Anyone else have the tongue fail on a Northern Tool 5x8?

[tnycmpr]

My wife and I built "Tiny" about two years ago on a Northern Tool 5x8 trailer. In the past two years, Tiny has been on many adventures (about 10-15K miles at this point). After a local trip this week, I noticed that the tongue is failing just below the coupler (See picture below. The tear in the metal is happening on both sides of the tongue). The tongue weight is within 10-15% of the trailer weight (last weighed, Tiny is about 1300 lbs and the tongue is about 150 lbs). Has anyone else had the northern tool trailer fail like this? I'm taking it to a couple of trailer/RV repair shops this week to get an estimate to build a new tongue. I'm thinking I'd rather have a new tongue with stronger metal tubing than repair this one. Thoughts? I can't even begin to explain how bummed we are about this, especially since Tiny is supposed to go to Lake Tahoe (4 hour drive) next week.

Thanks!
James & Anna

One of two tears in the metal below the coupler

IMG_6996.jpg (18.48 KiB) Viewed 892 times

The loaded tongue

IMG_6995.jpg (20.73 KiB) Viewed 892 times

[dmdc411]

I have a 5 X 8 Northern Tool, no floor landscape trailer. The tongue is not like yours. But, I did do the tongue mod by adding diagonals to the original. They run back to the front leaf spring mounts. http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/578d8cf4849f9/Screenshot_2016-03-14-22-56-42.png?

[39Ratrod]

Well that sucks! I can see how there would be a tearing effect on that tongue design. Looks like the plate is 1/4" held down by 6 carriage bolts problem is the tubing the plate is bolted to is probably considerably smaller. When you take it in to have it repaired, ask if you remove the tank, trailer jack, and the boxes on the tongue will it save you some labor.