Farewell, Big Tex...

And may the oxygen-acetylene tanks used by the berkeleying pieces of E36 M3 who stole you explode in their truck. Hopefully they'll not die immediately, but live long, miserable lives of disfiguration.

I went by the industrial park around the corner where I've had my beater 1988 Big Tex 16' open trailer stored for the winter to check in as I do every week or 3. I keep a hitch lock on, and it's chained to a steel bollard with a hardened Kryptonite "New York Fuggediboutit" lock and chain. So some P.O.S. cut the Hitch lock off w/ a cutting torch (leaving 1/2 the shackle) and there was no evidence of the chain - either they cut it or drove off and knocked it down.

I reckon I'll have one of the cheap trailer guys in PA that do the utility trailers make me a 6x14' single axle. That'll fit through the 8' gap between my house and the neighbor's fence so I can store it in the yard, and I can get it w/ a fold down ramp that folds in the middle so it's like 8' long. That way I can back the truck on ramps to raise the tongue and the splitter will not drag on the ramps too bad.

And I'll insure this one...

Scared me, I thought you meant the real Big Tex. I was thinking some forward thinking set of individuals decided Big Tex wasn't the image Texas wanted to portray anymore.

I was almost relieved you'd "just" lost a trailer.

I feel your pain. There's nothing like arriving and looking for your trailer/car/whatever and seeing nothing but air. It leaves you vacant inside as well.

that sucks

I don;t suppose you have a clue when it was stolen or if any of the surrounding businesses have cameras?

No cameras that I could see, and it could have been anytime in the past 3 weeks or so. D'oh.

We just had a trailer stole from work about two weeks ago. It sucks because our only other trailer has been locked up in repair shop hell for about six months. Had to rent one last week to move some equipment around. I hate thieves.

are trailers really that easy to "wash" and resell?

In reply to mad_machine:

Yes.

What adds to the suck is that I just got a 2 year Maine plate for it. Hell, it may have been gone before I did it. So what I'm thinking is that since the MD title says ""Year - 88, Make OTHR, Gr. veh. wt. 3000" and it has a VIN#, and I have a plate matching that info...

I build a dedicated Radical hauler and accidentally stamp a bunch of numbers on the tongue someplace. Title matches trailer matches tag. Huh.

damn that sucks big time..

post up some pics in case somebody else has seen it?

That really sucks, I can't image stealing large trailers is worth the risk. Im guessing they assumed that there would be expensive things inside perhaps?

pinchvalve wrote: That really sucks, I can't image stealing large trailers is worth the risk. Im guessing they assumed that there would be expensive things inside perhaps?

it was an open trailer.

sucks when people do something like that. Hope you get the trailer back.

I have an old axle and wheels from a boat trailer you can have for free. Always willing to help a grm guy that had bad luck.
Randy 215-317-5328

Thanks for reminding me that I still need to get a decent lock for my trailer. I worry about coming home from work and it no longer being parked next to my garage.

and madmachine made me think about how it looks like every other 5x8 trailer I have seen in my life. maybe it needs a unique touch of paint.........

I'm sorry to hear about your trailer. If you're in the market for a new one, the guys over at motoIQ have an interesting build, with pretty obsessive detail.

It took 6 weeks to isolate Big Tex's replacement.I'd missed out on a 6'4" x 14' deck-over aluminum ATV trailer for $1650 and was about to pull the trigger on having a custom steel utility trailer made that would be skinny enough to squeeze through the 8' gap into my back yard - probably $1400. when craigslist revealed this:

A 1990, steel 6'x14' deck-over. 4400# GVWR, 10" wheels, electric brakes on the rear axle, $475.

My friend Aaron (owner of the GRM Volvo 122 Amazon project car) said "Wow. A genuine and original Lithuanian dung cart"

I'm going to remove all the wood and wiring and everything outboard of the perimeter of the decking. I'll wire wheel it, slather it with rust converter and a few coats of Rustoleum. New wheel bearings, all new LED lights and wiring w/ a junction box and breakaway switch + battery, a fresh set of tires and a new pressure treated deck are in order.

The cool feature will be the 14' loading ramps that double as sides, and I'll make a detachable tire rack that'll hold a second set of slicks + rains and 2 trailer spares.

Total budget will be about $1100 and a weekend for the perfect rig.

Nice score! Sounds like it will fit the program perfectly.

Strangely enough we had a big tex stolen from work this past month. Friggin thieves. It was modified, so there is hope we might be able to find it and id it based on it's minor differences.

It seems like there has been an influx of trailer thefts within the last 6-8 months. They really have been ballsy thefts too. Over the various forums I frequent and facebook, there have been a ridiculous amount of people stealing them. All locked or chained to something, all of them uninsured.

I wonder what the appeal is to stealing trailers? I have a feeling they're being cut up and taken to scrap.

Bummer about the theft, I thought this story was going to be more similar to mine where it was totalled by a drunk.

What is it that you tow that you can get by with such a light duty trailer?

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: I wonder what the appeal is to stealing trailers? I have a feeling they're being cut up and taken to scrap.

From what I hear, they're being stolen by/for landscaping and lawn care crews of the less-than-upstanding (and less-than-green-card, at least among the workers) type.

With this recent rash of Big Tex thefts I fear for mine. I really like the trailer, it is very well built.

Glad to see you have a replacement plan in the works, and on the bright side it will be exactly what you want/need.

In reply to CLynn85:

1000 pounds of atomic death toboggan.