I saw a post on another forum about a race car trailer for sale. I’m happy with my steel full deck single car hauler but always keeping an eye out for an aluminum replacement being sold by someone who just thinks it is a silver trailer and doesn’t ask the going rate of $150,000 for alum car trailers.
Well, this was an aluminum Texas Rollback. I was unfamiliar but intrigued. He said it was stolen and he was just called that it was recovered in Oregon. He sold his race car and no longer has a truck nor a need for it so he would sell it for $2200.
I had wished he would have said $6000 because it would have put an immediate halt on the next several days of scrambling to try and make it work.
The owner said that the tow yard informed him that the front deck of the trailer was loose because the thieves had removed the box that was on the front. It didn’t seem like a big deal to me as we could simply either bolt it down or just throw a couple of straps around it to hold the deck down.
I found a Friend who could get it for me on Wednesday so I made arrangements to pay for the trailer and have the necessary documents sent to the yard for them to release the trailer to my friend. I requested some more pictures and in them saw that it looked as if one of the front support beams was fractured.
I asked the yard about it and they said that this was what they were telling me about the front deck needing to be secured. As I get older I have learned that convincing someone that their word choice is important is usually fruitless so I decided to instead focus on trying to figure out how to fix this problem.
I told him that my guy was supposed to be coming up the next day and they suggested a few local welders. On a sidenote, I really don’t like paying for things I can do myself but I also recognize my welding limitations from 1000 miles away.
I found a shop that said they could do it but when I called the tow yard they said that they were able to track down a local guy who is very skilled who actually had already come and looked at it and said that he could do it the next day.
So arrangements were made for them to tow the trailer to the yard first thing in the morning and the shop would work on it right away.
They knew my friend was driving hundreds of miles that next day to get it but I told my friend not to get there until later so that he didn’t waste time waiting while it was being repaired. Being an overachiever he arrived at nine in the morning and called and told me that the trailer was still at the yard. I was sad that he had gotten there so early but not surprised that it was still there because the yard didn’t even open until nine.
He said not to worry about it and that he would work it out but then I get a text from him about 15 minutes later that he was told the trailer wouldn’t be ready until Saturday. argh.
There’s no way I’m going to ask my friend to stay there for several days so I Call back the welder that I had found who said he could do it. He was very understanding and said that he could go by right away to look at it and could do it that day. But when I called back to let them know I had a guy coming to look at it they had already towed it to the other shop.
Luckily for me the shop said not to worry – they’ll get my buddy on the road that same day. Several hours later my friend sends me this picture which was the best news I had got all day:
I’m sure it’s going to need some love and I’ll make a little build thread for it once I get it but my question right now, so that I can start making a plan and maybe ordering necessary parts, is this: is anyone familiar with the locking and unlocking mechanisms for the trolley and for the front hitch??
Considering the condition, I suspect that these parts might be in bad shape.
Thanks!
