Clearance between Flexiride Spindle Arm and Frame

[irhutch]

For those of you with a flexiride torsion axle, how much space is there between the mounting bracket and the spindle arm ?

flexride.jpg (16.14 KiB) Viewed 1842 times

[absolutsnwbrdr]

If the Flexride ordering process is anything like the Dexter Torflex process, you provide the specs and they build it to suit your application. Dexter requires the frame width(outside of frame to outside of frame) dimension and the hub-face to hub-face dimension.

[Aguyfromohio]

We used Flexiride axles. Love 'em.
Here's the official company diagram



They call that dimension "overhang", it's 4.75 inches each side as a minimum. That allows room for the trailing arm and related hardware to clear the frame rail if it swings up past the frame.
Remember that you can put the ride height anywhere you like on a Flexiride, some people who have ultra low ride height have those arms always above the frame rail.
Here's the way mine looked, the shiny black surface at the top of the photo is the frame rail.



If the side walls of your trailer are flush with the frame rail, like ours are, you will end up with a gap between a standard cheap fender and the side wall.
We did our two trailers both ways. My friend just left the gap, his fenders bounce along on brackets out away from the trailer wall.
I made spacers on mine to fill the gap, a standard 2 x 4 is about perfect thickness so that's what I used.
They are on the same brackets as the other trailer but the wood is painted to match the fender and it fills the gap so it looks like a wider fender right up to the wall. I ran screws in through wall into wood spacers to eliminate any bounce.

[Aguyfromohio]

For those of you with a flexiride torsion axle, how much space is there between the mounting bracket and the spindle arm ?

flexride.jpg

I made the measurement you requested, it is 1/2 inch.

Be careful, that dimension may change as the overhang shifts between the minimum 4.75 inches and the maximum 9.045 inches.
We used the full axle rather than half axles, and we have the overhang at the minimum. Your illustration shows a substantial piece of square tube beyond the bracket. On mine there is no square tube at all between the bracket and spindle arm. That 1/2 inch is just extra spline.

[irhutch]

 I think I understand now, I knew that you provided the frame dimensions so they could properly locate the mounting tabs and the face to face dimensions so that you would make sure your tires had clearance but did not know if any other dimensions changed. Looks like I need to provide them with the frame outside dimensions and increase the hub face to hub face dimension such that the square part will stick out more than that 4.75 minimum. I will have one inch on the outside of the frame where my sides cover the frame. If I get an overhang dimension of 6.8 instead of 4.75 that would give me the same ½ inch clearance that you have.

[irhutch]

We used Flexiride axles. Love 'em.
Here's the official company diagram

I do see one problem with the drawing, they show a range for the overhang between the frame and the hub face as 4.75 - 9.045. This dimension 5.6 inches between the back of the spindle arm and the hub face. 5.6 will not fit into the 4.75 minimum. Confusing.

[Aguyfromohio]

I do see one problem with the drawing, they show a range for the overhang between the frame and the hub face as 4.75 - 9.045. This dimension 5.6 inches between the back of the spindle arm and the hub face. 5.6 will not fit into the 4.75 minimum. Confusing.

HA! Good catch, you're right.

[irhutch]

I do see one problem with the drawing, they show a range for the overhang between the frame and the hub face as 4.75 - 9.045. This dimension 5.6 inches between the back of the spindle arm and the hub face. 5.6 will not fit into the 4.75 minimum. Confusing.

HA! Good catch, you're right.

I did call southwest wheel and asked the same question, the girl who answered the phone did not have anything with the dimension but she went to the shop and asked then called me back saying the dimension I was asking about was 5 3/8 inches.

[Aguyfromohio]

I did call southwest wheel and asked the same question, the girl who answered the phone did not have anything with the dimension but she went to the shop and asked then called me back saying the dimension I was asking about was 5 3/8 inches.

You're still correct, twice now. The mystery dimension must be 4.75 or smaller. Her second answer is wrong, but closer than the brochure's first' wrong dimension.

[irhutch]

I ended up getting switched from the main number to the location where they actually built the axles and placed my order there. Once again the mystery dimension was not readily available but once I explained exactly what I was doing they calculated a hub face to hub face distance that would give me the clearance that I needed and it fit the dimensions that I had already calculated so it should work out.