Fruehauf Trailer

G'day fella's
I picked up a 40' bogie trailer last week (believed to be 1986) which needs a police ID for registration. The previous owner gave me the old rego number (plate missing), vin number and serial number but I have to be able to show them on the chassis for the inspection.
There is a 3" x 2" plate on each outside main beam above the spare wheel carrier which has asterisk type (*) stampings about the diameter of a pencil, but no letters or numbers. A search of the chassis has not shown anything else and the ID I am looking for may be hidden under several coats of paint.
Can anyone tell me where these details should be?
Cheers Geoff

My early 70's Freuhauf had the number stamped on the edge of the bottom strap of the chassis rail, left hand side, three feet behind the leg. [ behind the middle of the toolbox] Hope this helps. Nev

Thanks for your reply Nev.
I found the vin # on the same side of main beam position as you suggested but where the beam begins to taper from the turntable area. It is not deeply imprinted, but does match the number I was given.
Despite wire brushing with an angle grinder along several places the serial number is still hiding somewhere.
I rang some trailer maintenance companies in Adelaide but didn't get any positive help from them, so will just have to keep looking.
Cheers Geoff

The 17 character vin # should be enough. It usually includes the manufacturers serial number as the last part on the right and the rest covers codes for manufacturer, model, year, plant code,etc.

jimbo
The vin # found is R12TN002386.
The serial # should be 6370885

I have wire brushed the chassis chord back to bare metal on both sides of the vin and in other places without any luck. The serial # plus found vin# add up to more than 17 characters, so s/n may have too many numbers. So far no help from searching web etc, so will keep trying. Thanks anyway. Geoff

How old is the trailer? 17 digit VIN's are a relativly new thing. My 1980 Haulmark has a 5 digit serial number, no VIN, when I registered it, there was quite a few other trailers in Queensland with the same serial number, so the chick at the transport department added the rego nimber to the serial number to set it apart. If a VIN is issued by a state licensing or main roads department, part of the VIN will relate to the year of manufacture. Most (later) VIN's for trailers start with 6T9T. A mate of mine went to register a semi trailer and it came up as stolen, when they investigated it, turned out the stolen trailer was a boat trailer with the same number. If it is an old trailer, you won't find a 17 digit VIN on it anywhere.

The 17 digit VIN, issued by the registration authority, for trailers, didn't come in until about 1990 as regards trailers.
Before then, a trailer manufacturer could choose his own variety and mix of letters and numbers, or just all numbers.
The 17 digit VIN for cars commenced in the early 1980's, but it took a few years for trailers to catch up.

Tacho onetrack is correct- remember years ago trailers didn't need rego at all (until someone in authority decided that they should make money out of trailers too)
So lots of trailers only had their manufactures number on them- sometimes not even that.
I've seen this create massive problems with trailers that have gone interstate, and the new owner has been unable to rego them because as Bigcam says, the number makes no sense to that trailer... So the authorities kind of blame you, and treat you like a crook, when in fact it's really because their stupid rego requirements have changed..
If you have the VIN number on the rego papers, it has been known to happen that people have stamped in that VIN number on the chassis in roughly the correct spot, so the "authorities" can see it when they inspect it. (Not that I'm recommending you do this, just saying it does happen)
Basically you just have to keep the idiots / rulemakers happy...
cheers
Richard

I just had a look at hte rego lable on my ute and it has a serial No which has nothing to do with the ute itself, so maybe the number you are looking for has nothing to do with your trailer it could be a rego department No.

Tacho, I would go visit the rego mob, take the number you have found, they will tell you if that number is on the system (nationally) if its not, just register it....

and Prodrive has a very good point


/me