don't replace your tires, this could happen. :(

[Ham Sammich 5,042]

So, I was doing a little pre-emptive tire replacement on our race trailer.  I ask the guy at the tire shop 4 times if he'd like me to position the trailer correctly in their driveway as it's 53' long and not easily parked.  let me repeat that... 4 times.  He says, nah we do this kind of thing all the time.  I leave and come back and have 6 new tires.... and this.  😥

Tire place has insurance, I talked to the adjuster already.  I'm not excited to see this one play out.  Already I've had a local place say we don't do "no-rivet" trailer stuff. And a place that does a lot of trailer repair 450 miles from here claim they are also not interested in repairing this style.  I called the manufacturer and asked if we brought it out to Portland if they'd do the repair.  They're getting back to us, but it would be fill in work if they could get it in at all.  *ugh*. 😥

Edited August 28, 2018 by Ham Sammich

[rod rammage 99]

Sounds like somebody is getting a new replacement trailer courtesy of the tire shop's insurer? If no one wants to repair it, does that make it a write off?

[rod rammage 99]

What did they contact the trailer with? Building? Antenna? Span? Or Earth?

[Ham Sammich 5,042]

2 minutes ago, rod rammage said:

Sounds like somebody is getting a new replacement trailer courtesy of the tire shop's insurer? If no one wants to repair it, does that make it a write off?

 

I don't know yet.  But am confident I'm the guy about to get bent over on this deal... somehow.

Just now, rod rammage said:

What did they contact the trailer with? Building? Antenna? Span? Or Earth?

 

Scrubbed a tree and then hit it on the back of a hay hauling semi trailer.

 

[rod rammage 99]

Sorry for the misfortune. Sadly, insurance usually means you get bent over... fight hard.

[MoparBoyy 821]

ugh.  holy crap that sucks.

[Ray Franck 2,097]

Dagg Bob,  make sure Butch and Hack  Insurance authorized trailer repair don't get there hands on it ..  demand factory trained repair facility and show the adjuster the wall separation and keep talking about structural damage and strength and how you got to have a rental trailer during downtime and you will probably be able to go pick out what kind of new trailer you want and what color too . 

[Team Infiniti 13,864]

10 minutes ago, Ray Franck said:

Dagg Bob,  make sure Butch and Hack  Insurance authorized trailer repair don't get there hands on it ..  demand factory trained repair facility and show the adjuster the wall separation and keep talking about structural damage and strength and how you got to have a rental trailer during downtime and you will probably be able to go pick out what kind of new trailer you want and what color too . 

Do not forget to make it the ins. co. problem to transport it back and fro from repairs!

[Ray Franck 2,097]

22 minutes ago, Team Infiniti said:

Do not forget to make it the ins. co. problem to transport it back and fro from repairs!

 Ed has it right again . Oh yeah call every day or twice a day demand management involvement ,that trailer is your lively hood you know , I meen you are a competing national champion on your come back tour . Dang it man now I'm pizzed 

[Ham Sammich 5,042]

I talked to an adjuster today, mentioned that the smooth side trailers are not the same old pop rivet setup.  And its gonna need to be repaired at the factory in Portland.  First bid I got locally is just short of 20k.  They felt stripping the whole side made sense to get a better glue job and color match.  Also studs to replace, etc.

 

then (4 )  1000+ mile trips to the factory at $2 a mile.

 

I also hit them up and said I need to have them rent me a replacement for some races this fall.  Good news there is that not many places rent 53 foot trailers, I cna't imagine it would be cheap to do that.  Plus go get it, and take it back.

I've never had a vehicle totaled, I'm curious how the math works.  I mean this doesn't look bad, but it's a butt load of labor, and shipping, that makes this tougher.

Edited August 30, 2018 by Ham Sammich

[Justin9 1,454]

2 hours ago, Ham Sammich said:

I've never had a vehicle totaled, I'm curious how the math works.  I mean this doesn't look bad, but it's a butt load of labor, and shipping, that makes this tougher.

 

My wife had a couple totals prior to our marriage...  every time it was totaled was because the repair cost exceed 70% of the current vehicles value.

Edited August 30, 2018 by Justin9

[mender 6,853]

On 8/27/2018 at 10:59 PM, Ham Sammich said:

He says, nah, we do this kind of thing all the time.

1

I'm surprised they still have insurance.

 

Probably the guy you talked to, the impact has that overconfident look.

