93 Timpte Hopper Bottom Trailer need advice

[Antibling]

The guy came in and the rear crossmember was rotted out from the inside out. As I dug into this I could tell that this crossmember was not the original, it had been replaced before, the bubblegum welds in the harder to reach areas and the bent brackets that were cut and re welded. I also noticed the reason it rotted out was they never put a weld on the top of the ends, there was a huge gap, and dirt and moisture jammed in there.

There is a piece of aluminum angle that sits on top of the tube. I can't weld the plates on then put the tube in place, the plates need to be put on after the tube is set in place.

I have other aluminum I need to weld on this trailer anyways, my thinking is I could cut out the section of aluminum above the tube, put it in place, put a weld on there, then weld in a piece of aluminum tube or c channel where I cut out. I'd rather get this done right for him so he doesn't have this problem again.

Looking for advice for anyone that's done this, if someone thinks it's a bad idea and why?

[NOMADMAD]

sometimes you just have to go about the long way to get the job done right. if you think you need to cut a section of the alum out to get to it you just might. hard to tell, if you have some pics that would help

[White Trash]

Cant you take the hopper out and fix n weld er up right and put er back in and weld the best you can and get sum good caulken glue and water proof seal out the cracks where you cant weld???? Picutres would be nice

[Pro-Fab]

What is the aluminum angle for. The only problem might be if it is anodized. Is there a barrier between the steel cross member and the aluminum for preventing corrosion that might become an issue when you weld it back up? If there is liited access, the aluminum welds might prove to be a challenge. These are the only issues that I can think of that could pose a problem with your planned fix. Some of these repairs look easy until you find that you can't reach or get your head in there to see what you are doing. Good luck!

[Antibling]

Sorry for the crude paint picture and don't have pictures yet. I need to finish cleaning up the frame and get ready to weld the new cross member in and get the rivets popped out.

Some clarification in the drawing, the angle doesn't rest on the steel, the rivets into the side of it and in the steel plate on the crossmember support the weight. The angle is used to give rigidity to the sides.

Most don't know what I'm talking about:



The aluminum sides are just a cover, there are V shaped hoppers inside, I can crawl up in the rear of this to get access in there.

There will be a barrier between the aluminum and steel unlike the person that did the repair before.

And welding a new piece of aluminum in would be the easiest part of this job so far.

[Antibling]

Little more clarification.

[Pro-Fab]

When I have done these repairs, I like to cut out the section of the aluminum extrusion that runs the length of the trailer and replace it with a new section after the structural repair has been completed. If the customer is a large trucking company, they may have a bone yard with damaged trailers that they use for parts, where you can rob the pieces that you need. When replacement rivets aren't available, I will use stainless steel carriage bolts with nylocs. If you only have to cut out the part of the extrusion that protrudes inward, if you cut out a fairly long section and replace with a flat bar, the small section above the cross member that you can't access for welding won't affect the structural integrity ot the repair. Like you said, do it right the first time. Cutting corners is never good for business over the long haul.

[Dakotakid]

I have a '98 Timpte spread axle and have the same problem with the crossmember right behind the front axle. I have a good crossmember out of a wrecked trailer of ours, my thought was to cut the new crossmember in half at a 45* angle, put the crossmember in place in the trailer, weld the crossmember back together & weld a piece of channel iron on top of the crossmember over the weld and another piece of channel iron on the bottom of the crossmember over the weld.

Anybody have anymore advice on how to do this job??? I would like to keep the crossmember in one piece without cutting it but I just dont know how to do it other than the way I explained.

[Antibling]

I will say this, there will be absolutely no way you will get that crossmember in there with the plates welded on the ends if you're planning on just taking the one off a junked one.

It was a job to get the tube in there without the plates, including high lift jacks and a 10 ton power puller.

Also the new plates I bought, they had a relief hole at the bottom of the side plates to let water drain out.

For as much time as it takes to do this job, removal alone, I think it would be more worth while to just buy a new crossmember. Timpte parts dealer had everything ready to go to do the job. If I would've had my portable brought back from my farm when I did the job, I would've bought an air arc just for this job.

[Dualie]

Man i don't envy you guys working on 20 year old timpte hoppers. I have no advice as i always just told the guys to go trade for a new unit.

[kaferhaus]

Originally Posted by Dualie

Man i don't envy you guys working on 20 year old timpte hoppers. I have no advice as i always just told the guys to go trade for a new unit.

I told a customer that once (not the same trailer) he was back in two days. The "trade in" allowance they gave him was just over scrap value at both places he took it too. I quoted him a pretty heavy handed repair estimate as I didn't really want to do it. Much to my dismay he never hesitated and said "fix it". His yard is 2 blocks away, that was 10-11yrs ago and that trailer is still on the road everyday. He's since turned into a good customer..

