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Help me fix my trailer frame

ashman

ashman

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The front crossmember on my gooseneck trailer has been bent for awhile, and had some VERY questionable repairs done to it. I've been ignoring it for a couple of years, but last week I forgot to put the jack up all of the way and it broke the suspect welds, so it's time to fix it right.

I cut out the bent C channel front crossmember already, but before I weld in a new one, I'd like to fix the bent stuff that is left.
20250423_194806.jpg

Hopefully you can see well enough in the pic. The bottom L channel is bent pretty bad (I may cut that out and replace it too), along with the upper piece along the edge of the deck. It may be hard to tell in this pic, but the upper channel is bend back on the lower side. I need to try and pull that back to vertical.

Also:
20250423_194839.jpg
As you can see, the drivers side upright is bent in quite a bit on the bottom. This is what I'd most like to fix.

I'm not sure how to go about bending it back out though. Any thoughts on how I can accomplish this?

@ktmoutfront you've done a lot of trailer repair, and frame straightening tricks?
 
If I can get a hold of someone with heavy equipment, I was thinking about something like this:
excavator-fix.jpg

The black line is the bent upright, the grey is a chain. put the bucket up against the upright at the bent point, then rotate the bucket. While I assume this would work, I'd like to figure out some way of doing this with the tools I have on hand.
 
Cut old out, buy new to put in. Once it's bent and rebent, it's never going to have the same strength.
 
shady said:
Cut old out, buy new to put in. Once it's bent and rebent, it's never going to have the same strength.
Click to expand...
This. I would not screw around with trying to straighten it. They never bend at the old bend. The amount of heat you would need over the large area on the upright would be tough to get. And it will never look correct.

Do it right and do it once.
 
Me personally I would weld in a piece of square tube or c-channel right above where the bend in is to hold it together at that spot and then porta-power the bottom outward and weld in a piece of like 3" x 3" square tube to hold it once it's spread.
 
How much is the piece bent, vs not being vertical? If there is a distinct location where it's bent, you can cut the side of the channel there to really direct the "un-bend" motion, then weld up the cuts after it's straight. You might need to do this in more than one location. Basically, the more you cut apart and isolate materials, the more you'll be able to work it. Then re-assemble the pieces with it braced straight.
 
Get on facebook and watch some of those videos of the guys in other countries fixing truck frames and stuff. It's wild how much they repair.
 
ashman said:
If I can get a hold of someone with heavy equipment, I was thinking about something like this:
View attachment 502639

The black line is the bent upright, the grey is a chain. put the bucket up against the upright at the bent point, then rotate the bucket. While I assume this would work, I'd like to figure out some way of doing this with the tools I have on hand.
Click to expand...
The right way to fix this bend without cutting it out is a big porta power.
I have done plenty of that.
You can stick one end at the bottom corner of the bent piece and the other side on top corner, and as you pump it, you hammer on the crease you want straight.
You keep going in small steps as to not bend a different location. Once it's straight it will be easy to straighten the upper L brace, actually you should be relieving it as you go.
Then you can put a new bottom L bracket and whatever else you removed
 
Well, I got lucky and my buddy that runs an excavation business wasn't busy yesterday, so we used his equipment to straighten the trailer.
20250424_143716.jpg
The loader has it's bucket against the frame to hold the trailer steady while we use the excavator to pull on the upright.

20250424_144259.jpg
He had a gas powered concrete cutter with a metal cutting disk on it (18") that made short work of the last bent crossmember.

View attachment 20250424_142439.mp4

Got it pulled pretty straight. It's not perfect, but way better than it was. After spending some time cleaning up the old welds and cutting the rest of the crossmembers off, I got the new crossmembers put into place.

20250424_195406.jpg

Now I just got to get them welded in. With this area cleaned back up, I'll be able to rebuild it into an enclosed box to keep straps, etc with the trailer.
 
I see what you meant on the upright now.

That part would have been a biotch to cut out and replace for sure.
I was looking at the horizontal bar and thinking you wanted to bend that back. Lol.

Looks like it'll do.

Might want to take the paint off of any near by welds and check for small stress cracks.

Rather find it now than on the road with a load.
 
ashman said:
Well, I got lucky and my buddy that runs an excavation business wasn't busy yesterday, so we used his equipment to straighten the trailer.
View attachment 502711
The loader has it's bucket against the frame to hold the trailer steady while we use the excavator to pull on the upright.

View attachment 502712
He had a gas powered concrete cutter with a metal cutting disk on it (18") that made short work of the last bent crossmember.

View attachment 502714

Got it pulled pretty straight. It's not perfect, but way better than it was. After spending some time cleaning up the old welds and cutting the rest of the crossmembers off, I got the new crossmembers put into place.

View attachment 502710

Now I just got to get them welded in. With this area cleaned back up, I'll be able to rebuild it into an enclosed box to keep straps, etc with the trailer.
Click to expand...

are you going to put another cross member up where it originally started to bend to brace it?

and good deal on getting it straightened :waytogo:
 
There is another crossmember that fits behind the one pictured, but those are the only 2 I plan. I'm pretty sure the damage was the result of an accident, so replacing and straightening the bent pieces should suffice.

There are other places with shifty welds that I'll fix up, and one of the axles eats tires (it might be bent), so that might get replaced as well.

I got this trailer for a screaming deal and I'm starting to see why. However, even if I have to replace the axles, it'll still be worth more than I'm into it.
 
I just passed up a gooseneck 26' with dual dually axles. $1500.
Needed paint, deck boards, and all new tires.
Almost bought it to flip, but don't have time or space at the moment so I passed.

Oh, and a gooseneck hitch.. Don't have that either lol.
My buddy bought it when I passed on it.
 
shady said:
I just passed up a gooseneck 26' with dual dually axles. $1500.
Needed paint, deck boards, and all new tires.
Almost bought it to flip, but don't have time or space at the moment so I passed.

Oh, and a gooseneck hitch.. Don't have that either lol.
My buddy bought it when I passed on it.
Click to expand...
Yeah I have passed on lots of gooseneck trailers.
Now I have the setup, just need a running pickup truck to put it on then the deals will stop popping up.
It will be good because I really don't need one, it's just frustrating to see the deals.
 
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