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Broken trailer frame - Axle broke thru alum box section - check your t

10K views 15 replies 9 participants last post by  sledsrockcolorado 
#1 ·
Pictures below are from Friday. 2/9/18

This is my friends trailer, 2 place Triton Elite, guessing they had it since 2003/04, so... probably +/- 15yrs old.

For those here in WNY, we were going down to Allegany State Park for the day.
I was driving separate and at the time, i was in front of them by about 15 minutes.
They got down to south of Ellicottville, and from this roller coaster of a winter, the roads are junk..!! South of e-ville.. they were terrible..!
Pot hole after pot hole.
I was in Saliminca already just before the Park, phone rings.... "We got trailer problems"
I turn around and head back, they pulled off into the Ellicottville central school - school bus lot .

The axle pushed up into the rectangular tubing, the tire rubbing on the under side of the deck.

I carry a small bottle jack, we were able to push the axle back out.

My buddy went to Tractor Supply, and got a metal plate ( you can see it in the one pic. ) we had to cut it down ( i had a hack saw in my tool box ) then hammer it in between the alum frame and the axle support.

Ratchet strapped it together for good measure.

After about an hour / hr & 1/2 , we were good to go.

I only had my sled in my trailer, so we put Stan's sled in mine and loaded Pete's on the good side/left side of theirs.

Never made it to the Park...
I haven't been riding there in about 8-10 yrs, and was looking forward to it.

Just didn't want to chance going any further away from home, (about 1 1/2 ride home,) and didn't know how the trailer would be getting it home and if we'd have any more issues.

So.... we lost a good day of riding.

See the other pic.
This is what my buddy did to fix his trailer.

Got aluminum box, bigger then the box on the trailer, cut the one side off, slipped it over the original, clamped it in place.

He said when he took the axle off, the other side was all honey-combed too.

He did both sides as shown.

Check your trailers...!!!

Look them over real good, Every season..!!!

Don't chance it... !
 

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#3 ·
You have to check all areas where steel touches aluminum. On all my Tritons they have a non metallic sheet (UHMW) between the axle and trailer. You should also make sure you use stainless bolts. It won't take long for corrosion to form with water and salt from the streets.
 
#4 ·
My buddy encountered the same thing. The tires hit the wood floor, and burned holes in them. They found a welder and had some steel plating installed. Not good as it causes corrosion, but it's worked for 4 years.

After some searching, it happens on Tritons.
 
#5 · (Edited by Moderator)
This is extremely common on older aluminum trailers. Brand doesn't make a lot of difference, Triton is just the most popular, so you hear it of them happening more often. My Triton clamshell did the same at about 12 years of age. Trailers have a finite life span, before their frames need replacement or some reconstructive surgery/reinforcement. At 10 to 15 years I consider them junk, and I don't care how new they still look because they don't "rust" like steel does. Mine was garage kept for its entire 12 years and never was even stored outside. One day after returning I crawled up under there and saw a couple big old cracks. Lucky I saw them before the collapse incident as described above occurred. My post inspection saved my future trip...sold the trailer as-is with flaws disclosed and pointed out, and bought a new one. Aluminum simply looks a whole lot nicer different as it corrodes, weakens, and fatigues, just like steel does. Steel just does it uglier.

From this day forward I will always sell my aluminum trailers to someone else exactly 2 years before this happens. LOL. Yeah like I can predict it....

But for sure I will never NEVER purchase a used aluminum snowmobile trailer that is more than just a few years old. No matter how good it looks. There is absolutely no way to predict when this is going to occur no matter how close you look. And I actually crawl under mine with a good light and inspect this location above axles, and the tongue, after every single long tow (cuz checking before a trip is just silly...it's time to go ride!!) Check when you RETURN so you have time to fix it and then you're totally good for the next trip LOL. This habit saved me from experiencing what Drifthopper went thru. The post inspection is particularly important if the roads had a lot of potholes or frost heaves. They eat aluminum structure for lunch. My next trailer is likely to be steel framed. Aluminum outlasting steel trailers is a myth in my experience. At least steel flexes on rough roads without cracking. Aluminum just cracks without flexing. And steel gives plenty of visual warning before rusting through unlike the aluminum catastropic/invisible failure. Who cares if steel trailers get ugly while aging? They work, and are predictable.
 
