Madison County Record | Cottrell, Inc. named in St. Clair County personal injury suit: "Cottrell, Inc. named in St. Clair County personal injury suit"
Hard to believe, but there is another Cottrell lawsuit in the news.
This time, apparently it is Cottrell's fault that their trailers get backed into things and bend the frame that encloses the loading skid. It is also their fault that the frame gets dirty and doesn't get washed. It is their fault that loading ramps wear out and don't get replaced. This is madness!
I've seen loading skids that stubbornly refused to go in properly or come out easily. It does take excessive force in some instances to use them. When the frame is not damaged, however, the design on the Cottrell trailer works great because there are two huge roller bearings that make it slide in and out much like the drawer of a filing cabinet.
On a trailer of this size, there is no way you could engineer a design that would not be susceptible to damage if the driver backs into a high curb or something (a common way these skid boxes get tweaked). I've seen Boydstun trailers that had the same problem.