mitch504
Senior Member
Here's my candidate: Good old immortal 176.
This was my first dump trailer, bought in 1995, for $6000.00 along with a 1980 R model Mack that cost $10,000.00. (My father and I started this business together, he was a fertilizer broker, and I a foreman in trucking and heavy construction. He believed the secret to buying equipment was to buy the cheapest that might work.) We used this trailer for 3 years delivering fertilizer to farms. The driver always carried half a dozen cans of spray foam to patch leaks. One day the driver (who was 24 years accident free) came off a bridge onto an elevated causeway; at the end of the causeway a car was waiting to turn left. He said he just noticed a second too late. He stopped the truck on the shoulder beside the car, looked down and saw two kids in car seats. He had time to shut the truck off and sit back in the seat to wait to start breathing again; the girl in the other car parked in the store lot and was almost back to him to see if he was OK when the shoulder gave way and the truck flipped without denting the sides and fell 15' straight down onto it's top. The driver got scratches and bruises, the truck was totaled, and the trailer sides got bent in a little. The ins. Co gave me $5000.00 for the trailer and I bought it back for $400.00. It sat in the yard for a year.
We added another truck and couldn't get a used trailer except junk for the price of new. We backed 176 in the shop and stripped it to it's ribs and crossmembers. In places there were 6 layers of steel, dirt,steel, foam, steel, steel. We took out over 2 yards of cured spray foam. When we finished it was watertight and 1900 lbs. lighter. We used it for about 8 months and bought an aluminum trailer so it sat in the yard again, slightly nose down till it filled with water and nosedived. We pumped it out and it righted itself. -and sat in the yard again another year.
We had 2 tropical storms back to back and the hydroelectric dam at Moncks Corner SC began to leak under the bottom. The governor declared a state of emergency and everyone who could hauled armor stone 24/7 with overweight permits for 110,000 on 5 axles for 2-1/2 times the going rate. At one time we had over 250 trucks from as far away as 1500 miles. 176 was in the first 5 to get loaded and the last 5 to quit. I believe it was the only square trailer to live all the way through it. It is a 1978 Summit with 4" high by 3" wide I-beam crossmembers on 9" centers. After 21 days and about 84 loads the middle of the floor is 6" lower than the sides but still watertight. I parked it in the yard again.
After a while we lost a couple of our fert. contracts and 176 began to haul demolition debris. One company had an operator who was used to loading 1/2 round 14' triaxles; he loaded it with heavy concrete rubble piled over the top. The driver left and when he took off from the light at 3rd ave and 501 (the main route through downtown Myrtle Beach SC) during 4th of July week the springs broke on one side and it layed down at about 5mph. The City insisted on cleaning it up even though we had equipment closer; and when they presented me with the bill it included scale tickets for 81,000 lbs of concrete. We stood her up and she worked another year or two till she got so swaybacked she kept hitting the truck frame.
One trailer frame shop said it would be 2 weeks before they could touch it, so I took it to the one who said 3 days as we were in the middle of a job and I had already bought another 1/2 round but it would be a couple of weeks for delivery. I called them every couple of days for a month and then every week or two for another month and then sorta forgot about it cause I didn't need it. Next thing I know we're in a recession and I don't need any trailers, then I get a notice I'm being sued for abandoning the trailer at the repair shop 2-1/2 years later! I call and get the date it was finished-15 months after I left it! They claim they left a message that it was finished on my answering machine!
I go to get it and the bill is three times what we agreed! I tell him to sue me because I have the original written estimate showing when I dropped it off and an invoice dated 15 months later. We argue and I end up paying $500 more than I should and he actually tells me I can't bring another trailer there ever! I take it to my cousin's welding shop and he finishes the repairs they were supposed to do, then loads it with scrap metal about every three months for us to take in for him. This week I got it out of mothballs to do this boat debris out- pipe seconds in, job.