#6 ·
This topic has been extensively covered in the thread "check your trailer" in this very section.

I fixed mine this January after the coupler needed to be replaced and I found the "rotted" aluminum everywhere steel touched aluminum. I told my friends about it and they had the same issues.

I had 1/2" aluminum plate welded and rubber pad installed so no more issues while I own the trailer.
 
#7 ·
You have to check all areas where steel touches aluminum. On all my Tritons they have a non metallic sheet (UHMW) between the axle and trailer. You should also make sure you use stainless bolts. It won't take long for corrosion to form with water and salt from the streets.
**Warning - Don't use stainless steel bolts unless they are rated for heavy loads and shock loads. They are not strong enough to do the job.

Buy a good zinc coated grade 8 bolt. This is the correct material for bolting aluminum to steel. You can replace them every three years if you don't like the way they look...
 
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#8 · (Edited by Moderator)
**Warning - Don't use stainless steel bolts unless they are rated for heavy loads and shock loads. They are not strong enough to do the job.

Buy a good zinc coated grade 8 bolt. This is the correct material for bolting aluminum to steel. You can replace them every three years if you don't like the way they look...
The corrosion is caused by two dissimilar metals in contact with each other. "Galvanic Corrosion" Steel & Aluminum should never be in direct contact with each other, especially where salt & water are present. When using bolts that pass through the two metals Do not use S.S. Use Galvanize bolts. Look at the Galvanic Table to see which metals are compatible or not. The closer they are to each other the more compatible they are. Farther apart less compatible. Note that Zinc ( Galvanized) is right next to Aluminum. Stainless Steel is not.--- BTW--ZRC Cold Galvanizing Compound works good. - JMO

http://www.corrosion-doctors.org/Definitions/galvanic-series.htm
 
#9 ·
You have to check all areas where steel touches aluminum. On all my Tritons they have a non metallic sheet (UHMW) between the axle and trailer. You should also make sure you use stainless bolts. It won't take long for corrosion to form with water and salt from the streets.
On the bold.... my buddy showed me what was left of his " Non-metallic sheet" ... there wasn't much left of it, salt and corrosion ate moist of it away.

Another friend of mine, older guy, long time snowmobiler, He had all kinds of trailers and said that the average life expectancy of a snowmobile trailer is 10 years.

The guy that these pictures are from, him and his brother are talking about getting a new trailer for next season.

They want to go with an in-line.
 
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#11 · (Edited by Moderator)
I will be pulling the axle off my 1995 Triton trailer and install new 24" x 1/4" aluminum plate and rubber gasket between the connection no matter the condition of the existing aluminum.

This is the same thing I did on my 2001 aluminum four place trailer.

Also new tires, coupler, safety chains, and all connected with grade 8 bolts.
 
#12 ·
Just checked mine before putting it away til next season. Both sides shot! One side a lot of rubbing the other just a little. It's a 2006 Triton.

I'm thankful it made home from the last ride..
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#14 ·
Just got done with my 2001 Triton XT10.wasnt as bad as some but still had corosion! Pulled axle and welded a 1/4"X12" strip between axle and frame. Replaced bolts and corosion strip between. Blasted and repainted axle along with new bearings and seals. Also replaced bolts on tongue were it pivots to tilt and new plastic bushings between. Good to go again!!!!! Amazing how aluminum can corrode like that!!!! Thanks Dootalk for the heads up on this matter!!!! I probably would have never checked it till it failed if i had not read it here!!!
 
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