Landscape Trailer Fender Repair 1

[Don52]

After doing some triage for three hours on Thursday evening (See: Trailer Ramp Hinge Repair) I got the chance to spend a little more time on the trailer on Sunday. My customer needed to use the trailer on Saturday to catch up due to several rainy days. Unfortunately he dropped a loading plank on his foot and had to deal with it on Sunday morning so I didn’t see the trailer until 3:00 PM.

The worst part was the left rear fender. In Picture 1 to 3 you can see that somehow it got bent and was rubbing on the tire. Picture 4 shows the worn tire.

[Don52]

I often work by myself so I have to use clamps to hold things in place. To straighten the fender I used two long bar clamp that went all the way across the trailer, which held the inner panel of both fenders against their respective trailer rails. I supported the bar clamps with jack stands on one side and some blocks on the other because I ran out of hands to hold the clamps in place. The bar clamps can be seen in Pictures 5 to 7. I used a 2x4 with the bar clamp to push in the top of the inner panel to the upper rail of the trailer, which can be seen in the top of Picture 6.

[Don52]

Picture 8 shows me welding the left hand fender.
Picture 9 shows the left had fender straightened and welded on the bottom.
Picture 10 shows a close up of the weld.

[Don52]

For some reason, which I am at a loss to figure out both of the struts that were one away from the ramp strut broke. The right hand one had two cracks; one on each leg of the angle iron. The left hand one had only one leg cracked. No other struts were cracked.
I was thinking that eventually I may want to add a plate on the inside side of the angle to make it into a triangular beam, because the crack started on the inside.

Picture11 shows a long view of the right hand strut for orientation.
Picture 12 shows the cracked angle iron. If you look closely you can also see the crack on the left leg of the angle iron.
Picture 13 shows the strut after welding. Notice that the weld was done after dark and the picture was taken with a flash.

I had to quit making noise in the evening, so that I wouldn’t bother the neighbors, so I still have some work to do.