Smittybilt Scout Trailer Reviews?

[ebrabaek]

All welded up.
It really was more than the 115volt wire feed was made for. I know they are supposed to weld up to 1/3 inch but as the weld builds up it was having a hard time and it looked horrendous......ehhhhh....looks

 

[ebrabaek]

As I removed the paint under the left side suspected future failure point..... it was even more evident that all the weld was ground off. Actually it appeared that it was welded...... before I removed the paint, but afterwards I could see that it had cracked through out the bottom side.


So I welded it heavy.....

 

[ebrabaek]

So with a now added 50% increase in stiffness and the now welded underside of the cracked areas, I dont think this Smitty will ever crack.

 

[Silverback07]

Nice work! I need to break out my Miller 215 and do the same to mine despite no visible damage. I hate welding upside down though.

 

[ebrabaek]

Nice work! I need to break out my Miller 215 and do the same to mine despite no visible damage. I hate welding upside down though.

Thanks amigo.
I wish I had a Miller 215.
Your not kidding about upside down. One piece went into my ear of all places. I went out like a mad banshee. No damage done, but I hate it as well. Hopefully you will have better luck with 220. My little old 18 year old 115 volt simply did not have enough in it, to make it pretty. I think that perhaps it would be enough to simply put on several beads un the bottom where the welds were ground off, but I like the idea of a middle gusset.

 

[ArkansasDon]

I for one will focus more attention to fix the problem rather than gripe and moan. Granted I'l agree on the steel quality. A student of mine, who teaches welding at our college, thought the lag of flow into the galvanized steel could be due to low carbon. I found that flux welding woks the best. Even it makes a mess.
Regardless Mine is almost welded up, and I think I will add a 1/4 inch brace on the inside of the bend. Not really sure it needs it, but never the less, that's what I will do.
My brand new F150 was just recalled due to a fire hazard with the seat belt tensioner. Do I gripe, sell it or complain about that. No. I take it in Monday to get it fixed, as I love it, and intend to keep it. I then hook up the Smitty, and go camping.

What happen has happen, you took the high road in all this & I applaud you. Some people who were on the side lines of this situation on a Facebook group attack the trailer & the company for this mishap. Like you posted major car companies have re-calls as well as healthcare equipment. It's part of life some can handle these issues like you, then some will dramatize it.
I live my life the same way, accept what comes my way & go on.

 

[YYCRod]

I am wondering if I welded 2" square stock under the frame if that would suffice (roughly indicated in red but on the underside of the frame). Welding to the cross members and front and rear should significantly lessen the stress on the welds that are failing. Thoughts anyone?
Credit to ebrabaek for the original photo.

 

[ebrabaek]

What happen has happen, you took the high road in all this & I applaud you. Some people who were on the side lines of this situation on a Facebook group attack the trailer & the company for this mishap. Like you posted major car companies have re-calls as well as healthcare equipment. It's part of life some can handle these issues like they some & others flat out can not & dramatize it.
I live my life the same way, accept what comes my way & go on.

I fully agree as well.
There will always be the ones who bash, and I suppose Smittybuilt had a bad reputation in the past, or so I am told, but I focus on the future as you do, and we move on making, in this case, a great trailer ......ehhhh.... greater.

 

[ebrabaek]

I am wondering if I welded 2" square stock under the frame if that would suffice (roughly indicated in red but on the underside of the frame). Welding to the cross members and front and rear should significantly lessen the stress on the welds that are failing. Thoughts anyone?
Credit to ebrabaek for the original photo.
View attachment 471408

That would work as well. Make sure you weld the new 2x2 to each of the crossmembers. That way torque and twist is widely distruiputed.
This is in large what was done to the trailer that broke.
I thought of that as well, but two items kept it off the menu for me.
1: more things hanging down to grap rocks.....etc...ie reduced ground clearance.
2: As the twisting moment is upward with a very long arm my thinking is that as you place two new members under the unit, welding them to each crossmember, you are essentially pulling against the twisting of the tongue. That moment is upward.
I thought by inserting the new 2x2 in the middle, not under, you are now not just pulling downward, but also utilizing the new piece to help against the twist by using the arm of the piece (2 inches)
I might very well be overthinking that....ha..... but I went that way anyway.

