Repairing damage done to a '03 PJ gooseneck trailer

[Brucker]

An unfortunate incident involving the most beloved trailer amongst our fleet left it needing some attention desperately. A hitch mount of a parts/project truck caught up on the back edge of the trailer while it was being unloaded. And the 6000+ pound truck was no match for the rear section of 6" channel that was on the trailer. It bent the channel out about 5 inches from where it was originally located.

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Not wanting to have to remove and replace the entire structure, we decided to try to repair. That alone would take some time and effort, but much less than would be required if we cut the section out and replaced it whole. First we laid out the section we wanted to cut out. And removed the lights within the affected area.

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Then cut out the most affected area as it would keep us from bending the rest of the structure back into place. And then it could be easily replaced by some flat stock. With the mutilated piece out of our way, we rigged the winch on the front of the trailer to the lower part of the bent C Channel. We also used a couple straps attached to either side of the trailer and ran them over the winch cable as a safety in case it let go.

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Then cold bent the material back into it's proper form. This took multiple pulls from different locations, and a couple well placed whacks with a BFH to accomplish. Once the C channel was back into position, we fit a new section of flat stock into the place of the piece we had previously cut out.

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Then sanded the area smooth and gave it a quick coat of paint.



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Good as new!

[xaza]

Very nice work. Why did you cut the section out? I know it would be harder to bend back and trying get it flat would be harder than patching for you. Just asking to learn a little more about manipulating metal.

[Brucker]

Very nice work. Why did you cut the section out? I know it would be harder to bend back and trying get it flat would be harder than patching for you. Just asking to learn a little more about manipulating metal.

Thanks for the kind words. And always feel free to ask questions. I promise to do my best to answer them if I can. After all, that is one of the reasons we're are here, right? To learn from each other?

I cut the small section out because it was the part keeping the C channel from coming back into shape. Metal has a memory and will want to try to keep or come back into it's original form when tweaked slightly. But once the metal takes on a new form from being pushed past that limit, it's nearly impossible to straighten or take the piece back to it's original form without losing something. And in most cases, the thing you lose is strength. The metal will become thinner in the areas that need to be straightened and thicker in others. This will lead to other problems besides taking away from the original strength like stress fracturing. Straightening metal is an extremely difficult art form to master and even if you are talented enough to be able to get everything back to straight, you would still need to heat treat the area after finished in order to keep it from becoming brittle from overwork. And doing that would be an extremely difficult and time consuming venture given the location of this piece on the trailer. Most if not all the decking would need to be removed, as well as the rear half of the wiring and lighting.

Hope that this helps.

[Cr33p3r]

Good job Aaron with the repair and explanation. On something like this it is more time consuming to try and straighten it than do the basic repair and have the end result be just as good if not stronger.