Attached pictures are of my day today, picked up a road barrel not one of ours, done usual checks weight lights etc. these barrels have been getting overloaded by all accounts. got to tip after 2hr drive up and down M62. as I turned at the tipping point I heard a crack, looked out of mirror and did not see anything when I straightened up to my horror I noticed the middle axle wheels were bent inwards. to cut a long story short I was able to tip , as I was on the tipping point and make it easier to remove the trailer and leave it on the said site for recovery.
My concern is what could off been both the consequences to both myself and the public? . Also these trailers are serviced? by another company and we don’t normally touch them. it has made me feel sick at the thought of what could of happened on the public road.
It looks like the crack started a while back, i take it’s a fairly new trailer?
yes going by the rust its been gone a while 
its 0nly a broken spring, nowt to worry about.
jack axle up, remove wheels , throw wheels in van, chain or strap axle and off you go back to yard
this seems to be a problem with bpw axles, that’s the 3rd one i’ve seen this year and all in the same place.
I know it sounds trite, but “■■■■ happens”. Things break, fitters don’t notice stuff, faulty parts are fitted and people simply make mistakes.
It went at the best time (at the load point where it could be left), try not to worry about “what ifs”, all we can do is our job to the best of our ability - other stuff is in the lap of the gods (or Allah, depending on your flavour of religion 
) The “what ifs” can keep you awake at night, if you let 'em.
That being said, I would probably kick the living ■■■■■ out of the last fitter who was under that axle 
Broken spring that`s all. Once empty jack up the axle, 2 blocks of wood between axle and u-bolts, instant lift axle.
I’d enjoy the little scare, makes life worth living 
There is nothing you could of done to prevent that. It’s one of those things.
Saaamon:
I’d enjoy the little scare, makes life worth living
+1
If things didn’t sometimes break manufacturers wouldn’t have spare parts departments.
Judging where it went it would be a hard spot on an inspection. Would be unlikely to go at speed it’s low speed manoeuvering that puts the strain on suspension components.
philgor:
this seems to be a problem with bpw axles, that’s the 3rd one i’ve seen this year and all in the same place.
Make that 4, I had one go the other week, same type of spring on a drum braked bpw axle, I was lucky as mine broke over the spring eye bush so it never let the axle go, these single leaf springs are a ■■■■ idea which spoil an otherwise good trailer!
It’s definitely a case of excrement happening. The middle axle is the least stressed of the three as it is the pivot point when turning, so it has had less stress put on it than the other two axles as it isn’t subject to the side loadings from tyre scrub. It’s just one of those things.
It wouldn’t have much effect if it happened at top speed, especially if the trailer was loaded.
… Looks like the shock absorber is leaking too
That looks like one of the water tanks on the baker Hughes job. Probably been overloaded and then dragged out by the shunter
I had one go on a fully loaded walking floor going over woodhead.
I, luckily, was cutting a right hand corner just after Crowden heading from Tintwistle, and I heard a bang and saw my offside trailer wheels off the deck, used the space to my left to bring it down, pulled in at layby to see what was going on, but couldn’t see anything (was on a straight and axle had pulled straight).
Got to delivery and started to reverse and saw middle axle had a mind of it’s own.
