I wouldn't buy another Classic Dominator if my life depended on it, and for those of you in Minnesota, I would rather push my car from Minnesota to Norwalk than deal with Brinkmans trailer sales again. I bought a 28' Dominator new from Brinkmans in sept of '01, just in time to go to the PSMCDR. Within 6 months, the frame was all rusty, the roof leaked, the facia above the rear door fell off, the rear latch handle was all covered in rust, and the bolt that holds the equalizer hitch clamp onto the frame poked right thru the frame rail. When I contacted brinkmans, they told me that they contacted Classic and that they would not stand behind it. When I posted on Moparts about it, Classic contacted me and had brinkmans put the facia back on, put a dab of caulk on the roof, (which didn't cure it). They also gave me a new stainless Latch handle for the rear door, but said I had to put it on my self, and I had to leave a $200 deposit untill I brought the old rusty handle back. :blast: It was riveted, none of the holes lined up on the new latch, nothing fit, it ended being an 8 hour project and I was very grumpy whilst I was doing it. :af: They offered me $200 to have the frame blasted, primed and painted. I didn't take it. Anyone here want to blast and paint a 28' trailer frame for me? I can get you $200! So basically I hate my Dominator, it looks like it's 15 years old. I have wanted to sell it, but I would loose too much$$ After 3 years, I am finally now just starting to get a good attitude back about it. So I took out all the wall paneling and insulated it and put some cabinets in and and am putting in carpet. THis winter I suppose I will have to tackle the rust issue befor the steel gets so thin that the trailer bends in half. Here is a pic of the frame when it was 6 months old. I don;t think they cleaned or primed the steel before they painted it.
I'd be PO'd too Joel - no doubt. I agree that the "prep" that they do on trailers can vary GREATLY. Here's a shot of my Classic 28'er from today. It's going on 7 years old now. VERY different from the look of yours at 6 months. I don't blame you from being upset.
Joel, Classic has an option, I did it on mine when I ordered it new, for a complete painted frame, top and bottom. Usually they only just skim coat the top black. It was also completely primered metal as well, like a ruddy brown color primer. I think it was only $175 extra for full black frame, and the paint option was buried on the option sheet....my old trailer is in Wisc. now, and it prolly looks the same as Casey's does still, even with about 120,000 miles on it now... JH
Just like Joels situation. My vintage 38' gooseneck was such a P.O.S that there is no way in hell I would ever consider giving them another penny of my money. I know myself as a business owner that the way Classic treated Joel and the way vintage treated me is NO WAY to do business. Frank...If there is ANYWAY you can swing an aluminum trailer from Featherlite or Exiss you should try to. I got my Featherlite which was a 2000 model 24' X 102" wide used, But in PERFECT condition for $7,000 which I though was a bargain. I am finally getting paid from my insurance company for when it was stolen in Dallas and although I got most of my money I had invested in it...I'll never find another for that price again. Problem with aluminum trailers is that since they don't make a BA-ZILLION of them like steel trailers most guys have people standing in line to buy them and don't even need to advertise them. ANother problem is once you buy an aluminum trailer the only reason to sell it is to step up to a bigger trailer or if your getting out of racing.
Mike: there was almost a $3000-$3500 difference between the steel and aluminum frame trailers. I haven't seen an aluminum frame 24' up here for under $9500. I must be looking in the wrong places.
Mine was used,But owned by an anal guy(sorry Casey I mean he was very picky about his stuff). It was as close to new condition as it could be. Had Pit Pal accessories. It was the deal of the century and I'll never be able to replace it for $7K again. It was worth the drive to Atlanta to get it. One of the many things I liked about it was the screwless panels. All the exterior panels are bonded on to the frame. No RUSTY SCREWS to wax around. Also because the frames are so nice and stiff they sides don't ripple AT ALL! My POS vintage would bend so bad with only a minor load that it was hard to open the side doors. Load it to capacity and you could stick your pinky finger in the hole the buckled panes would have between the screws :af: DO NOT EVER BUY A VINTAGE TRAILER NO MATTER HOW CHEAP!
So Mike.......I'm unclear on this. You do, or don't, like Vintage Trailers? :rant: :laugh: :rant: :laugh:
Well you tell me.... $12,750(in 1995) When I picked it up in Elkhart at the factory... 80% of the marker lights were shorted out and blew my trucks fuse. 6 brakes...1 was hooked up using house wire nuts Landing gear used 16P nails in place of roll pins...Nails snapped off the second time I jacked it up Axles were welded on wrong..Burned off with a torch and rewlded wrong again. Trailer blew out 2 tires on it's first trip to SC. both side doors leaked...Side doors were built from....WOOD! Yes WOOD! with a skin of aluminum! Both doors rotted out within 3 years. Moron builders used torches to BURN all the holes in the frame to run wires....NO GROMMETTS wires rubbed raw and shorted out. At 6 months old the roof started to leak....Look on top...The FRIGGIN' roof is peeling off due to stress cracks! There was a baseball sized hole in the roof Every trip required a walk through with a screw driver to tighten at least 10 screws that fell out completly or were ready to fall out. The trailer would bend terribly in the middle. Shall I go on??? I can double this list easily :rant: Next time we'll talk about my warrantee trip to Indiana and the owner of the company... :rant: VINTAGE TRAILERS ARE CRAP! The idiots should not be trusted to build wagons to tow behind a lawn tractor!
Note to self - Do not buy Vintage Trailer, Do buy Casey beers at all races so you can get his next hand me down trailer. :laugh:
Frank, after reading all the crap that has went wrong with everybody else's trailers I was fortunate in buying my 01' Wells Cargo. No problems whatsoever, 2+ yrs. and it has been used hard. If you are going to pull the new one with your existing truck, GET A VEE NOSE! You will save gas, transmissions, and trailer tires. Even with my Cummins Dodge I still wish I had the vee nose, fuel mileage fuel mileage fuel mileage. Also, the difference between the static trailer weight and the dynamic trailer weight on tire life is appreciable too. I will be installing a vee nose on my trailer as soon as new garage is complete.
