New Kaufman trailer. Very Disappointed.

Guys i recently bought a kaufman 20' 14K trailer. I must say this is the worst trailer ive owned. I have a 2008 F250 and have pulled my ford 3910 tractor and bush hog many times on 3 different trailers. It has always pulled and towed great. However with this new trailer it jerks and bucks truck like theres no tomorrow. What could cause this harsh towing? Driving me crazy. The other trailers were 18 footers. Please help.

Thanks
 
Sounds like you might need to move weight foreward a little.Is the trailer a pintal hitch they can be jerky. If you can't find out whats wrong you may have to call factory. A friend of mine bought a tri axle for his cabin cruiser. That trailer was all over the road after you hit 45 mph.It went back to factory for two weeks. they put a complete new hanggers ,springs and axles under it . It tracks great now.
 
I agree, move the weight forward just a bit and I'll bet you notice a big difference. Play with it moving it just a little at a time, you'll find your "sweet spot" again
 

Thanks for the info. Its not a goose neck or 5th wheel setup so it must be a p tal type. Again i have towed several other times with other trailers and no issues. It almost feels like engine is missing when i go up hills if that makes sense. Anyway i will try push weight more forward but think i tried this already. It sure wouldt hurt to try again though. Thanks
 

Guys one other thing i forgot to mention is that even when empty it still bucks and jerks. Not as bad but still very nerveracking. Is this normal?
 
(quoted from post at 06:15:21 07/17/12)
Guys one other thing i forgot to mention is that even when empty it still bucks and jerks. Not as bad but still very nerveracking. Is this normal?

No, it is not normal. I'd be talking to the dealer.
 

Me too and wish i would have taken it in before warrenty expired. Only used it once the first year and figured it was just how it was loaded. Also had extreme vibration issues and took it to tire place to discover tires and wheels way out of balance. It took a crazy amount of weight to get them even close to balanced. So i called Kaufman and they said they use low end wheels and tires and do not balance them. I was surprised the service manager even told me that. To be honest i would not buy another piece of equipment from this company. Disappointing considering they are close to me.
 
Sounds like one or more of the axles are not square.

I would measure from a center point on the front of the trailer to the side of each axle near the frame.

If they are not the same measurement the axle (s) are not square. If they are not square with the frame the axles will fight each other loaded or not.

On the bright side the fix should be fairly easy. Cut the spring mounts off the frame, adjust the new mounts for square and weld them on the frame

Good luck,

Brad
 

Thanks Brad. Also i just called Kaufman service and he said since its over a year old he couldnt help me but recommended another company for service. He thought it was a tire issue but i dont agree with that. The axle alignment seems more viable to me.
 
(quoted from post at 09:44:51 07/17/12)
Thanks Brad. Also i just called Kaufman service and he said since its over a year old he couldnt help me but recommended another company for service. He thought it was a tire issue but i dont agree with that. The axle alignment seems more viable to me.

In any event, thank you for sharing the customer service philosopy of Kaufmann trailers.
 
Kaufmann advertises as selling their product at Low, Factory Direct Prices. Maybe you get what you pay for.......

Jim
 
(quoted from post at 14:00:41 07/17/12) Kaufmann advertises as selling their product at Low, Factory Direct Prices. Maybe you get what you pay for.......

Jim

Yes you normally do. Today i also looked at customer reviews a complaints like BBB etc and found they dont have a good track record. Will do my research next time.
 
(quoted from post at 14:42:01 07/17/12)
(quoted from post at 14:00:41 07/17/12) Kaufmann advertises as selling their product at Low, Factory Direct Prices. Maybe you get what you pay for.......

Jim

Yes you normally do. Today i also looked at customer reviews a complaints like BBB etc and found they dont have a good track record. Will do my research next time.

Sorry to hear that. It is most frustrating when you buy something and it doesn't perform as expected.
 
