Another good reason for torsion axles. My other trailer has them, love them! No parts to wear out as long as they're installed correctly. Rides niiiiiice too.
We have two trailers at work; one's an old goose 24' and the other is a 20' flat bed 20'. The goose is about 25 years old. Flat bed is a year or so old. Both used daily, goose gets more weight on it. It's still got the original torsion axles under it; nary a problem, ever (other that worn tires every 50,000 or so miles). The other a straight axle, leaf spring with equalizers, shackle mount (no slips). Goes through a set of tires once a year if we stretch it out, which is roughly 28,000-30,000 miles. Have to replace all the bushings once a year and have had to replace the wheel bearings already. I would say junk, but it's not a bad trailer-just no torsion spring option for that size and money. They're both 14,000 GVWR.
Now here's a good example of what I was talking about earlier. My personal boat trailer. Granted, just a little 15' flat bottom. It's a 2x3 tubing trailer which I like, hides all the wires inside the tubing. Well, when I got it the lights didnt work and the fuse in the truck kept popping. Did some testing to find a short, so I did some investigating. What I found was shocking. Whoever built the trailer (well known manufacturer) ran the wires through the tubing, then welded the tubing. Guess what happens? Secondly, rather than drill a hole at the back of each side of the frame to get the wires through it, they blowed a hole in the bottom of the tubing with what appears to be a torch, and a piss poor job of cutting I must add (boogers everywhere), so the wires chafe against the sharp boogers. I had to grind them out, make up some grommets to fit, run all new harness and put LED's on it (for what it cost, it should have already had them). I called the manufacturer who says "1 year warranty" but the warranty doesn't state what it does or does not cover, thus I was out about $50 in lights and wiring plus my personal time. No big deal but it kind of set the stage for my scrutinizing all trailers including my own. Half of them you see running down the road don't have lights, then 1/4 of those that DO have lights, they don't work, then a quarter of the ones that do work, only part of them work, boards falling off, tractors sitting down between broken floor boards, ramps falling out, or in our case at work people don't even bring ramps to unload, they just drive them off. Had a guy run one off the back and knock a nice crack in his propeller shaft housing (L3200), leak. I think a trailer is an extension of the owner/user and also an extension of the vehicle, but unfortunately not everyone thinks the same way.
