i bought a 32 ft silver streak that was in damn good shape for 1500 bucks it was a steal. had to go to the local dump to get it weighed for the dmv crap.
hooked up everything right,pulled up the trailer stands and pulled away slowly. in front of my rear tire was a small dirt pile that lifted the rear of my truck just high enough for the rear of the trailer to snag on the concrete step up,loud noise went and noticed it riped the flimsy bumper off with about half of the sheet metal under the trailer. lucky though my dads a sheet metal mechanic for aircraft so it wasn't a problem to fix just sucked.

 

Important for all to double check so this does not happen to you. Coming home from Maine a couple of years ago, blew at tire at 70 mph. Kept it under control and changed the spare. Going doing the road a few miles later someone pulled up beside us and said our tire was smoking. Pulled over and checked the air pressure. Our spare was 60# and the other tire that was smoking was 110. Should have been 80 max. Let air out of it and found a gas station and reinflated to 80#. Another 50 miles down the road driving just 50mph blew a tire on the other side. Limped off the road to a restaraunt. Spend 2 hours trying to find tires on a late Saturday afternoon in the middle of the boonies. Long story short. The tire that was smoking did make it home. When I took it off it was all warped and would not stand up. The belts were bent, and the tire had lost sidewall rubber from being hot. Come to find out I had a bad air pressure guage on my compressor and had 90# cold instead of 80#. Plus I found out when the roads are hot and driving, this also causes air pressure increase. Now I start off 72# cold and check pressure often. Tires hot now run at 79-80#. If I had to do it over again I would have replaced our E rated tires with G rated. Scaling our trailer axle it is 13,140# that is 3285# for each tire. Have since taken the bikes off the back and making a front 5th wheel hitch bike rack. Also taking 300# of weights out of the trailer and putting in the back of my truck. Check out my gallery at the bottom for the prototype that is being made into a steel front receiver.

 

Just in case anyone is confused - the air pressure increase is normal. If it does go significantly up, the tire may be overloaded, though. Air pressure should be checked with the tire cold, and it should be inflated to the value specified by the trailer (or car, for that matter) manufacturer. The fact that the tire warms up and takes it over its max is NOT a problem; for example, the rear tires on my camper have to be at 80 PSI (cold) to meet the weight of the rear axle, but 80 PSI is the max inflation for the tires. The increase in temp from them warming up is not a problem.

 

That's a big trailer! I checked your gallery. I'm seeing triple axles under most trailers of that size. I agree that a higher tire rating would make me feel all warm and fuzzy. I checked your gallery half expecting to see an out of level trailer on your hitch. But it looked good to me, except for being really long. I'm afraid the minor weight adjustments you are planning will not be enough. Nice house by the way.

Bill

 

I was surprised when I went from my 350DRW, it use to drop about 5" when I pulled up the jack stands. My 450 only dropped about an inch. Had to re adjust my pin box about 3 inches to get it to be level. Those bikes on the back acted like a seesaw when I went over bridges. They really bounced and took the weight off the pin. Thanks

 

Excellent posts! I hooked up to my 26', made sure everything was okay. Went to pull away and the board my left side tires were on flipped up and broke my sewer pipe. Nothing worse than hearing plastic snap. Spent part of my vacation putting on a new valve, but was thankful that the tanks didn't leak!

 

This was an interesting read, the worst thing I did was earlier this year. I had forgotten that I pulled the line off the water pump. Hooked up the water, heard water and though I'd left a faucet on, went in the trailer, checked everything, nothing leaking can figure out why I am still hearing water. started to see some on the floor and though i'd broken a pipe from the winter. Turned water off, open the storage compartments to find the line still disconnected. Took a long time to get everything dried out in 40 degree weather.

 

Don't let the HONKING get to you,

amen!

 

Not a camper goof, but still a real "DUH" story...

