Wednesday, I took our partially-gutted trailer to a couple of places for an estimate on the frame work. It seems to be a pretty simple welding job: cut off and replace a couple of box members.
Mistake #1: trailer shops are (relatively) expensive
I didn't get the estimates I had hoped for. The first trailer place I went to said that they wouldn't weld within the enclosed shell. The second place said they could do it (for a price I consider high), but that they couldn't get to it until next week. By the time I got through with those estimates, I had spent all of my out-of-the-office time for the day, so I brought the trailer back to the warehouse.
Mistake #2: trying to fight through a bout of head-throat crud
I really didn't have too much of a choice: at work, there was a last-minute issue preventing our quarterly software release. Once that was knocked out, I crashed and slept all day Friday. I'm feeling much better now.
I've been told this will be an easy job. The only kink may be that the required steel is not all that common. The 4x2 box members are really thin, like 14-gauge. Our landlord knows a good wire welder who's taking a look at it. In the meantime, I've got plenty to do with grinding and sealing the other 23 feet of frame!
Brian and Lynetta, see if you can find a welder through Craigslist or the Yellow Pages rather than at a trailer shop. With the current economy, you should be able to find someone relatively inexpensive who would be willing to come to you and do the work in your warehouse (rather than have to tow the shell all over town). You may even want to post an inquiry on Airforums to see if anyone in your area has a good recommendation.
ReplyDeleteNorm