[LAMR2 791]

4 hours ago, mender said:

I'm surprised they still have insurance.

 

Probably the guy you talked to, the impact has that overconfident look.

 

The thing that always gets me with incidents like this is they aren't even close. It's not like he hit something with the trailer right back by the axle on a short trailer or caught something with the outside corner of a long trailer when it swung wide. To hit something that far in front of the front axle means he wasn't even in the neighborhood of being ok. I just don't understand how you can have your head that far up your ass and still reach adulthood.

[FlorahDorah 987]

32 minutes ago, LAMR2 said:

 

I just don't understand how you can have your head that far up your ass and still reach adulthood.

 

I am stealing this. 

[Ray Franck 2,097]

Dude I just had an Idea . Yeah if they total it buy it back and fix it yourself . I know you can handle the structural part . The  skins are the problem but how about this replace the damaged panels and rivet them on , yeah I know it wont match , then have a cool rap put over the area . You know of mabe you takin the leed to the checker at say Indy , or a sponser or a picture of you stuffing thousands.of $$ in your pocket . 

   Just a thought ..

[Ogren-Engineering 1,664]

Buy it back ,rivit the repairs, rivit the complete trailer..

[pintodave 4,231]

Buddy of mine taught me the most important lesson on body work:

 

You can only look at one side at a time. 

[Team Infiniti 13,864]

6 hours ago, pintodave said:

Buddy of mine taught me the most important lesson on body work:

 

You can only look at one side at a time. 

Works the same when selling cars with mis-matched wheels, when you only have 2 wheels/hubcaps , put em on the same side.

[mender 6,853]

New tires though:

[Ham Sammich 5,042]

1 hour ago, Ray Franck said:

Dude I just had an Idea . Yeah if they total it buy it back and fix it yourself . I know you can handle the structural part . The  skins are the problem but how about this replace the damaged panels and rivet them on , yeah I know it wont match , then have a cool rap put over the area . You know of mabe you takin the leed to the checker at say Indy , or a sponser or a picture of you stuffing thousands.of $$ in your pocket . 

   Just a thought ..

 

That's what I was thinking.  We'll have to play it out.  I re-skinned our other 24' trailer that got hailed out, and it looked perfect.  I'm sure I could iron this out with the glue.  But I don't want to be that dude going down the interstate with like 10 repairs on it and filthy

[Ham Sammich 5,042]

***UPDATE*** been about 6-7 weeks.

Insurance company is STILL jerking me around.  Ugh.

They had trouble finding a 53' trailer to do a comparison, so some genius decided a 44 must be similar from a different brand, so they used that value.   It's bewildering.  I've had to come up with more data.  Essentially every day, it's something I have to do or find, or fax.

 

I figure to replace the trailer is $27-28k.  They said they'd cough up $20k and take the trailer.... OR, I could take $14,000 cash and keep the trailer (even though I have several bids in the 19-20k range because of the wall studs and interior problems).  SO, if I take the $20k, I'm short about $8k to replace it.  If I take the $14k cash, I'm short $6k on all the bids.  I could probably do the work myself, but don't kid yourself, it's a week or more of work and probably $8k in parts/E-track/panels shipping (which includes skinning the whole passenger side for color match) and that's before labor, and it's winter now and I have no place big enough to get it inside.  Nor do any of the local body shops.

Either way I come up short.  I just want to be made whole, that seems reasonable to me.  I had a great trailer before they wrecked it.  How is it that they seem to want me to pay to be made whole?  GRRRRR.  

I called our insurance Commissioner to see if this is common.  She said they can't determine values but can offer advice.

[Team Infiniti 13,864]

Geez friggin Louise, Offer motivation for the tire store to intervene by suggesting you will need to sue them for the balance?

[mender 6,853]

4 hours ago, Team Infiniti said:

Geez friggin Louise, Offer motivation for the tire store to intervene by suggesting you will need to sue them for the balance?

And a lifetime of free tires.

[MoparBoyy 821]

Wow, that’s some straight up bs.  Hate dealing with insurance companies.

[Ham Sammich 5,042]

4 hours ago, mender said:

And a lifetime of free tires.

 

...pffft.... I got the bill for the tires, right on time.  No discount, no apology, nothing.  I'm sure they were sitting around thinking... "well, let's see if he pays it or raises hell about it".   I paid it, I mean I do owe the bill.... But seriously.