I was fishing with my cousin in my 14ft aluminum deep V. We were loading the boat onto the trailer, no problem. Cousin had backed the trailer down the ramp, I drove it on. He got out, winched us completely on. I was standing in the back of the boat as he pulled us out when the motor skag started dragging on the concrete ramp. I hadn't raised it, but that wasn't the problem. I was feverishly trying to manually raise the little 18hp when the front of the boat went skyward! Then PLOP I was on the ramp watching my cousin drive off! The winch handle was spinning like a propeller!. Luckily he noticed what had happened and stop before he reached the end of the winch rope. Apparently he hadn't locked the winch, and DUH, I had no safety chain for the boat to the trailer...
Pretty embarrassing moment for sure. Nothing like having a bunch of people witness a moment like that. Only damage to the motor was the locking latch that locks the motor in the down position, cost of about $7, and one of the boards on the trailer broke, new 2X4 and carpet cost about $15. First thing I did after getting home was go out and buy the safety chain and mount it!!!! Yup, pretty lucky nothing had happened prior to this while towing! I never thought I really needed the chain as I use a tie down strap to secure the boat to the trailer. As a note, later that year my niece and her husband borrowed the boat. On the way home the winch rope broke, allowing the boat to slide backwards UNTIL it reached the end of the SAFETY CHAIN ! ! ! This was with the tie down strap. Lesson is you can NEVER be too safe!!!

Same boat, forgot to take the transom support off the motor and trailer when launching. Had a heck of a time getting the boat off the trailer, then whenever I put the motor in reverse I would hear a big "clunk" and
it will die. After finally getting it free of the trailer, I floated over to the dock. I thought the water was about 1 1/2 feet deep, so I just kind of jumped over the side. It was more like 4 feet so "SPLOOSH", I made a real double fool of myself that day......... The support had pulled off the trailer, (held in place with a small bungie cord) but stayed attached to the motor.

Another boat, earlier time I had hooked everything up, checked and rechecked hitch, tie downs, etc. Took off, drove about 5 miles noticing car was riding funny, banging and thumping hard on bumps. I had forgot to raise and pivot the tongue jack on the trailer! No damage.

A close call with my dad's RV. I was on my way home after a weekend of fishing and camping, decided I needed a sandwich before I got out of Wheatland, WY. I pulled into a Subway sandwich shop, figured I had to park along side of the building. I pulled up, stopped and started to get out. As I opened the door, I looked up and noticed I had about 2 inches between the top of top of the RV and that "hatband" thing they put around the top of their building!! RV was about 5 inches taller than the bottom of the band. I darn near got sick, especially thinking about telling the old man had I hit the thing with HIS pride and joy.

 

Hahaha, sorry Rik, but that's pretty funny. I can just see your face.

I have a boat story too. NOT MY BOAT! But I was dispatching for the tow truck company they called, lol. We got a call to go to the local marina for a Jeep Grand Cherokee stuck on the boat launch. My driver gets there, looks around at the only ramp, and called on the radio, saying "I guess they got it going because it's gone!" Then the owner comes up to him and says "It's down there!" and points into the water at the base of the ramp. hahaha. Apparently his wife leaned over and knocked it out of gear or some such, panicked, and hopped out, I dunno, sounds weird, but the end result was that it slid into the water. My driver stripped down to his shorts, dove in, hooked it up, and winched it out. The trailer was still attached too. It was salt water, so the Jeep was a write-off.

Now, I don't know if there's a lesson to be learned from that or not!

 

You'd have had to wait until I oh so gracefully bobbed back to the surface.......

Even worse was my stepson, age about 19, was with me for only the second time I'd taken him out. This was after his mom and I split up, I never had a boat while married. First time out was with an older boat and I forgot to put the plug in.....almost sank it! I think every boat owner has tried that stunt at least once. I parked the car and hit the portajohn before going back down to the doc. As I started back down the ramp I noticed the boat was sitting REAL low in the water. I yelled down to the kid asking if there was water in the boat, his reply of course was yes. I ran down to the dock which was painted metal grating, slid about 10 feet before falling and gouging my hand pretty bad, then jumped into the boat and started both bailing and the bilge pump. I asked him if he didn't think it was strange that it was filling with water, and he replied, "Uhhhhh, I just figured it was an old boat...."

 

Thats freakin' hilarious.

 

Oooh,
Just saw this thread...I'll jump in. I was moving the little canned ham style trailer I used to have back into the side yard...at the time it wasn't really set up for a trailer but I wanted to get it in the side yard and out of the driveway to work on it. Well I found out real quick that an 8ft tall cactus can be pruned real easy with a trailer haha.

Another time I had just finished painting the walls inside (it was an ongoing resto/mod trailer) and was eager to take it out for a weekend trip to the local lake...well...I forgot about the leftover gallon of paint I had sitting in a cupboard perched high above the nice new vinyl I had laid down on the floor....went around a corner and heard a resounding THUNK from the trailer... pulled over & went to see what it was and was shocked to find a nice...newly painted vinyl floor, needless to say, the rest of that weekend was spent cleaning that mess up instead of camping.

I'm sure theres more...but thats all that comes to mind at the moment.

-Chris