Who do you let borrow your trailer?

[AJ Clark]

A little off topic but I let an older gentleman borrow my 1985 chev crew cab one day when I was to busy to do what he needed myself. I had borrowed his car trailer a couple of times and he had used my small trailer on a few occasions. This time turned out bad. I got a call from a tow truck driver that had seen my truck along side of the road with he called a "snail trail" of oil and coolant behind it. Well I had to get a tow truck and drive 45 minutes from my home to get my truck with a toasted 1969 4 bolt main 350. I paid to get it towed home out of my own pocket cause he could not afford it and when I got it torn it down, I found a cracked head and 5 broken pistons. I wanted to kill that old fart. He never gave me one cent towards another motor and to top it all off never spoke to me again. That was the last time I loaned out one of my vehicles. Now if I don't have time to haul what you need, than you are out of luck. Even thinking about that motor makes my blood pressure rise. I have 3 people that I lend stuff to and thats it. I am sick and tired of people only talking to ya when they need something and then bring it back damaged.

 

[sandman2234]

I recently needed to haul some plastic pipe, and needed a trailer with sides. My brother said they had one at his work, and gave me the boss' number. I agreed to return it the first part of the next week, but one of the wheelbearings decided to come apart, so I called him on Monday to let him know it might take a few extra days. I priced the bearings and hub, and the axle in case the spindle was messed up. He asked what the prices were, and made the statement that I could buy the trailer cheaper than an axle. So now I own the trailer, and the bearing set was all it cost me, instead of an axle.
My JD is too long to fit on it, so I approached my wifes uncle about using his trailer when a job came up needing some bush hogging. His standard answer was no problem, take the old one, but I didn't want to use the old one, I wanted to use his brand new one. The old one is ok, but has two 3500 pound axles, whereas his new one is a six ton one. My JD weighs almost 7,000 which is too much for his old trailer. He told me that he had never loaned out his new one (which I knew) and that I could use it, but he wanted to make sure I knew just how much he thought of his new trailer. I did a quick look at it, and mentioned he was missing a light on the rear. I picked one up for him and came back a couple days later to pick up the trailer. Immediately noticed a side marker light that was broken, but knew I had an extra one at home. Turned out the JD wouldn't fit between the fenders, so I just took it back. Somebody had changed the lock, so I ran it by his house and dropped it off. He said the marker light was a pleasant surprise, as he had dropped a jack on it earlier.
It came back better than it left and I didn't even use it. That is the best way to return stuff, and I TRY to always do that.
One man can't own everything it takes to do everything with, so borrowing comes in handy, for everyone concerned, as long as the right type of people are involved.
David from jax

 

[bigdad]

Amen.... AJ

A little off topic but I let an older gentleman borrow my 1985 chev crew cab one day when I was to busy to do what he needed myself. I had borrowed his car trailer a couple of times and he had used my small trailer on a few occasions. This time turned out bad. I got a call from a tow truck driver that had seen my truck along side of the road with he called a "snail trail" of oil and coolant behind it. Well I had to get a tow truck and drive 45 minutes from my home to get my truck with a toasted 1969 4 bolt main 350. I paid to get it towed home out of my own pocket cause he could not afford it and when I got it torn it down, I found a cracked head and 5 broken pistons. I wanted to kill that old fart. He never gave me one cent towards another motor and to top it all off never spoke to me again. That was the last time I loaned out one of my vehicles. Now if I don't have time to haul what you need, than you are out of luck. Even thinking about that motor makes my blood pressure rise. I have 3 people that I lend stuff to and thats it. I am sick and tired of people only talking to ya when they need something and then bring it back damaged.

 

[Skyco]

I personally will never lend out a trailer, truck, gun, tractor, boat, wife or my dog to anyone If they really need any of that they can go rent them, well except for maybe the dog, I don't where one would rent a dog..

 

[skipro3]

Well, it's a darn good thing none of you loaned me a trailer this weekend. I rented a 12x6 dump trailer to haul some horse manure. It has a tail gate that has two swing away doors but can also operate as a dump gate to meter out the load as you pull forward. Here's what happened; I opened the two swing doors and latched them back out of the way, then proceeded to lift the bed to it's full height. That done, I pulled forward so the load could slide out and drop to the ground. I guess as I was pulling forward, somehow the dump latch holding the bottom in came unlatched. the force of gravity on the already opened and latched back doors drove them into the ground. By the time I could stop, each door had their upper hinge ripped loose. Upon inspection, it looks like something, a rock or stick maybe, kept the dump gate latch from fully engaging. This happened on the first load I hauled and dumped so I think it was that way when I picked it up at 6:30am on Saturday. It was dark out so I didn't really look at it. Also, there is supposed to be some sort of retainer that fits into the trailer to keep the latch from releasing inadvertently. If that safety link had been in place, there would be no way anything could have jammed open that latch.

I return the trailer in the morning, and I'm wondering if I'm at fault or the rental place. They didn't have the safety catch to prevent something from hitting the latch lever accidentally and they didn't inspect it for release to me before hooking it up to my truck. Also, I see on my contract that I didn't initial the refusal for the damage waiver. While I didn't initial it, I also didn't pay any fee for a damage waiver either. The kid slid the contract to me, said write down your driver license and sign the bottom, so that's all I did. The damage waiver requires a seperate initial spot if you refuse it

So, what you you guys think? I am probably lucky that latch didn't cut loose while driving down the road. 10 yards of manure sliding out under the dump gate would be quite a hazard. Who knows what that would have caused?!

 

[tallyho8]

I personally will never lend out a trailer, truck, gun, tractor, boat, wife or my dog to anyone If they really need any of that they can go rent them, well except for maybe the dog, I don't where one would rent a dog..

Here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/nyregion/30dogs.html

 

[tallyho8]

Even if you are fully insured, Louisiana law and many other states also, limits the insurance company's liability to $500 on a non-owned trailer. So if you wreck a $10,000 trailer you are pulling that is licensed to someone else, your insurance company is only going to pay $500 for the damage.

So remember this if someone wants to borrow your trailer and they tell you "it's ok, I'm insured".

 

[Blagadan]

I used to let folks borrow my stuff, but i found out the more generous I was, more people tended to abuse the generosity. Now, I only let stuff out to family from time to time.
I tend not to let stuff go out if I can help it. I try to make excuses.
Last time I let my brother borrow my big trailer, it came back with all one side covered in cement and the other side, the fender was torn up and one wheel rim damaged....
Which reminds me, he still has my cement mixer 4 months after I let him borrow it for his "weekend job".... I'll never learn...

 

[kthompson]

I used to let folks borrow my stuff, but i found out the more generous I was, more people tended to abuse the generosity. Now, I only let stuff out to family from time to time.
I tend not to let stuff go out if I can help it. I try to make excuses.
Last time I let my brother borrow my big trailer, it came back with all one side covered in cement and the other side, the fender was torn up and one wheel rim damaged....
Which reminds me, he still has my cement mixer 4 months after I let him borrow it for his "weekend job".... I'll never learn...

You could just give it to him for a Christmas gift and then borrow it from him as you need it.

 

[JayfromJay]

we see alot of "Hey I borrowed my buddies trailer and was wondering do you guys sell new.. (insert ANY trailerpart here)?".