jalmberg wrote:Upgrading to passenger tires and making sure bolts don't come loose sound like good ideas. Will add them to my list.
Tim: Why mount the wheels on top of the springs?
Ultimately the reason is to lower the floor by a couple inches. If a lower floor is not important to you then don't worry about making that change. It would be easy to change if you think it is too high after assembly. They are designed to be under the springs and if your TD is going to be anything even close to the trailer capacity you might want an engineer's opinion about whether it is a good idea. With under 1200# total weight expected I'm not going to worry about the four u-bolts failing. With springs under the axle the bolts are basically holding the springs in place without a lot of weight on them. Over the spring the four u-bolts are holding close to half the weight of your build as well as any hard hits (actually all hits) from road hazards. You could always upgrade the u-bolts to something heavier to compensate.
Correction... I stated "...I mounted the axle above the springs which required six additional holes to drill out." The six additional holes to drill had nothing to do with the axle above the springs. Flipping the axle over didn't require anything other than reversing the spring center bolt so the round tab would fit in the axle hole for it. The six additional holes were drilled to get the axle at 40% from the rear of the trailer frame (box frame only, not tongue). It's suggested you move the axle back from its designed position to compensate for the extra weight in the galley area of the trailer. This will all depend on your design. If yours is a generic "Benroy" design it is probably a good thing to consider to add a little tongue weight. Lots on advice will be found on tnttt that discusses just that design. Probably more than the average builder wants to know. Just consider your design before you assemble the trailer. If you are set on one design then it's time to think about axle placement.
For example, my build #1 weighs 1250# loaded with a tongue weight of 170#. A little heavier than I hoped, but, I can move a few things around to shift weight towards the axle when I'm loading up for a trip.
Tim