I had a 20' 14k bumper pull trailer doing that to me and it ended being the tires.
They would develop a flat spot from sitting that would take 50+ miles to straighten
out. I would load it a little heavier on the tongue and that made it tolerable. I
ended up replacing the tires, worn and weathered, and all the bs went away. If I'd
of known that I'd of replaced them years ago.

The Kaufman guy may have been trying to tell you they put on junk tires without
admitting to it.

Have the axle alignment checked. If that's ok replace or borrow a set of tires to
see it that's it.
Measure the axle placement on the trailer. 60% of trailer in front of axles and 40%
behind seems to be the best for bumper pull trailers.

I had to back my 5103 Deer and 6' shredder on that trailer to get it to balance
properly. If I pulled it on I would have too much tongue weight by the time I had
the shredder most of the way on.



I went to a 14k 20+5' deck over gooseneck and will never go back to a bumper
pull.
 
I've got over 200K miles on my 24 foot, 14K Kaufman trailer. The price was great and I've been hauling with it for the past four years. I wouldn't hesitate to get another Kaufman.

Sorry for your troubles.
 
Did balance my triple single GN (23+5), thought I do something good for the tires (chinese imports). Put the least round/ most leaded one as spare (#7) on the rack. Now they jump/vibrate a little a little between 30-36 mph when empty....will not be noticable when "pulling under load" (giving gas). Thinking about taking it back to another person for balancing... (BTW, I do my turns slow and as wide as possible....)but I'll put the tape to the axles, just out of curiosity. Trailer is Load Max, 2 yr. comprehensive/3yr. structural/2 roadside yr. warranty (for whole rig, truck and all), IIRC.
 
this problem should be solvable if you can figure out just what it is, most of the time, its either alxes out of alignment or wheel balance, there are some cheap junk tires out there today and a manufacture will use whatever they can buy cheapest, also a bent wheel can cause that too, but before you get to that have you pulled the trailer with a truck with a different wheelbase? i had a trailer years ago that would do that but only when pulled by a 4 door chevy with a 8 foot bed, there was something about the trucks wheelbase and the distance from the trucks rear axle to the trailers front axle that made it buck, it would only do it with that 1 truck no other
 

I agree. The only problem is that i need new wheels and tires which looks to be $1k for decent ones. Maybe money too if axles are out. So yes you can fix about anything just cant believe i need to do this to a trailer with less than 2000 miles on it.
 
something to think on, might do some investigating ,park the trailer on hard level ground, jack up 1 wheel at a time on the trailer, stand a large deep socket upright next to the tire almost touching it, slowly rotate the wheel/tire as you watch the distance between the socket and the wheel/tire assembly mark the worst one , then do it again only with the socket in front of the tire tread, again watch the distance between the socket and the tire tread, i almost gaurentee this will find you something, all tires are out of round a little, but you will be able to spot anything big this way and narrow it down, , may only need 1 wheel or tire replaced,indecently when you jack up the wheel, if it rotates by itself without any help, that unit is very much out of balance, you just found 1 of the problems
 
One thing these guys havn't mentioned yet is hitch height. I assume it has the adjustable hitch? On my Load Trail (20' bumper pull , 10'000#) they came out and made sure that the height was correct for the vehicle I was going to use before I ever left the lot. If too high it will try to "carry" the front axle and feel like bucking until loaded up with weight. Can't fault my trailer at all. They come with bias ply junk so I paid the grand sum of $100 for them to replace them all with radials. No they weren't Michelins but that's life.
 
Jim, I looked at the Kauffman's, too. Had found them in TH running a full page ad. But when comparing and with all the options, I found that Load Max was within less than $250 of closest competitor, which was Starlite out of Claremore, OK.
Only differences were: LoadMax: 6-7 weeks lead time, powder-coated frame, 2 yr. comprehensive/3yr. structural/2 yr.roadside warranty (for whole rig, truck and all), pick-up from dealer in Wichita Falls, TX (4 hrs leisure drive RT); Starlite: 3 weeks lead, painted frame,1 yr comprehensive warranty, 9-10 hrs drive RT partially on toll roads).
The difference was worth it to me to go with LoadMax/LoadTrail.
PJ is a good trailer, but way more expensive, Company founded by brother of LoadTrail owner after they had an argument... Big Tex WAS good and expensive in the past, but heard too much about them cutting corners, incl. paint job.
 
