Trailer woes. Axle mod questions

cecoen · #1 (**permalink**) 06-16-2007, 08:46 PM

Hello all,
Hopefully I can explain this in a way someone will understand it. And hopefully someone will have some advice! I have a light duty car hauler type of triler. It has double dropped axles. It had 14" wheels and tires. I found a sweet deal on a set of Jeep take off wheels and tires that are 15" When I went to install them they rub each other. Front tire rubs the back tire. I really want to run these new tires. I began looking at the axle set up and it seems(see photo) that the dropped axles are clocked a little towards each other thus bringing the two hubs closer together and making the larger tires rub. My first thought was to loosen the u bolts holding the axles to the perches and rotate them a little bringing the hubs a little further apart and making more room for the tires. I then found out that the little cups that the axle sits in on top of the leaf springs are welded to the axle.

I was thinking I would grind the welds off and rotate the axles a little. What do you fab gurus think? I figure that the axles are not straight up and down to compensate for suspension travel but will moving them hurt anything? Am I making any sense? If you look at the pic of the rear axle I tried to show with red lines how pitched forward the axle is and where I want to move it to. Any ideas? Any idea what the heck I am talking about?

THANKS!!!!!
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Ron61 · #2 (**permalink**) 06-17-2007, 05:18 AM

Ceocoen,

My three axle trailer wasn't like that, but my guess would be that maybe they tilt them like that for balance and to help when turning. The farther apart the tires are, the more scrubbing when you make a short turn. But I am sure that some of the engineers on here can answer you with a complete answer and way to do what you want if it can be done without messing up anything.

Ron

cecoen · #3 (**permalink**) 06-17-2007, 08:44 AM

Alright, now I feel like a dummy. So far several people have said why don't you just swap the axles front to back? Why I didn't think of that is beyond me. Anyway, what do you think about swapping them so they slightly point away from each other instead of slightly pointing towards each other? Any harm?

Thanks,
Chad

Wes Tausend · #4 (**permalink**) 06-17-2007, 10:44 AM

In the original configuration, it seems the axles would tend to move away from one another from additional weight or bump stress, bending the leaf in a similar "s" manner to powered axle wrap-up on live axle setups in autos.

In a reverse "swap", the axles may have a tendency to "center" towards one another and if the tires ever touch at speed, may cause a significant braking action on one side only. An "idle roller" between the tires, or more practical, an upper traction link that prevents axle wrap could prevent this but may not be worth the trouble.

Just a thought.