Light weight torsion axles for a Fish and Sleep rig

[Woodstramp]

Hey guys. Been absent a while since you folks helped with my old build years ago.

I've been in love with kayak fishing for several years. Got an idea to make a new build. Really light rig to pull behind my car or pickup for taking on long weekend fishing trips. The idea is for a rather light, small sleeper (no galley) with a steel rack on top to hold one of my fishing kayaks. 4x4x8ish. I will embed an AC and electric heater, windows and thinking of a wide single door. Tailer will contain the sleeper box, kayak and two external coolers (one for food/drinks, one for stinky fish)

I know the weight of the kayak and loaded coolers, but have still to figure total frame/sleeper weight. One prerequisite is using a four lug 13" wheel set that I can just pickup at any Walmart. I will carry a spare.

Plan is to have a ready-to-go rig for local overnights, fishing tourneys or long fishing weekends at the beach.

I want a light, good quality torsion axle. I built and used a Harbor Freight trailer as a fishing kayak hauler for a couple of years. The axle spindles wore out at about 2000 miles. Was not impressed.

I'd post a pic of a rough sketch idea, but I think the old image hosting site I used ten years ago is now defunct. Any new ones available these days?

Thanks.

[Pmullen503]

When you say the spindles wore out, I assume you meant the bearings. If you didn't clean all the crap they coat the bearings in and then regrease with good grease the bearings won't last.

You can get torsion axles for light weight trailers

[tony.latham]

I want a light, good quality torsion axle.

Dexter will downrate their 2,000 pound torsion axles to whatever weight you need.

Tony

[sagebrush]

Flexride has half axles down to 550 pounds/ pair ,4 or 5 lug.
In an earlier life, I used a pair to make a trailer to pull behind
my motorcycle. Worked great.

[mountainminded]

“Dexter will downrate their 2,000 pound torsion axles to whatever weight you need.

Tony”

...and the Dexter #8 Torflex comes standard as 1100 lbs but can be downrated at time of manufacture to 900 lbs (perhaps less). Lead time from the factory is currently about two months.

[tomhawk]

Hoping my trailer would be light, I downrated my Dexter axle to 900 lb.
I bought that before building the trailer.
The completed empty trailer ended up weighing about 510 lb.

Thinking about how much more stuff I can carry. (Cases of beer?)
The 13 inch wheels/tires and the axle itself are nearly 100 lb of the weight. To me, it would seem that that at least some of this mass should not be a part of the inertia the torsion assembly needs to accommodate. The cabin and remaining chassis that sit on the axle and wheels only weigh around 400 lb. The weight of the wheels is a substantial fraction of the trailer weight. I would think that weight should not be included.

Does anyone have an opinion on how much more stuff I can add before I exceed the rating of my axle? Do the wheels and axle count as weight for the purpose of axle capacity?

Thanks,

Tom

[dguff]

Flexride has half axles down to 550 pounds/ pair ,4 or 5 lug.
In an earlier life, I used a pair to make a trailer to pull behind
my motorcycle. Worked great.

I have used the flexiride half axles on three different builds and would do it again.

[mountainminded]

Hoping my trailer would be light, I downrated my Dexter axle to 900 lb.


Does anyone have an opinion on how much more stuff I can add before I exceed the rating of my axle? Do the wheels and axle count as weight for the purpose of axle capacity?

Dexter engraves the capacity of each axle on the crossmember tube. The rated weight does not include tires and wheels but does included everything above.



-Rob

[Woodstramp]

I apologize for forgetting I posted this. Also want to give thanks for the info.

The plan has changed since i posted. I'm planning on reusing the first trailer i originally built for my original TD. That TD suffered some roof leaks/damage, so it was stripped back down and repurposed as a kayak hauler. That's what it's been for several years. I just recently bought another trailer, so the former TD trailer will be another 6x10 TD.

[twisted lines]

Hoping my trailer would be light, I downrated my Dexter axle to 900 lb.
Does anyone have an opinion on how much more stuff I can add before I exceed the rating of my axle? Do the wheels and axle count as weight for the purpose of axle capacity?

Dexter engraves the capacity of each axle on the crossmember tube. The rated weight does not include tires and wheels but does included everything above.

-Rob

I see rapin foam already; started a new problem.
Adding stuff

[timhill28]

Flexride has half axles down to 550 pounds/ pair ,4 or 5 lug.
In an earlier life, I used a pair to make a trailer to pull behind
my motorcycle. Worked great.

Alright, I will tip my uncle about the Flexride half axles. We'll work on this trailer after we finish installing the suspension and toyo tires on the truck this week.