No springs trailer

[vincigj]

Acquired an I-Beam welded axle trailer. No springs. Couple of car spindle / hubs attached to the end of the center cross mounted 8-in I-Beam on a 4 x 8 trailer.
What is the down side of no springs? Is it safe?

[Aaron Coffee]

I have a car trailer that has no suspension and without a load it will bounce the pickup lick crazy, and it gets very annoying, with a load I can sometimes feel the weight shift on bumps to the hitch on the pickup. On a teardrop I would think it may bounce the TD apart.

[Dale M.]

And every little rock and pothole will shake up (or apart) everyting inside trailer.....

Dale

[vincigj]

Thought that might be the case. Heavy vibration and all. The last owner of this utility trailer said to just run the tires soft. Thanks for the sanity check.

[starleen2]

Thought that might be the case. Heavy vibration and all. The last owner of this utility trailer said to just run the tires soft. Thanks for the sanity check.

Wonder why he/ she sold the trailer
Just put a set of springs on it and you'll be glad you did!~

[vincigj]

It's a story. The utility trailer was free. The deal was I would make it road worthy again, new tires, and he could use it once in a while. That means the teardrop would have to be removable.
Well, the lights were bad, wood rotted and the rims very rusted. Got past all that as I had a 4x6 trailer that no longer had a pair of wheels under it as it was way too rusty. So there was the "new" lights. The tires were easy. The wood is pressure treated. Paint was cheap.

Putting springs on it would involve cutting the I-beam and then giving up the 14-in wheels as the my old axle assy is 8-in. I hear one can put 12-in tires on the same hubs as the 8s.
I do have the remains of an old Apache Camper. If I could sub my axle on it's frame.....


[/img]

[angib]

It's not relevant to your situation, but those are really interesting photos of that Apache pop-up chassis - it just shows how much can be left off a small trailer frame if you have the experience to do it.

The out-of-straight springs and axle U-bolts put on diagonally are a bit of a shock to the eyes, but I guess they worked. The tongue is not really attached to be main frame except by that one bolt - it really is mostly just attached to the front of the body.

Fascinating (to me, at least)...

[glenpinpat]

I would use the apache trailer. take the 4 u channels weld 2 together making 2 8ft channels. reattach the axle to that. get some tubing steel and weld 4 cross members in place. weld the tongue back on. total cost of steel would be about 40.00 and you would have your td frame

[starleen2]

After a few moment of though on this – I would rather use you use your apache frame too – the “freeâ€

[Artificer]

I would use the appache frame as well. Just look at those nice loooong springs. (or so it appears in the photo) They'll ride much nicer than the more common shorter/stiffer springs.

I can see using the framing as is, if it has a good tongue. Go with the ultralight trailer design, or just rebuild the frame into the typical rectangle as mentioned.

Unless you want a low capacity utility trailer, I'd keep them separate... teardrop and utility trailers. Besides the PITA of swapping the camper body off, the utility trailer will have too stiff of springs for a good ride with the camper.

Yes, I know... I've been obsessing over cushy riding trailers lately.

Michael

[droid_ca]

if you do turn this into a tear you have to call it
No Springs Atached
sorry couldn't resist

[vincigj]

If I was , but I'm not, I would absolutely use that.
Started work on reconditioning the X-frame shown in the last pix above.
Very clever.