Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Well, I haven't come up with a solution on my own, so I have to fess up...

My axle is about 4" too long. It came off a small boat trailer, and I didn't think far enough ahead, apparently.

You can kind of see in the pic, there's just over 3" between the tire and the side of the tear (that's a 2x4 I've got wedged in to clamp the side for gluing)...probably about 2" between the fender and the side if I center it on the tire. (I'll try to get a pic with the fender tomorrow.)



So...any ideas for mounting the fenders so they don't look TOO dorky?

No idea is too crazy for consideration!

Thanks

David

David, how far out is the widest part of the tire from the side wall.........................

Someone else will probably come up with a simpler approach, but I didn't find it too hard to widen my axle...could you narrow yours? Mine was simply open C channel, so I cut it and welded in a bit of solid steel rod. Could you do something similar?

Before you do anything drastic, are you certain you will be keeping the small wheels and tires? No chance you'll want an automotive style wheel later? If so, the width will probably change.

Brad

...and now that I think about it more, a wheel with some positive offset could be just what the doctor ordered. That would move the wheel inward. Most automotive wheels have a fair amount of positive offset to accomodate brake hardware without setting the wheels too far outboard.

A positive offset means the hub-mounting surface is closer to the outside edge of the wheel, i.e. the wheel wraps around the hub and brake hardware more deeply; a negative offset means the hub-mounting surface is closer to the inside edge of the wheel and wheel sticks outwards more than inwards.

Brad

David,

Cut the axle in the center to fit and insert a solid steel square bar in the cut ends before welding.

That way it won't look too "Dorky"

Automotive wheels would be the easiest thing to start with. I had a similar problem but i was able to take the excess out of the middle of the axle. In your case it looks like from the picture that if you take out the excess from the middle it will mess up your spring location. With that said if you do shorten the axle you will have to move the springs.

Thanks for the input so far...

Here are the critical dimensions:

Sidewall to inside of tire--3 1/4"
Sidewall to outside of tire--8 1/2"
The picture below doesn't quite line up well enough to show these accurately, but you'll get the idea.
(I guess that makes my tires 5 1/4" wide )
Sidewall to outside of hub plate where the wheel bolts on--4 3/4"
The fender is 7 1/2" wide, so with the fender centered on the tire, I should have 2 1/8" between the sidewall and the fender as it sits now. With the outside of the fender closer to the outside of the tire, it would reduce that to probably about an inch. I'd probably need some input as to vertical separation between the tire and fender if I placed it there.

Some pics...






I talked to my brother (the one who welded the frame for me) a while back about shortening the axle...he said he could do it, but he was far less enthused about that than welding the frame to start with. It's a solid axle, with the spindles turned from the axle stock. We'd have to do some fancy cutting and welding, possibly with a square tubing sleeve around the center of the axle. It wouldn't bother me as far as spring placement...I'd just drill new holes for the alignment bolts in the springs. Had to do that already, actually, for the trailer width, as well as the fact that I placed the axle on top of the springs instead of underneath. You can see the original hole in the second picture.

Automotive wheels might work, but it's a four-hole bolt pattern...don't know if I've ever seen an automotive wheel with that. Wheels, tires, AND hubs would probably break the budget right now, although that could be an option down the road.

Also, FWIW, the axle has a little bit of bend in it for toe. You can actually see it in the pic that Steve posted. (kinda scary that you found that, Steve... ) Not sure how critical that is, but shortening the axle would probably change that geometry as well.

Hopefully that helps...

David

Here is a crazy idea; What about mouting the fender to the axle. It would allow you to keep the tyre and fender close.

del

If axle is to wide there is only one fix.... Since you have access to welder, I suspect about 2-3 hours of work and problem solved....

You know what you have to do..... Just do it.

Dale

From someone whose teardrop build is stalled due to running out of money, have you thought about just buying a replacement axle?

If you can find an axle with the length and drop that will work with your hubs, I think this might be money well spent considering the aggravation of re-working what you have and hoping it will hold together. How about something like this:
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200330527_200330527

Thanks for all the input...I've decided to put running boards on the side of my tear to fair the fenders into... Just kidding.

Although it's probably the "right" answer, I'm still hesitant to shorten the axle. Especially with the suggestion of offset automotive wheels, which I may be able to work out in the future. I just need to spread that cost out a little bit.

I'm planning on a trim strip along the bottom edges, and some narrow blocking outside of that would probably get the fenders to a useable location.

Although Del's idea about mounting the fender to the axle is interesting...I'm gonna have to give that one some thought.

David

David, how about using wider fenders? kmtparts.com has 9" and 10.75" wide steel fenders for 14" to 16" tires. One or the other width would completely cover the tires and the gap to the trailer body. I bought two of their 10.75" wide fenders for 14" wheels and am pleased with them. Inflation...they've gone from $16 each when I bought mine to $23.20 now.
HTH