We get about 70" or so rain down here every year and the average humidity is over 80% most of the year. Rust out on poorly built trailers is very common. Same with rail cars.

Rail car repair is a big business down here. Especially on box cars. The tank cars seem to be much better built.

Several utility trailer mfgs down here too and they're built so poorly that many are scrap after a few years. But they're "cheap" new on the lot and they sell the stew out of them... people are funny that way, no concern for "value", just the initial price.

[Dakotakid]

Originally Posted by Antibling

I will say this, there will be absolutely no way you will get that crossmember in there with the plates welded on the ends if you're planning on just taking the one off a junked one.

The crossmember I plan on using was only in the trailer for 6 months til the the trailer got wrecked, so the crossmember is still good. Could a guy leave the plates hucked to the aluminum rail that runs the length of the trailer and then weld the new crossmember tube to them or would the heat from the welder damage/weaken the aluminum rail that runs the length of the trailer????

The reason the crossmember went bad on my trailer is because for whatever reason somebody (maybe timpte) though it would be a good idea to have a 1" hole in the bottom of the crossmember on both the left and right side, well all it's done is packed itself full of water and **** and ate itself up from the inside out.

[zapster]

You may want to get ahold of member "wello" here..
Just the man for this..


...zap!

[Dakotakid]

Originally Posted by zapster

You may want to get ahold of member "wello" here..
Just the man for this..


...zap!

Thank you. I have sent him a message, we'll see what he says.

[Dakotakid]

Here's a pic of the crossmember that I need to replace (looking at it from the bottom). The blur on the left is the aluminum rail that runs the length of the trailer, the 1" hole next to it is what caused this mess.

[Antibling]

Dakotakid pm'ed me but I figured I'd put this here how I got the job done since I finally have a little time.

Here's how I did it, sliding the crossmember in there isn't bad if you got one person sliding it from the outside and one person inside catching. The problem comes trying to get both sides under the lip. I got one side under the lip and on that side I put the high lift jack to lift the body up as far as I could get it to go. Then a lot of work with the pry bar trying to get the corner of the other side under the lip. Once I got it under the lip I hooked a 10 ton power puller to the crossmember and pulled it into place. It is very tight till you get it into place, even then with the uneven pressure from the lips on the top of the trailer, it won't move easily side to side to center it. Used the power puller again to do rough movement, bfh and a lot of swinging for the fine tuning (it won't move easily). After I got it centered I slid the plates into place and bolted them in.

One thing I noticed when I did this, is the person who repaired it previously, they masked off the plates to prevent steel and aluminum rubbing together, the problem was when they welded it, it all burned off. I had some thin sheets of aluminum left and I made a piece that I masked off and I slid in there after I was done welding. I tacked the steel plates with the aluminum plates in there then took them off before welding.

[Antibling]

I'll try to find receipts but I think I paid around $400-500 for the tube, 2 end plates, and the 8 brackets. The only place in town I found tubing that big was at the welding shop that is the timpte parts dealer for the area. I think the guy told me the one trailer shop would charge him $160 to put new huck's in.

[Dakotakid]

What would make a good berrior to put between the crossmember tube end plate and the aluminum rails of the trailer?? I think Timpte uses some sort of plastic but whatever they used is gone on my trailer. Could a guy just put a couple layers of Gorilla tape on there to prevent corrosion between the steel and aluminum??? That gorilla tape's good stuff.

[flatbustedbroke]

Duct tape works, cut the top and bottom out of 2 liter soda bottle then slit the sides makes a nice barrier, really anything you get between will work.

[Dakotakid]

Started in on this project today, the crossmember I had planned on using looked good on the outside but the inside was about as rusted out as the one I'm replacing so I just spent $150 went to the local steel yard and bought a brand new tube, called Timpte & got two new end plates, four gussets/elephant ears & all the hucks for $200.

[Dakotakid]

Got the new crossmember put in today and it went smooth as silk. Luckily this trailer is a spread axle and it was the crossmember right behind the front axle that was being replaced so I cut that crossmember out, the next crossmember back which is right in front of the back axle, I removed the hucks holding it to the outside rail & then used two port-a-powers to push the sides of the trailer out about an inch to inch and a half on each side and just slid the new crossmember with end plates already welded on into the trailer and then used the port-a-powers to push the crossmember ahead and into position and then welded everything up and put new hucks in the front and rear crossmeber and the job was done.

[Dualie]

Gotta love when things go easy.

[Dakotakid]

Originally Posted by Dualie

Gotta love when things go easy.

It helps when you have the right tools for the job.