Travel Trailers Repair

The A-frame tongue is where a travel trailer differs from everything else. Tongue weight is carried at a ball behind the tow vehicle rear axle, which puts the trailer in a position to push the back of the tow vehicle sideways during a crosswind or a passing truck. That geometry is why sway control and weight distribution exist, and it is also why the tongue structure sees loads that a fifth wheel pin box never sees. Weight distribution bars apply substantial upward force to the A-frame at their attachment brackets, and we regularly find cracked welds and deformed A-frame members at those bracket locations on trailers that have never been in an accident.

Construction type then determines everything downstream. A stick-and-tin trailer uses aluminum framing with fiberglass insulation and a corrugated aluminum skin fastened over it, so the framing carries the load and the skin is a weather barrier. A laminated trailer bonds fiberglass skin to foam and substrate to form a structural panel, so the panel is the structure. Those two fail in completely different ways. Stick-and-tin fails at fastener lines and at framing joints and can usually be repaired in sections. Laminated fails by debonding, and a laminated wall with separation running behind sound-looking skin cannot be repaired by working on the skin alone.

Southern California use puts trailers on two hard roads. The 15 through Cajon and out toward Barstow subjects the suspension to sustained load and heat, and the equalizer and hanger assemblies on tandem leaf spring axles are where that shows. The 18 and the 38 up to Big Bear Lake put long descents on electric brakes and bearings that most owners service on a mileage schedule rather than on a duty schedule. Meanwhile the trailer sits between trips in whatever storage is available, and uncovered inland valley or desert storage cooks the roof sealant and lifts the decal edges on the sun side.