Cottrell Ez 5307 7 car trailer or Kaufman Max6 car trailer

After all things considered that pos kaufman will cost you more to run than a cottrell. More expensive brakes that don't stop worth a #### and wear out once per year if not sooner, tires you will have constant problems out of, bearings that go out, etc. Plus Cottrell's hold their value very well so selling them in a few years will be no issue.

 

Cottrell all day every day. Dont ever let the word Kaufmann enter your head again.

 

Also consider Miller, Wally-Mo and Sun Valley. They all have their strengths and weaknesses but I wouldn't pass up a good deal on any of them. Cottrell definitely seems to hold value the best though

 

I am on my third Miller, first two were used when we bought them, this one is brand new last April. They are decent trailers, but my next one will be a Cottrell for sure. Miller customer service and build quality is really lacking lately, this trailer has already had two lift cylinders replaced under warranty with the two for the tail deck being done right now, the wiring harness melted and caught on fire twice, at two different points and it was like pulling teeth to get them to replace the entire harness the second time. Oh, and when I went to pick it up brand new it has damage on it from the transport company that brought it up from Tennessee, plus it spent an extra week at the dealer, seems no one tested it as a complete unit, while in the dealers lot before leaving I ran thru all the functions and sheared a fitting off one of the intermediate deck lift cylinders, seems the top deck was not square with the bottom and this caused the cylinder to twist (undoubtedly what also caused the early failure of these two cylinders). Miller had the local dealer cut and re-weld the mounting tabs for the cylinder to "fix" the problem. If my other trailer wasn't already sold I would not have take delivery of this unit and would have went straight to Cottrell.

As for Kaufmann, they are alright for a three car wedge, their other products are cheaply built and will cost you much more to operate overtime than you save in the upfront purchase costs. Sun Valley are alright as well, I used one of them for about 6 months, prefer the Miller to them but they are very similar in design. The biggest drawback I see to Cottrell is the price, almost $10,000 morethan a comparable Miller or Sun Valley, but in the long run definitely worth it now.

 

Same here, on my third Miller. Picked it up at the factory in TN March 2014. It was a left over 2013 built the previous September. Zero structural/paint or wiring issues. The only thing(& is really not worth mentioning) was the oil hub bolts had to be torqued back down a couple of times. But that is the same if you replace the caps/oil maintenance wise. One air line rubbed through late last summer & replaced w/o issue. To be honest, I could have prevented that.
Going to wash it today & graphite the posts, but that is it.

Sorry yours turned out that way. Though am wondering what caused the wiring harness to melt? Those are completely sealed & made by truck lite in NY.

 

The harness had water intrusion at the connection point over the front axle, it must not have been plugged in tightly at the factory, this caused a short and heat issues. This was fixed and then it melted further up, where it makes a tight bend by the wall in front of the axles, it must have been compromised by the first short. As for the structural issues, this is the first one I have seen like this, it was built January 2014, shipped to me in April 2014, must have been a fluke problem.