... I had no idea what he was talking about, but Janelle seemed to like the idea, and we figured that we could fix it somehow.
My first step was to go online so that I knew the name of the part that was bent and broken and could then ask for the correct part when I looked around for a replacement. It certainly didn't look like a tube, for even though it had a hollow center, it was rectangular. Also, looking up “trailer tube” on the Internet was completely unhelpful. It took me a while to find the term “tongue,” and even then, most searches sent me to couplers.
With the name now known, I went to a nearby trailer shop so that I could ask about replacement parts. Apparently, the term “tongue” is not widely used, so I showed the employee (owner?) a picture of the trailer and the problem. Unfortunately, there are not replacements for that particular piece of equipment. He recommended (like the friend who dropped off the trailer) to go to the local steel-works shop to get the right sized tube, but he recommended drilling the necessary holes for the bolts as he wasn’t certain that welding would be sufficient.
I was certain that I could find a replacement part somewhere that required less metalworking on my part. I finally managed to find the manual for the trailer online (where it lists the part in question as a “tongue”), but there was no method to order replacement pieces. Janelle found similar tongues online with pre-drilled holes, but the sizes varied wildly, and I had not been able to get a good measurement on the tongue due to it being under the trailer. Thus, Trevor and I flipped over the trailer, giving me a better view of the whole thing as well as correcting my estimate of the tongue’s length by about two feet. Its size did not match up to any of the ones we could find online, but I figured that a slightly longer tongue would not be too much of a problem.
The replacement tongues were priced at about $130 to $200. That seemed expensive for a part to me, but it’s significantly cheaper than buying a trailer. However, it’s at this point that I discovered that many of these places had no interest in shipping to Alaska. When I found one that did, it added $180 shipping cost, bringing the price to nearly $400.
… I decided to go to the local steel-works shop and buy a tube.
… I needed Janelle’s vehicle, as Mera was not really equipped to carry a long metal tube.
Today, I bought the tube for about $130 (although, there is supposed to be an additional charge later because I used a credit card; apparently, this is “Biden’s fault”—I very diplomatically said nothing), but I was informed that they did not punch holes. I was told that I needed a drill press to do the job. I said that I was planning to go to Home Depot and pick up some drill bits, but he told me that would not work unless I had a very steady hand. When I said that I didn’t have access to a drill press, he suggested that I likely had one at my job. It is only at this precise moment as I write this that I realize that there probably is a drill press at the school, and that I could have likely given this project to the metal-shop class … oh, well.
Instead, I went to Home Depot and picked up drill bits in the “metal” section. The ¾” one was significantly more expensive, but it was the only one there. I needed a 7/16” and a ½” as well, but I saw a pack that contained them. It turns out that there was good reason for the higher price, as I would later go to Trustworthy’s to get replacement 7/16” and ½” drill bits—this time rated for steel—after wearing down the other ones that I got and burning out my corded drill—which was nearly 30 years old and the first power tool I had ever owned. To be clear, I mean “burned out” as in smoke and parts were coming out of it.
The better bits made the work go MUCH quicker, which was good as I had misplaced a couple of holes the first time around and now only had my portable drill to use. I used the holes in the old tongue as a guide. Considering my lack of steady hands, I am happy to say that everything turned out quite well. The bolts went through as they should, and the trailer is now standing upright again.
It only took me all day and completely wore me out.