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Callao, Missouri | We bought a 25+5 with 10k axles in 2004. By fall of last year, most of the tires had blown out. The tread was almost 100%, but the cheap 10ply tires were done for anyway. It cost almost $150 per tire to replace with good quality 14ply tires. Another thing that we have problems with are the lights. Our trailer uses the cheap oval lights that push into the rubber ring to hold them in. That part is fine, but the way the wiring connects to the light housing is always giving us problems. When we ordered our trailer, we requested heavy duty ramps. They built the ramps really heavy, but then just attached them to a 10" channel iron that was not properly attached to the dovetail frame in my opinion. I loaded our track loader one day and ripped off the channel iron along with the ramps in the process.
Every manufacturer wants to brag about how heavy their I-beams are or how good their paint is. When we bought ours, we wrote those numbers down to compare to each company. I now realize that those two things probably aren't that important because if you bend the frame of a 20k trailer the pickup thats pulling it is probably ruined, and paint going bad doesn't keep the load from being hauled.
If I bought another trailer, I would pay more attention to the little items like tire brand/ply, wiring, how the lumber is attached, and girder spacing. I don't know if that helps you much, Ron, because our trailer (Pro-stock) is neither of the brands that you are considering. But maybe it will help a first-time buyer.
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Gooseneck flatbed trailer