So, if you have an uglier, or tougher trailer please post a pic!
This was my first dump trailer, bought in 1995, for $6000.00 along with a 1980 R model Mack that cost $10,000.00. (My father and I started this business together, he was a fertilizer broker, and I a foreman in trucking and heavy construction. He believed the secret to buying equipment was to buy the cheapest that might work.) We used this trailer for 3 years delivering fertilizer to farms. The driver always carried half a dozen cans of spray foam to patch leaks. One day the driver (who was 24 years accident free) came off a bridge onto an elevated causeway; at the end of the causeway a car was waiting to turn left. He said he just noticed a second too late. He stopped the truck on the shoulder beside the car, looked down and saw two kids in car seats. He had time to shut the truck off and sit back in the seat to wait to start breathing again; the girl in the other car parked in the store lot and was almost back to him to see if he was OK when the shoulder gave way and the truck flipped without denting the sides and fell 15' straight down onto it's top. The driver got scratches and bruises, the truck was totaled, and the trailer sides got bent in a little. The ins. Co gave me $5000.00 for the trailer and I bought it back for $400.00. It sat in the yard for a year.
We added another truck and couldn't get a used trailer except junk for the price of new. We backed 176 in the shop and stripped it to it's ribs and crossmembers. In places there were 6 layers of steel, dirt,steel, foam, steel, steel. We took out over 2 yards of cured spray foam. When we finished it was watertight and 1900 lbs. lighter. We used it for about 8 months and bought an aluminum trailer so it sat in the yard again, slightly nose down till it filled with water and nosedived. We pumped it out and it righted itself. -and sat in the yard again another year.
We had 2 tropical storms back to back and the hydroelectric dam at Moncks Corner SC began to leak under the bottom. The governor declared a state of emergency and everyone who could hauled armor stone 24/7 with overweight permits for 110,000 on 5 axles for 2-1/2 times the going rate. At one time we had over 250 trucks from as far away as 1500 miles. 176 was in the first 5 to get loaded and the last 5 to quit. I believe it was the only square trailer to live all the way through it. It is a 1978 Summit with 4" high by 3" wide I-beam crossmembers on 9" centers. After 21 days and about 84 loads the middle of the floor is 6" lower than the sides but still watertight. I parked it in the yard again.
After a while we lost a couple of our fert. contracts and 176 began to haul demolition debris. One company had an operator who was used to loading 1/2 round 14' triaxles; he loaded it with heavy concrete rubble piled over the top. The driver left and when he took off from the light at 3rd ave and 501 (the main route through downtown Myrtle Beach SC) during 4th of July week the springs broke on one side and it layed down at about 5mph. The City insisted on cleaning it up even though we had equipment closer; and when they presented me with the bill it included scale tickets for 81,000 lbs of concrete. We stood her up and she worked another year or two till she got so swaybacked she kept hitting the truck frame.
One trailer frame shop said it would be 2 weeks before they could touch it, so I took it to the one who said 3 days as we were in the middle of a job and I had already bought another 1/2 round but it would be a couple of weeks for delivery. I called them every couple of days for a month and then every week or two for another month and then sorta forgot about it cause I didn't need it. Next thing I know we're in a recession and I don't need any trailers, then I get a notice I'm being sued for abandoning the trailer at the repair shop 2-1/2 years later! I call and get the date it was finished-15 months after I left it! They claim they left a message that it was finished on my answering machine!
I go to get it and the bill is three times what we agreed! I tell him to sue me because I have the original written estimate showing when I dropped it off and an invoice dated 15 months later. We argue and I end up paying $500 more than I should and he actually tells me I can't bring another trailer there ever! I take it to my cousin's welding shop and he finishes the repairs they were supposed to do, then loads it with scrap metal about every three months for us to take in for him. This week I got it out of mothballs to do this boat debris out- pipe seconds in, job.
So, if you have an uglier, or tougher trailer please post a pic!
