Another dumb axle question

[2bits]

Reading this thread, I am a little scared about the trailing arm hitting my frame/body. I haven't nailed this down yet, but as I am planning on ordering my axle Monday, I need to get that figured out. I guess it's easy if you buy a premade axle from Northern Tool or something and build your trailer around it, but yeah if you are going custom like most people do (and should) then you gotta wrap yer brain around these dimensions! I can't believe I missed this one step.

[shoeman]

I've got my measurements figured out now, but I've called Dexter and been run all over the directory without being able to speak with anybody about a prospect or worksheet. I'll keep trying, but I'm getting frustrated and do not want to have to wait until next week to try again. Gotta get building!

[shoeman]

I just visited a local Dexter supplier to see what they could do for me in case I can't get to talk to an engineer at at the factory. The local guys Dexter book showed a dimension on it for the hub face to inside of torsion arm distance that Dexter's info does not show. His listed that dimension as 5.6" and it is a fixed measurement according to him. That means to get torsion arm to wall clearance you need to use that number to get your hubface to hubface measurement. At least that's what I was told. I was also quoted $260 for the axle, which seems high to me. I tld him I wanted to verify my dimensions before ordering and left it at that.
Can anybody confirm if that 5.6" spec is indeed the case??

[Alphacarina]

You just need to use wheels without much offset and you'll be fine

If you want to use FWD automotive wheels, then you'll need to use a 1.5 to 2 inch spacer on the hub to mount the wheel to in order to make sure the wheel doesn't contact the torsion arm - I have a set of those behind a pair of my car's wheels, so everything matches up

Don

[shoeman]

I finally got through to a fellow at Dexter who was a big help. We worked through a "Pro Spec" (not prospect as you might see in some other threads) and he was able to tell me that my frame mount points combined with my original hub face spec would have indeed had the torsion arms hitting the body of the tear. So care must be taken sometimes with this. The catch comes when your frame is narrower than your body by a few inches as is my case. We had to widen the hub face spec to 74.5" to get me 1" clearance between the torsion arm and the trailer wall. That's wider than I'd hoped for, but fenders can cover the gap, and I might be able to shave that down to 1/2" when I order if I close up the hub face size.
If your frame width is real close to your overall body width I bet it's not an issue, but as you approach 2" like I did, you may have problems. Next time I speak to Dexter I'll ask if that dimension (hub face to inner side of torsion arm) is fixed and if so what that distance is.
So what looked like a lousy day turned into a good one.

[2bits]

Man, I really appreciate your bringing this up! I think I have mine down, once I do for sure, I will post another pic.. I thought I did, but now things aren't adding up so I'm still workin

[G-force]

Sounds about right. Mine is the minimum overhang with the short spindles, which is 6". I have about 1/4"-3/8" clearance from the arm to the frame.

I just visited a local Dexter supplier to see what they could do for me in case I can't get to talk to an engineer at at the factory. The local guys Dexter book showed a dimension on it for the hub face to inside of torsion arm distance that Dexter's info does not show. His listed that dimension as 5.6" and it is a fixed measurement according to him. That means to get torsion arm to wall clearance you need to use that number to get your hubface to hubface measurement. At least that's what I was told. I was also quoted $260 for the axle, which seems high to me. I tld him I wanted to verify my dimensions before ordering and left it at that.
Can anybody confirm if that 5.6" spec is indeed the case??

[shoeman]

That's exactly what I was concerned with. If you planned on having your walls cover the frame you do not have enough room to do so.
So I assume on that project your sitting the walls on the floor?

[G-force]

Correct, nothing overhanging the frame sides.

That's exactly what I was concerned with. If you planned on having your walls cover the frame you do not have enough room to do so.
So I assume on that project your sitting the walls on the floor?

[shoeman]

http://www.redneck-trailer.com/2006/A/A28-A33.pdf

I did a little more snooping and found the above info. It may also be on the Dexter site, but I have never found it. If you look at the drawing at the top of the page that link points to, you'll see the hubface to inner torsion arm spec shown as 6.2" and is not variable.
So there is a vital bit of info for anybody building their own frame!

[Alphacarina]

So long as you have a frame member where the axle goes, like G-Force does, you can use the Flexiride stub axle torsion units and effectively make you axle any width you want . . . . plus it saves big $$$ in shipping

Very easy after the fact to add in an extra inch or two of width to keep the arms off the trailer body

Another big plus is the splined, adjustable arms - You can adjust the trailer ride height very easily even after the trailer is completed

Don

[shoeman]

How much more difficult, if any, is getting the alignment correct when using the stubs? I'd thought of trying that method. I'd have to add another cross member, but that pretty easy and relatively cheap to do.

[brian_bp]

I just ran across a link to a teardrop owner's Trailer Chassis Build website, which includes a Torflex #9 axle drawing, with dimensions including the arm location relative to the hub face. In that case, it appears that from hub face to the inner side of the arm is only 5.5".



This is not my trailer, and I can't say whether any of the measurements are correct, but it might be worth looking at.

[asianflava]

Sorry, I haven't been reading this thread, I could have posted some pics to help.

The sides of my trailer are on the outside of the frame, the frame is hidden by a "skirt" all the way around. after I ordered my axle, there was a possibility that the arms could hit the sidewall. ended up cutting a notch in the wall for clearance. Apparently, Camp-Inn does the same thing on their units.

Like I said in my pervious post, a short spindle probably would have prevented me from having to do this because I would have been able to have more distance between the arm and the wall while keeping the same hub to hub dimension. . Problem was, I didn't know about the short spindle option.

[shoeman]

I had another thought in the middle of the night, you know how that goes when you're in the middle of a project.
How much actual travel do you really see from these axles? I know that's a function of loaded weight versus rated weight versus road irregularities. But if I spec an axle with a 45deg start angle, would that ever compress enough to "flatten out" to zero (parallel to the frame) deg? Maybe the High Profile bracket along with the 45deg's would be enough to assure torsion arm to wall clearance. If it was close at full compression you could route something like 1/3" out of the wall in the area it might hit, and the fender would cover the ugliness.
That would allow a shorter hub face distance, keeping the trailer as slim as possible. I'm now worried a little about hitting 80" width, which I saw somewhere on here can lead to stricter lighting rules.