Trailer tongue repair.

jon f mn

Well-known Member
Started by cutting the top, side, and bottom so it could be pulled straight. I used the plasma for this. You can see that I cut a large hole in the bottom. This was so I could plate the inside. This is for 2 reasons, first so the plating would be hidden. Second because the cracks were right at the point where the side braces conected. To plate the outside properly I would have had to cut all that loose which would have been much messier and harder to do.

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Next I pulled it straight with the come-a-long again.

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Next was welding a plate to the top of the tube. I used 1/4" flat which was thicker that the 3/16" tube. It is unnecessary to use anything thicker than the original material, but the 3/16" flat I had was much wider so I went with the heavier. Getting the welder nozzle in there to weld was quite a challenge, I had to stay just a little too far away for proper welding but it worked ok if you don't have to look at the welds. Again I didn't weld across the ends of the ends of the plate.

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Next a plate for the cut side and bottom. Again I forgot to take pics of this part but I put a plate on the side and welded the top and bottom but not the ends. Then I cut a plate to fit the bottom inside and welded that all the way around since it was the edge of the hole. Then I cut down the piece of tube I removed and welded that back in for filler. Then plated over the Bottom. This one I cut about 5" longer than the hole and cut the ends to a flattened point. When ever you weld across a tube or beam you should always try to avoid a straight weld. A point is much better at avoiding cracking.

Some final pics of the finished repair.

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Well, you made a believer out of me. When I saw the pictures of the damage and you told of your plans, my thought was yeah good luck with that.
 
Like showcrop said. I am impressed. Far better than I could have done. Nice to have the proper equipment. Still think scrap yard needs to meke it right with you.
 
I am only self taught on this type of problem but when I have a repair like yours I completely remove the tongue at the stress point and insert another square tube approx. 12 inches long the next size smaller. your tongue is 3/16 material so it will slide right in. First drill some 3/4 inch holes at stagered spacing on all four sides about 3 in. from the break on center line of tongue then when new piece in incerted you can weld both sides of break to insert then weld the holes shut to strengthen and stabilize the repair. no cutting and patching and you can get to all welds. my 2cents. Ric.
 
I built the trailer about 12 years ago. I don't have a saw capable of cutting that sharp of angle and would have had to plasma them so this was easier. I also don't like to have tubes that have closed ends because we live in Mn. and it's hard to get them water tight and if they get water in them and freeze it will blow out the tube. Someone else mentioned that on a post a couple of days ago. To be honest I didn't think it looked that bad,but I most likely won't do it again. Usually I use an angle iron in that spot then the top of the iron goes over the tube so that's not an issue.
 
That does work and I've used that in some situations. This was a 2 1/2" tube so you would have to slide a 2" inside and would have an 1/8" gap on 2 sides. You could shim it to fit tho.
 
We use 2 1/2 X 3/16 wall all the time for reciever hitches and slide a 2 in it for the hitch-- 2 wont go into a 2 1/2 X 1/4 wall-- same size.. 2.5 - (.25 + .25) = 2
 
That's because steel tube has a weld on the inside. That's why reciever tube is so expensive, they have to sheer out the weld.
 

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