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Bad day for a young man

coalburner

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
81
Location
Oklahoma
A young man trying to make a living driving a truck with old equipment.
 

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Cat420

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2004
Messages
527
Location
Pine Bush Ny
Occupation
Construction, small engine and machine shop work
That looks like one of those "frameless" trailers. Do you think that had anything to do with it or maybe a combination of that and age?
 

coalburner

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
81
Location
Oklahoma
He said it had a bad crack and they tried to weld but it was to windy for welding aluminum and they didn't' get good penetration. He was trying to get by till he could make better repairs, I guess he should have made the other choice and stayed home. We did hear that it will bring him 2K dollars scrap.
 

mflah87

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 27, 2006
Messages
186
Location
Waltham
Occupation
owner of excavating company
We all did some crazy things that we shouldnt have when we started. It's to bad for him, but it could have happened in a worse spot.
 

Blademan

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2003
Messages
83
Location
Calgary
Occupation
Operating Engineer
Can somebody explain to me what has actually happened there?:confused:


Well , from the look of the pictures , my guess would be that he was unloading his trailer , had the box probably half way up and it snapped in two . You can see that the cylinder was mostly out and the tailgate was unlatched . Sometime , just before the load actually started to slide out , it snapped . Its just my guess though .

BTW, I'm not too sure about any other details , but by looking at the condition of the trailer I'd say thats darn near criminal . If this trailer had that load on any pubilc road , the DOT should of been summoned and the owner charged . This young man took a huge risk , and at the expence of others . It easily could of been a family , or YOUR family who had the misfortune of driving near him when this trailer split in two . People could of easily died when this happened . If anything , it was this guys lucky day and I hope he learned a valuable lesson . This is 2007 and there should be no room for personal profit at the expense of public safety . It simply is NOT roadworthy .
That said though , I've seen many pits that have vehicles that will never seen a public roadway again and are usually patched together like this . As well , many farmers have their own ' farm trucks ' that they use to move their product on their own land that are usually older and in decent shape , but lack any form of licence or registration ( is that Rego ? , lol ) .

Cheers .
 

RonG

Charter Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2003
Messages
1,833
Location
Meriden ct
Occupation
heavy equipment operator
Freuhauf could fix that trailer.I have seen them do some amazing work with rolled/worn equipment.They have tub relining kits etc. and they once chopped some 32' tubs in two for us and made two triaxle dump bodies out of each when the weight laws changed to our advantage or disadvantage depending on how you want to look at it.Ron G:)
 

345cl

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2006
Messages
111
Location
montreal
Occupation
excavator operator in the sewer bussiness
that trailer shouldnt even be rolling on the road,,if you pull a trailer here with tires like that they'll in pound the trailer pull the plates and the fines<<< i couldnt even imagine,, but i just glad the driver and nobody around was injured ...
 

thejdman04

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2006
Messages
582
Location
Illinois
Glad no one was hurt, if thtad have happened driving down the road, accident, police called, that boyd be in jail and huge huge fines, im sure no pre trip (and if so wasnt done properly), unsafe vehicle (im sure numerous violations), I know your out ther etrying to make a living and times are tough but could have split infront of a motorcyclist etc.
 

LowBoy

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 23, 2006
Messages
1,149
Location
Southern Vt. on the Mass./NH borders
Occupation
Owner, Iron Mountain Iron & Equipment (Transport)
I'm not trying to defend the owner by any means, but there is a logical explaination for this tragedy..
Fruehauf in my opinion was a very good, quality built product. The use of ProPar axles with their standard, same-sized inner & outer wheel bearings, the square axle tube configuration, etc. made for a good vehicle.
However, their bathtub design was a great idea in terms of materials sliding out faster than a square-cornered box, but once the (aluminum especially,) floors showed signs of abrasion on top of the strenthening ribs, or between them, this was a severe weak point to say the least. It's kind of like a "unibody" design in layman's terms, and again, it comes down to having enough COMMON SENSE to visually inspect these weak points and determine whether or not it's safe to flip the PTO in one more time or not.
I had a friend years ago who experienced the same thing, and so from that point all of us who owned dump trailers and triaxles with bathtub or 1/2 round designed bodies kept a watchful eye on things.
It happens to the best of them.
A trucking company in Ct. I know has a few awesome looking Peterbilts all tricked out, pulling dump trailers and a couple pushout trailers that primarily haul scrap metals.
One day in the landfill, dumping the first load with a brand new Alumatec 1/2 round trailer (a trailer in excess of $40,000.00,) and a beautiful Pete daycab, the piston got to the second stage, snapped in half, sending it down through the middle of the cab, and the trailer with 25 tons crashing back down. Demolished the truck, demolished the trailer. So it goes without saying...you just never know.
 
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