Kraxler
Active member
Nice
Smittybilt Scout Trailer Reviews?
- Thread starter Tkhawk
- Start date
misubisu
Active member
Disaster struck today.
I was driving down the highway at 100 kph and all of a sudden, I could see the top of the trailer in my rear view mirror...
The only thing that stopped the trailer dragging on the road, is the jerry cans full of petrol wedged between the main trailer and the tongue box.
For the record; the trailer is 1,110kg fully loaded with a 110kg tongue weight.
Considering the trailer is rated at a much heavier weight that that, this should not have happened.
So... how's Smittybilt when it comes to claiming warranty... in Australia ???
I was driving down the highway at 100 kph and all of a sudden, I could see the top of the trailer in my rear view mirror...
The only thing that stopped the trailer dragging on the road, is the jerry cans full of petrol wedged between the main trailer and the tongue box.
For the record; the trailer is 1,110kg fully loaded with a 110kg tongue weight.
Considering the trailer is rated at a much heavier weight that that, this should not have happened.
So... how's Smittybilt when it comes to claiming warranty... in Australia ???
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ebrabaek
Adventurer
Unfortunately it is a known issue. My recommendation is to reach out to smitty via email with pictures. It has happened in a few other cases, where I believe smitty have steped in to help. On a side note, I am having a hard time to accept your tongue weight only being 110 kg. They are stock 380'ish pounds stock.
Smitty have kits they have sent out in the past that is being bolted on the unit. Back in this thread I have a few post where I welded a middle gusset on my own trailer.
misubisu
Active member
I contacted the place I purchased the trailer from, and they are taking care of everything for me. They are following it up with smittybilt.
Don't know why you are having a hard time accepting the tongue weight... everything I have done to the trailer is designed to ensure the tongue weight does not exceed 10% of the total trailer weight.
The spare was moved to the back
The water tanks are behind the axel
the fridge is mostly behind the axel
The deep cycle battery is on the rear axel
The only items mounted in front of the axel are lighter items. Everything heavy is on or behind the axel.
I was very careful with weight, for every mod that I did.
A lot of good it did me !!!
There is clearly a design flaw in these trailers.
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ebrabaek
Adventurer
Because did not disclose you had modded your trailer.
misubisu this is a known issue for these trailers. I am surprised you haven't seen the posts on here about it because I remember you adding to the forum quite a bit. Contact Smitty they should take care of it. I know they have for others. They sent me out a reinforcement kit to add to the trailer before this happen to me. I think the real issue is they went to crazy on grinding the welds. Supposedly they even switched who is making the trailers for them, the underside of the trailer looks completely different now if you where to buy a new one.
mep1811
Gentleman Adventurer
This was a known issue for the older trailers. Hopefully the newer ones don't have that flaw.
mep1811
Gentleman Adventurer
This is the first I've heard anyone able to tell us the stock tongue weight. approx 380 lbs. Makes sense
ebrabaek
Adventurer
Yeah...… My take is that they designed an affordable, modifyable, great riding trailer but then had idiots grind the welds down on the production line. A few went bang here in the us, and Smitty did the best they could to contain it. Kits were sent out, but with a not so good dealer network response, not all got the message. Trailers were re sold, which made it worse, but I do believe Smitty did what they could. When this blew up, I went to look at my welds as I was making the CF box, and sure enough I had a small hairline cracks in the welds. That was after pretty good trail beating with the then 250 pound TW. It was not rocket science to me, I just reinforced the welds, added a center gusset and let Smitty know what I did. This past year @ SEMA I took a good look at the trailers they brought and there now were a center gusset just like mine. So in reality about a 100 bucks on the border or say two fitty worth, further north, of iron and a welder and your done. It is a bad QA flaw. NOT a design flaw. There are benefits of long tongue and aft wheels WRT towing. This was designed to be towed behind a Jeep, and short wheelbase tow and short wheelbase trailer can set up for some fun fish tailing adventures. So I believe it is a good design from that stand point. Grind the welds down, however was the stupidest thing ever, and therein lies the fault.
Back somewhere in this thread are the pictures of what to look for. I posted my cracks, and my fix. It is easy to do, and this trailer is still a heck of a deal.
Smitty does have some damage control to do, but I believe their sincerity in fixing this, and most people properly still at some time in the past 5 years have driven a car with Takata airbags, and it happens to the best.
I was stumped with the high TW as I began towing this for a short while with a 2017 Escape...... Ha. The 2018 150, did not really care, but as our Aussie friend realized, it is important to try to lower that number, and mine is really happy just over 200# now.
I like your Christmas tree foot on your trailer.......
You on the eastside?
Raw-xpedition
New member
Ok guys so here is a quick run through of the 6 lug spindle swap.
I ordered a new 3500lbs spindle and drum to match from E-Trailer
From there I brought it to our local ************ fabricator/offroad shop and discussed the best way to make this work.....me I was gunna cut the old one off and get a pipe that fit over the two spindles and weld it together....he said hellllllll no!! So he cut and tapered both sides and TIG welded them together..now the rest is just reassembly....if you are running Toyota factory wheels you know you have to deal with the lug nuts with a shaft on them....and if that's the case you have to swap studs...I went to o'Reilly's and snagged some...knocked the old ones out and new ones went in like butter. The only other thing you are going to need is a super small spacer to make clearance for the center cap to miss the grease cap on the hub.
I'll post a finished picture tomorrow I have to go run and get the spacers
I ordered a new 3500lbs spindle and drum to match from E-Trailer
From there I brought it to our local ************ fabricator/offroad shop and discussed the best way to make this work.....me I was gunna cut the old one off and get a pipe that fit over the two spindles and weld it together....he said hellllllll no!! So he cut and tapered both sides and TIG welded them together..now the rest is just reassembly....if you are running Toyota factory wheels you know you have to deal with the lug nuts with a shaft on them....and if that's the case you have to swap studs...I went to o'Reilly's and snagged some...knocked the old ones out and new ones went in like butter. The only other thing you are going to need is a super small spacer to make clearance for the center cap to miss the grease cap on the hub.
I'll post a finished picture tomorrow I have to go run and get the spacers
Attachments
misubisu
Active member
LOL - This whole thread is about modding these trailers.
Someone quoting a tongue weight that was outside the realm of normal would immediately indicate that something was not standard.
Based on my experience, anyone (with the older styled trailer) that has not lightened their tongue weight as well as strengthening their trailer it is a disaster waiting to happen. My tongue weight was heaps lower than stock, but mine still failed. For everyone that has not taken any action, the clock is ticking.
