Bouncy trailer problem revisited

1. Tires were not "right" even when new, and a slight worsening was the 'camel's broken back straw' that became noticable.
2. I noticed the tire with .075" runout had slight drag when turning. Perhaps it's brake locks up before the other 3 and has some flat spots because of that?
3. No balance weights (do 12,000 lbs capacity utility trailers ever have balance weights ?)
4. With the forklift on I had to make some tight turns a few times...perhaps the drag during turns wore new flat spots ?

What do you guys think ? And is the immediate fix new tires only, or can they be turned round on a lathe ? (tires still look great and tread depth still appears as new)

>I've got a fairly new Anderson "6 ton" flat bed open trailer with dual axles and 4 electric brakes. I hauled an old Baker forklift last week on it that weighed near it's limit of 5 tons (6 tons includes the 1 ton weight of the trailer itself) and ever since then the trailer has been much more "bouncy" than it was, with nothing on it or with a moderate weight (such as 3,000 lbs) on it. It's bad enough that it's quite unpleasant to use now. I suspected a broken leaf spring support weld but I've looked twice and see no evidence of this...everything looks fine, no evidence of broken structural welds either, no evidence of anything bent. Any ideas on what might be wrong with this trailer ?<

Most of the time, bouncing problems I've seen tend to be related to excessive air pressure in the tires; but as I recall, you'd already addressed that when you first posted this back a few months.

Seems like the ultimate solution (besides selling it and getting a gooseneck of course) would be a load distributing hitch attachment. Anyone know a good source of those at lowest price ?

Does it pull the same loaded as unloaded?

If it pulls the same loaded then I think your looking for a mechanical problem, wheel bearings, broken spring at the center hole, cracked weld, Trailer frame bent, axle bent, etc.

Measure from the center of the tongue ball to the center line between axles. This measurement should be 2/3 of your overall trailer length.

Next I would put the trailer on flat surface concrete and then take a level(plumb bob) and level down to the concrete surface on each corner of the flatdeck and vertical accross each tire center, center line of deck width front and back, marking the level of each spot on the concrete.

Then move the trailer forward and check for the trailer being "in square" from wheel to wheel, from corner of deck to corner of deck and from deck corner to tire center line.

That should tell you if anything is bent or twisted.

T_Bone