I own a little 5X10 trailer that I use for light loads, and it hasn't moved in several (five?) years. I pulled it out yesterday and noticed that the tires are dry-rotted. So, this morning is trailer maintenance. New tires, squirt a little grease in the wheel bearings, make sure the lights work. I'll need the trailer later this week, so it's time to make sure it is road-worthy.
I've hosed everything down with penetrating oil, and giving it a half hour to seep in.
If you use a trailer every day, or once a week, you see things when they crop up. If you let the trailer sit behind the shop for five years (and I think that is about right) the maintenance comes due all at once.
I could tell you horror stories about folks who let trailers sit for years, then expect them to work in the run up before a major event, like a hurricane. It never ends well. I'm trying to avoid a bad ending here.
3 comments:
I've been gone for a long time, with only occasional visits back home, but are you kidding? LIGHTS on a utility trailer in Louisiana? I'll bet you even have safety chains. And fenders over the wheels. I remember what such a configuration would really stand out. :-)
Had one for years and pulled it through many states when I was active duty (23 addresses in 29+ years), but after retirement I used it so little it wasn't worth keeping, having to pay taxes on it every year.
Sounds like a good plan to me (routine maintenance) We have a Harbor Freight trailer, adding some reinforcing, expanded metal gate, 1x6 slats and floor deck. We use it for buying / moving hay bales. License tag is about $12 a year (ag registered) and it saves us several hundred in cost of having it delivered to hay barn in pasture. Before I knew about low cost ag registration, the annual cost of license was about $70 a year. So every 3 years, purchased a new trailer.
So a bit of work on our part saves a good amount of money.
Smart move, and preventative maintenance is always a good idea!
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