Friend recently purchased a 53ft Gooseneck. Neither of us have owned a trailer this long so im sorry if this is a dumb question to some. But when driving behind him this past weekend the back frame of that trailer seemed to wiggle a good bit. Is it normal for trailers this long to have the side and top frame wiggle from side to side?

I've had a 53' trailer (United Super Hauler) since 2002. Depending on terrain, I may need to persuade the ramp door to one side or another to get it to close properly, and there is often light coming through one side on top when the door is closed.

quote:

Originally posted by Lenny5160:
I've had a 53' trailer (United Super Hauler) since 2002. Depending on terrain, I may need to persuade the ramp door to one side or another to get it to close properly, and there is often light coming through one side on top when the door is closed.

This one seems to move about 2 inches left or right maybe 3. I guess its just normal for them being that long to flex like that.

I do not think either one of mine wiggle. I would check closely for cracked welds.

If its a 53 ft that is extra tall, say an extra 12 inches or more it had better flex when hitting bumps etc. If the back of a trailer that long doesn't move then it would crack and break. This is why you will see wear on the rear door frame area. The door wont move but the frame will. Its normal even on some Semi Trailers. You can even see it when trying to level the trailer, if the trailer isn't level then it will twist and you will see gaps in the rear door on the sides. If you put a camera in some of them they will scare you to where you think the back door will open LOL.

I have a older PACE trailer and I thought a older and long trailer shakes a bit and felt wobbly. It has a low roof. I remodeled the entire trailer. The last major item was removing the 3/4" floor plywood. The trailer had a dove tail slope. I'll start with the floor steel and the sidewalls. I found "every" welded joint with broken welds. This is from the angle off the main frame to the wall welds. So, I rewelded every joint. I also found many floors steel floor joist with broken welds. Then I also found the floor wasn't fastened down at the dove tail. I again used clamps and some uni-strut to hold the plywood in place as I installed missing floor screws. Now every floor joist is now fastened. The trailer feels entirely different. Even hitting bumps / potholes seems a lot smoother. You may want to investigate the floor joist and angle steel welds to the walls. Besides I bet all your floorboards are oil soaked. I sealed and painted my floor with epoxy that has glitter in it gotta have some bling and a convo topic while waiting to race.

Chuck PAE

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Thanks