 

[Midnightsun]

Thought I’d chime in for my 2 cents on this break. Wondering what type of hitch that zr2 was using to pull the scout. I’ve tried to zoom in with not very good results but looks like articulating hitch. Mabey the hitch failed to articulate and put extreme force on the tongue structure. It doesn’t look like weld crack or weld failure to me it looks like extreme force. That stiffening tab welded on outside of structure bend is snapped and that leads me to believe it was a fast overload situation. I may be wrong but I’ll beef mine up with some angle iron. I’ve drug my trailer off road ( not dirt road ) quite a bit and I show no stress at all even the powder coat is still on.

 

[robepa]

I have just emailed Smittybilt, at this point with two frame failures I feel that they need to issue a statement, contact owners and direct them to not use the trailers until a fix can be applied. I have been in contact with SB previously about some parts that were missing so they have my information, but outside of this form I would have no idea of the problems. It is lucky that both known failures did not cause further accident, injury or death. It could have been much different, I shudder to think that I could be driving down a highway with my family at 70 MPH and have the trailer fail. At this point I think Smittybilt is negligent if they do not issue a statement, contact owners and direct them to not use the trailers until a fix is applied. They should also contract with a 3rd party engineering firm that can analyze the defect and the fix, have a Professional Engineer stamp the fix.

I love my trailer and I want SB to correct this and restore confidence. I also don't want to see anything unfortunate happen as a result of them not acting. I would be curious what other Scout owners think.

 

[ebrabaek]

I think that the failures are due to to much of a flat grind on the bottom. If that weld is solid then your trailer will be ok.
I do not consider this a design flaw, but a welding issue.
I have been in contact with them and are confident they are working on a fix.
As far as a statement from them stopping all use.
I dont think so. When the Takata airbag went global, which caused several deaths, no "stop use" was issued.
Did not get a statement either on my f onefitty.... fires was involved. Parts are in and my '18 onefitty will be in the shop tomorrow.
My oppinion is that Smitty will come up with and distribute the remedy and sent it to owners.
The scout is sold through their dealers as Kits..... and I propose that there is not a good way Smitty knows of who bought them.
I have beat the snot utta mine over the almost a year I have had it..... and except the crack on the bottom, it is still going strong.

.... I have all the faith in my little smitty.

 

[Silverback07]

Well I beat the crap out of mine for about 1800 miles (not a lot I know) but I also have one that is fully welded. Zero issues. Do I feel safe with this, no, am I upset with SB, no. Will I wait until they contact me with a fix... yes.. will I explore other options to fix it. yes.

 

[robepa]

Maybe I am trying to hold SB to a higher standard than other companies. I would argue that for any safety recalls I would want to be notified. For me the use of this trailer is elective, as opposed to basic transportation that it may be much more difficult for people to choose not to use. To be clear I am not mad or trying to beat up SB, I am a big fan of the trailer and have put mine down some off road trails that were very ruff. I also believe the right thing is to notify owners even if they stopped short of recommending that the trailers not be used. I would suspect that diligent inspections would show warning signs before complete failure, although this is speculation on my part. I use this trailer because I want to get out and relax, if I have to worry a failure that at best would be a big pain in the ass much less the bad scenarios, then it doesn't have the value that I am looking for. I feel the right thing for SB to do is issue a statement on the issues so owners can decide for themselves.

 

[ebrabaek]

I agree.
I was referring to a statement saying " Stop the use" Off course they should reach out to all owners, and they told me they would as the fix is approved by all departments. It sounded like there was not a good system in place to track the owners through their dealership. I suppose this could be why no one have heard from them. This is off course just me speculating. I think that we should listen to the guys/gals that were first onboard on this trailer. It began selling May of 2017, or there about. Some, like Midnightsun have quite the use on their units, with no issues, or no cracks. To me that is very valuable. Granted some have either moved their spare to the back, or don't even have a spare, so that will off course have some impact on the stress on the tongue. But that said, it leads me to say that it is NOT a design flaw, and we should all NOT panic, and continue to use our Smitty. I would suggest the following. Take a minute, and a flashlight. Lay down underneath your Scout, and look carefully on those two bottom joints.
If you see a crack like mine:


Then you should investigate further. Grind off the paint, and if you see a crack in the metal like this:


If you do, then you are a candidate of some sort of repair. That repair should consist of a minimum number one of the following:

1) Weld the crack. Whilst you are at it, please weld both sides.
2) Choose your next step. Could be My fix as I detailed earlier. Could be as the first poster had done as his trailer failed. Could be as displayed in Post# 1133. Or off course it could be wait till Smitty have a fix, and use that.

Bottom line, look at yours, and decide where to go.