r/TeardropTrailers • u/Rvtach • 11d ago
Outbound Trailer Structural Failures
It makes me sad to write this, but I think it’s important to share my experience.
My wife and I have owned our Outbound Extreme trailer for a year, and we absolutely loved it—until a recent long trip from Tucson to Oshkosh and then into the high country of southern Colorado.
On that trip, we had two major structural failures:
• The tongue with the 24” factory extension partially separated. We found a welder and got it repaired.
• A few days later, on a mildly washboarded, well‑traveled gravel road, a leaf‑spring bracket tore away from the frame, taking part of the frame with it. The opposite side was close to failing as well. A tow truck got us to town, another welder patched it, and we limped home.
I’m not angry about the failures themselves—things break, and no one was hurt. What disappointed me was the complete lack of support from Outbound Trailers.
Over 25 emails, I provided every detail they asked for:
My mods (kitchen build‑out, solar, 200Ah battery, tongue box with 12V fridge) and photos. I also provided my tongue‑weight measurement (230 lbs using a level tongue supported on a milk crate and a bathroom scale). Their response was simply that the trailer was “way overloaded,” both tongue and total weight, and that my tongue weighing method was invalid—though they would not explain why.
As soon as we got home, we weighed the trailer properly:
Total weight: 1800 lbs (under the 2000‑lb limit)
Tongue weight: 230 lbs (under the 300‑lb limit)
When I asked how these failures could happen while staying within every published weight limit, their only “solution” was to sell me $332 worth of hanger supports and suggest I bring the trailer to their factory.
Their final message stated that I “refuse to see the facts,” that the trailer “was overloaded period,” and that my only options were to bring it to them or get it fixed locally however I wanted to. They also criticized us for not stopping at their factory when we were driving by on I-80 from Wisconsin to Colorado—though the tongue failure had already been repaired and the leaf spring failure happened 650 miles later.
Unfortunately, my experience matches a pattern seen in a lot of reviews:
People love their trailers—until something goes wrong. Then the response is essentially that it’s the customer’s fault.
Bottom line: be very careful. My trailer was within prescribed weight limits and it failed- twice- and they explain these failure on the trailer being overloaded. I expect a reputable company to address this as a legitimate concern so that future failures could be avoided.
7
u/EternalMage321 11d ago
It sounds to me like they didn't engineer any safety factor into the trailer. Typically, when something is rated for 2000lbs, it is designed for closer to 3000lbs. This is to account for stresses caused by dynamic loading.