Tongue weld - how bad is this?

Tongue weld - how bad is this?

08-08-2004, 05:43 PM

#1 (permalink)

WBusa

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Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: SW Pennsylvania Posts: 350

Tongue weld - how bad is this?

Hi folks; I need the opinion of someone who really knows trailer tongues.

Attached is a pic of the tongue of the old used 2-horse trailer we just purchased. Orange arrow points to a broken weld on the tongue, just behind the jack. The break does not look 'fresh'; has probably been there for a while (and recently painted over). The trailer was in frequent use in this state just before we bought it. It seems to me this is not a load-bearing seam, and therefore not a big concern...but I'm no kinda engineer, so what do I know? Green arrow points to region of horizontal metal sheet that has been dished upwards a bit, which is probably what caused this weld to break in the first place. I can tell you this:
1. Trailer just recently passed state inspection looking like this...which means next to nothing here in SW Pennsylvania...depending on the shop doing the inspection, you could pass with one wheel missing.
2. Trailer passed its first road-test with flying colors yesterday, a ton of hay simulating the weight of two horses. The break was unchanged in length and width after this tow.

How concerned should I be about this issue? Concerned enough to pay someone to fix it (if that's even possible)?

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