trailer. He spoke to management and they said they can build me a brand new one but it would take longer. I just started and I am bleeding almost a grand a day. I can't afford to be delayed at all. I explained this to him.
I have lost my trust in these type of trailers and don't want to deal with the headache of hydraulics and too many moving parts ever again.
I told him either buy it back from me or trade it for a 3 car wedge with extensions. That's a 51 foot wedge with 3 foot front and back extensions according to the website.
They wouldn't buy back the trailer. I told him if I have to wait for a refurbished or new trailer I would slap a for sale sign on it and get rid of it asap. He said good, then you can come and buy the wedge you want. I said if I have to go through the process of selling this trailer and probably take a loss on it I wouldn't get a new TPT and just go to the competition. He understood.
By noon (7 hours after I got there) he agreed to ask the owner for a trade. I traded a $21,000 trailer for a $16,850 one WILLINGLY. Figured take a loss and get back out on the road to minimize the loss as soon as possible.
I got the wedge around 5pm and left. 12 hours at TPT. I have to say, the warranty officer was a very nice guy. He was understanding and friendly and really worked to make me happy. If I can give just him 5 stars I would.
I go to load 4 cars on my 57 foot with extensions trailer. Had a load for a CX5, 2 Prius and a Ram 2500. On the calculator that should have fit my 57' trailer. The last prius wouldn't fit. I needed another foot. No biggie, I head to my father's place to spend the weekend. I've been on the road 2 weeks straight, time for a break.
Turns out my math was correct before going to load and the front extensions extend just under 22". That is NOT 3 feet and exactly what I needed to fit the 4th car. A nice loss right out of the gate...
Today I go to my truck and new trailer to get it ready for my job tomorrow.
Trailer ran 1 job, 3 cars from TX to NY 1450 miles.
I contacted the warranty officer today. He said that this is minor. Those are all brake lines in the pictures. It's minor because I caught the defect before they caused a fail on 3 of the 4 brakes.
The hole is a bad weld, lots of sharp edges the wire is sitting on. Did my best to clean out the sharp edges and cushion the wires until I can get someone to fix it properly.
The other two had the protective cover melted off. The wires underneath have no damage at all so this looks like someone put a torch to the protective sleeves. He said this could have happened because I was riding the brakes and caused it to heat up. If that was true the actual wires under the sleeve would show some kind of damage. Not to mention that when I left TPT I had to put my brake controller to about 8-9 to even feel them. They are self adjusting. By the time I reached NY they were fine and I use a gain of 2 when empty now.
I was told I can't buy a trailer anywhere and not have no breakdowns at all. I thought I paid a premium price to avoid as much problems as I could. I was wrong. "You didn't buy a Lamborghini" I was told, I thought I paid enough to expect some kind of quality. Yeah I can drive back 1400 miles to texas and have it fixed but it isn't worth my time. I will pay out of pocket to fix it and just buy the cheaper competition trailers if I am going to have to fix a new trailer I just got.
In conclusion, TPT has more expensive trailers than the competition but not much higher quality. Workmanship is poor. Customer service is very good. I waited a long time to post a review to give TPT a chance to redeem themselves, and they nearly did. 5 stars to customer service, 2 stars for the product. If I lived close enough to have warranty work done easily I would be happier but won't drive 1400 miles to fix anything that isn't very expensive.
I hope this is a fair review, I am not one to bash on any business until I am forced to. I hate reviewing anything.clausland, singlescrewshaker, Lite bug and 1 other person Thank this. -
Your review is spot on, Texas Pride is nothing but a shady knock-off of other trailers. Lousy quality and they give all their customers the same run around. My baby brother didn't listen to me and bought a Texas Pride 5 car, didn't have a full week of running it without a failure. Biggest were hydraulics, electrical and axles.
Sad part is, he had a single axle tractor so he could have pulled a Sun Country, Miller or Cottrell and stayed away from the light weight junk that TP and the rest make.
I hope your luck is better with the wedge, doubt it will be. Sorry you are going thru this mess.clausland, Lite bug, rachi and 1 other person Thank this. -
The 12k axles on my trailer are not from TPT according to them. They order them from somewhere else. Will take them apart after 10-15k and make sure they are properly upgraded to meet the work's demand.
I will keep a close eye on the trailer and make sure I won't have any surprises.
Next time I'll be picking up a higher quality trailer and won't leave the lot until I inspect every inch of it. Lesson learned. Really like the idea of a Sun Country 4 car low pro with a medium duty truck 5500 or a sport chassis. Spend a little more and worry less.clausland, rachi and brian991219 Thank this. -
My only caution to you, with the 53' trailer and a pickup truck with the box on you will exceed 65 foot overall length. Some states will cite you.for this. They have different rules for truck/trailer combinations vs. tractor trailer combinations. Also, with the flippers out 57 foot is only legal in a handful of states, most a 53 foot trailer is the maximum legal length.
Beware of this, some states will make you unload and have the cars hauled away. I can tell you from experience -New York will not allow anything to hang over a 53' trailer, nor will they allow your flippers. Get caught and you.will.get a ticket. Pennsylvania endorces the 65' overall bumper to bumper length, including load, on hotahot pickup trucks.
I am not trying to be a downer, I started very similar to you, however I am speaking from almost 20 years in car haul, 30 total in trucking. My business partner started with a dually and 53' wedge, I began with a 2 car rollback.
I am currently a compliance consultant so I see these tickets almost daily.Badmon, Lite bug, rachi and 1 other person Thank this. -
I thought car haulers get some leeway with length laws?brian991219 Thanks this. -
If you go to pa they enforce the 65' max length??
Lite bug Thanks this. -
The rules I was speaking of are for all of New York State, not just the city. Now, I did not know you were a cab and chassis, so yes the 65' overall does not apply to you but the 53' overall trailer length still will. Since automobiles are a divisible load most states will not give any overhang unless required to do so for vehicles meeting the federal definition of automobile transporter. OOIDA actually does a good job of covering this dilemma.
Being Florida based I am sure you are aware of the 53' trailer permit for car haulers in Florida? They enforce that fairly regularly as it is a easy cash grab for them.
Last piece of free advice, depending on how your business is structured you may end up owing New Jersey a corporate reciepts tax for all transportation into, out of or through NJ. If you are a corporation, not LLC or sole proprietor then they assess you a tax on your NJ portion of all revenue. NJ gets pretty forceful once they identify that you owe this tax.24kHotshot Thanks this. -
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Appreciate the tips, curious how much are tickets for these kind of things?brian991219 Thanks this.
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