FENDER AND TIRE CLEARANCE

[ralaco]

How much clearance is the best between the fender and the top of the tire for a TD to be used in 4X4 scenario?

And haw much at each sides of the tire?

To be used with torsion axles.

These questions are because I want to make my own fenders.

Raul

[Nitetimes]

Redneck is calling for 3" of bump clearance from full load for their torque flex axle, which means that after you have your trailer built and loaded to it's normal weight, trailer/supplies/ect. you need to have 3" above the tires, now if I knew I was going offroad I would probably add another 1 1/2"-2" just to be safe. When I was building trailers I believe I usually put the fenders around 5 1/2" above the tire, but that was done with no load and I had to be sure I was going to have plenty of clearance, better a little high than have one brought back to have fenders repositioned. One thing to consider when mounting fenders on torque flex axles is the direction they move, they work in an arc, moving up and forward so your fender should be mounted a little further forward rather than centered on the tire. As far as front and back clearance, I always like to have about an inch behind the tire (between tire and trailer) but the front is usually just enough to clear the outside of the sidewall, you don't get a lot of side to side movement with TF axles.

On the other hand if you are going off road with it (4X4 scenario?) I would use springs and an axle, TF axles really aren't designed for that. A spring and axle setup is also much easier to do emergency repairs on.

[Woody]

I would have to agree with you Nightimes on the advantages of spring and axle setups for offroad use. If for nothing else ground clearance, durability, and maintenance issues

[steve wolverton]

Hi,

To set my clearance I just measured how far the trailer could compress before bottoming out on the axle. I then added an extra .5" on top of that.

I don't know anything about torsion axles. Do they "bottom out" anywhere in their travel?

Steve