Would You Drive With This?

Reason why I ask is, I picked this trailer up in SC and took it to Houston. It was a preloaded trailer. I reported the damage on my pre trip, took the trailer to our Katy, tx. yard. Told the shop about it, they said it would have to be taken to a trailer repair shop to have it welded, since it is aluminum and katy shop doesnt have the ability to weld aluminum.

So, I drop the trailer and tell the shop guy to tag it out of service. He forgets. Later this evening, I'm out on the yard and I see an OO truck hooked up to the trailer. I inform him of the side skirt damage, and he says he'll take a looks at it and if it's not too bad, he will roll with it.

Now, I'm wondering if I gave up a perfectly good trailer for no reason. I was under the impression that any side skirt damage was a DOT issue, and that the side skirt is also the main support structure of the trailer, so, it's also a safety issue.

If I'm wrong, then I'll take this as a learning experience, but if I'm right, then I'm kind of miffed, because, this is an opportunity to get the trailer fixed, but if he takes it, there's no telling when the next time it will see a shop.

So let me give you this situation; if you continued driving the trailer and were caught by the DoT they would have put you OOS on the spot. You would have to get it fixed right in that parking lot since it is a safety issue. That OOS would most definitely go on your license.

So yes, you did the right thing by dropping it even if it meant downtime. Its better to not risk these kinds of things.

You informed the shop and informed the guy who hooked up to it. You did your best to get it to a shop. Now if that guy takes it then its on his and all liability is on him. You did your job so I would move past it and not worry about it. What he decides to do with it is up to him.

Also, thats not called a side skirt. A side skirt is typically those thin skirts trailers have on the side of them for aerodynamics. Thats the trailer frame, and the beams going across are cross members.

My bad, I always called that the skirt, and the aero attachments I called trailer blades. Lesson learned 😊

I wouldn't of dragged it anywhere in the first place. I would of messaged dispatch that the trailer is OOS , a safety hazard and I wasn't moving it.

When in doubt, report it. The worst they can tell ya is it's perfectly legal for you to haul and you waste some time, but you gain peace of mind which, in my eyes, is more important than anything.