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I bought this trailer sometime around 1992-1993 from R. E.'s Trailers in Starke FL. At the time I thought it was a good trailer. I have since learned better!!
When I bought the trailer I told RE that I wanted it to have the same wheel bolt pattern as my Chevy trucks. That way I would always have a spare. I wanted the red one that looked good with my red suburban. RE said it would be no problem.
Later he called me and told me I couldn't have the hubs changed on the axle. He said they didn't make a hub with the Chevy bolt pattern for that axle. He said that the only way to get the Chevy bolt pattern hub was to replace the axle with a 3500lb axle. I still think I should have checked for myself to see if that was fact, but at the time I trusted his word and did not think about it. RE stood there and looked me in the eye as he told me I could use my truck spare if I changed the axle. What a big liar he turned out to be!
So I paid extra, and as I have since learned, paid dearly for the 3500lb axle with the Chevy hubs. Now I didn't need to worry about having a spare! At least that's what I believed and RE told me himself "No Problem".
When I picked up the trailer the first thing I noticed was the tires. They were a real low profile tire. They looked short and squatty and also stuck out from under the fenders by quite a bit. RE had told me that all he putt's on the trailers are used tires and he would be glad to put new ones on for more money. So I accepted the trailer. Today I wonder how much back pedaling he would have done had I told him to put new tires on it.
All was well for a couple of years. I never had a flat so I never knew about the tire problem.
Some time around 1996-97, I loaned the trailer to a very good friend of mine, Pete Vaughn. Pete needed to haul his Harley up to the Nova Scotia area. He was going on a vacation and wanted to take his bike with him. He knew about the trailer using Chevy rims so he was set with a spare because he also drove Chevy's.
He was in Mass when a trailer tire blew. Can't blame that on RE. They were used tires to start with and I knew it. But, when the tire blew it ripped the fender off of the trailer!! That I can blame RE for. The best part was when Pete went to replace the tire. He tried to replace both tires since the standard p235 tires were available used. He couldn't replace just the one tire as the original tires were the low squatty tires and it would have made the trailer lean to one side with mismatched tires. The p235 fit just fine on the side with the fender tore off but low and behold, it wouldn't fit under the fender on the good side!! As long as there was no weight on the trailer it would just fit. But with a little weight on the trailer the lip of the fender would dig into the tire. The p235's also stuck out sideways from the fender. The outside lip of the fender was about midway on the tread of the tire.
So, Pete didn't have any choice but to replace the tire with the same thing it had on it and continued on his way. Of course now he was worried about not having a spare that would fit. Thanks to RE for that! I owe RE a lot of thanks and I will never get tired of thanking him and telling everyone my experiences with an RE trailer.
When Pete returned the trailer and told me the story I took the trailer to RE's to have a new fender installed on the side that had the fender ripped off. I also asked them to install it 2 inches higher and to move the other fender up as well. "No problem" I was told.
Well, the "No Problem" turned into a problem. When I went to pick up the trailer the first thing I noticed was that the new fender was mounted in the original position. I asked why they weren't moved up the 2 inches as I had requested and all I got was an "I dun no". I had to wait for RE to show up as he was out running errands or whatever. When he got there he was full of "we can't due that"! I reminded him that the original deal was to change the axle in order to use the spare p235 from my truck but since the fenders prevented that then why the hell did he sell me the axle to do what I couldn't do!!
He got real short with me and told me to just forget the 55.00 bill for installing the new fender and walked off. That pissed me off! I went into his office and paid his damn bill and left. I made sure to tell everyone how RE was and later on, before I moved out of the area, I did manage to keep a few folks from buying one of RE's trailers.
About 5 or 6 years later, in 2002, I decided to do myself what RE said "couldn't be done" and raise the fenders. While I was at it I would replace the wood decking. Was I ever in for a surprise. What I found would make a preacher cuss!!
I removed both fenders and the wood decking. Under the wood I found the metal had never been painted. It looked like painting the trailer was the last step in the manufacturing process for RE. The frame work around the edge of the trailer, under the wood, was so badly rusted it scared me. Looking closer showed the bottom of the trailer was not painted originally either. About 6 to 8 inches in on the bottom had some overspray paint where the painter sprayed the lower portion of the sides. I knew I would have to sand blast the rust off to see if it was pitted bad enough to have to junk the trailer. As luck would have it, I believe I caught it in time. Another year or two and I would have had to add more angle iron to keep the trailer together.
While looking the job over I realized it wasn't the tires being to large that made them stick out from under the fenders. The axle was to long!! The axle was also mounted an inch off center. One hub face stuck out an inch more from the trailer frame on one side than on the other side. Instead of ordering an axle that was the right length, R.E. installed one that he had on hand that was close. It's very fortunate for me that I moved to the Orlando area and away from Starke or I would have been over to RE's giving him a piece of my mind. All I could do was shake my head in dis-believement at what I was finding and realizing how big a mistake I made by buying the trailer from R. E.'s Trailers.
2006 Update: I understand that the name has changed to R.E.'S CIRCLE L TRAILERS. I'm not sure if R.E. is still in command or if there are new owners who are starting a migration away from using R.E. in the name completly. Every once in a while I would get an email thanking me for the information on how the trailer was constructed and how they changed their minds on what trailer to purchase.
This page was last updated 10/29/06