As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
Last year we acquired from JYG a Kiefer Built gooseneck livestock trailer, as we were in dire need of one. The former owners had not treated the trailer well in not cleaning it, but I figured I would breathe it back to life with some welding.
I had contacted Kiefer and asked them if they could supply me with the metal to help with repairs....nothing but silence. So you know customer service sucks shit.
It was when I got into the reconstruction phase that I realized what a piece of shit this trailer is in manufacturing. 4 of the under beam angle irons had broke loose. The reason being that whoever was welding this trailer barely put a weld on the joints.
This would not have mattered so much if the angle iron was laying on top of the frame metal. No Kiefer has it under the frame. That is like putting your floor under the foundation, not the top.
All trailers have light metal in them. If people knew how sub par livestock trailers are, they never would trust them with livestock or pay over ten thousand dollars for them. This trailer though had a new fold which stunned me in cheap.
So the planks had come loose, and these spikes were sticking up. Thinking they were bolts rusted into the angle iron, I hammered them with a plough hammer and nothing moved. I tried twisting them with a vice grip to see if I could get them unstuck, and then one of them moved.......it had threads on it. I felt under the frame and there was no a nut on it. No these were metal screws of some kind, and were screwed directly into the angle iron.
These trailers were never meant to be repaired. They were meant to be junked as trying to get this shit loose is a great deal of work. I have never seen anything like this. I highly doubt this was some farmer trying to fix something from before as I had never heard of this kind of metal threaded screw with a tapered end, fine threads and meant to screw into metal.
No wonder this thing fell apart. It is a house of cards and one bad weld will snap these thin quarter inch looking screws which snaps more pieces. How bad this is, it looks like the shit that comes out of China.
It just is a point, would you stake your life as a driver, pulling a trailer at 60 miles per hour, with 12000 pounds of moving beef behind you, on one thin of 1/4 inch weld holding this all together?
I could have been more understanding if I had been replied to. I dislike anyone who does not stand behind their products. But when I see this being so sub par in construction, this is something others should be made aware of as resale value should be zero on these things, and only a moron would ever buy anything like this. It reminds of those horrid Rosy the Riveters making military planes in world war two........who missing a rivet, just stuck chewing gum over the hole.
I spent 500 bucks on this thing. The tires were worth that, but the trailer was not. It will be once I get done finishing the job Kiefer was charging people to do.
Nuff Said
agtG