A good balance job will only improve the vibrations on an out-of-round tire, never make it right. OOR tires a problem everywhere you install them, you need round tires for a good ride.
 

Guys thanks for all the input on the tires but i had them professionally balanced and there pretty decent now. Im sure with high end tires it would be better but not sure by how much. Anyway tire balance issues are a more consistent problem. If there out of balance then there out of balance. However the trailer does fine alot of the time and is very smooth but on certain parts of the highway it bucks and jerks violently. Theres something else going on here but not sure exactly what. I plan to take it in for service in next few weeks and hopefully they find what is wrong. Really think it has nothing to do with tires as the trailer can run very smooth for miles then all the sudden starts the bucking an jerking thing. As i mentioned earlier my other trailers do not do this.

Thanks
 
A piece of advice:

Test tow any trailer before you take delivery. If it doesn't tow smoothly empty, then reject it. They didn't get the axles straight.
 
(quoted from post at 20:03:45 07/16/12) Guys i recently bought a kaufman 20' 14K trailer. I must say this is the worst trailer ive owned. I have a 2008 F250 and have pulled my ford 3910 tractor and bush hog many times on 3 different trailers. It has always pulled and towed great. However with this new trailer it jerks and bucks truck like theres no tomorrow. What could cause this harsh towing? Driving me crazy. The other trailers were 18 footers. Please help.

Thanks
Take a tape measure and a buddy, and measure from trailer hitch to axle on both axles out at the spring...be sure to hold same spot on hitch and a common point on spring...I have built some trailers and I am guessing it is not square, bent axle, or the suspension is binding
 
the distance from the trucks rear axle to the trailers front is not going to change with different trucks
 
How do you have the hitch set on the trailer? when i built my gooseneck it bucked and jerked till i raised the hitch up to make the trailer a little high in the front so when loaded it would be level. I doubt that the axles are too far off.
 


Its fairly level but i moved it trying to fix the issue. May try to put it back one more time just to be sure. I did speak with repair shop and they are telling me there is some sort of adjustment bolt under the front of the trailer and it should be tight. If not it will cause this issue. I have no idea what this could be but plan to take a look when i get a chance. Apparently if loose it allows some slack in the trailer apparently letting it load up and jerk. First i've heard of something like this though.
 

Ok so took the trailer to a service shop and the first thing he said was part of issue was in the adjustable hitch portion of the trailer. He got up on the tongue and started bouncing his weight and i could see the play. He said on any Trailer of that weight would send alot of felt energy to tow venhicle if free play exist in connection. As much as i hated to do it we welded up adjustable tongue of trailer. It is better now at least with empty trailer. This weekend i will test it loaded.
 
Every trailer I've ever towed with stiff springs and the proper tongue
weigh bucks the tow vehicle. If you make the tongue weight light I
find they buck much less but wander worse. If you have soft
springs they can sway badly.

My 27 ft flatbed bumper pull always bucks, empty to 8 tons on it
unless I'm driving really fast as the springs and tires are so stiff.
Every bump they hit kicks the truck.
 
Well finally it is fixed. Apparently the idiot building the trailer was either having a bad day, didnt care about his job or is really a true idiot. There ended up being two issues. As for the sudden jerking of the trailer it was a loose electrical wire for brakes on rear axle. As it turns out they never worked but when the bare wire would touch metal or something it would cause that brake to bump on and off. Man it stops better too now. Next was the issues with rough towing which includes a back and forth bumping sensation. Apparently the left suspension was bolted so tight it could not move and flex properly. So after these adjustments the trailer now pulls great both loaded and unloaded. Finally.....
 

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