Another dumb axle question

[shoeman]

I just found out I have a local tire/trailer store that sells Dexters. They get them through Redneck. The folks behind the counter are pleasant but not real knowledgeable about this stuff. The redneck catalog shows some decent basic 13" wheels that will take hubcaps. The issue is that the wheels have a half inch inset, and they cannot tell me if that will clear the arm on the axle.
But!! They sell SnoPro trailers with those same axles, so on the way out I poked around the yard and was able to eyeball some Dexter axles in the flesh. It looks like there is a large distance between the wheel flange and the torsion arm so wheel clearance is not an issue. The trailer I looked at had dinky wheels, like 8 or 10" and the spindle (I call it that I guess) was long!
My question is: is that a dimension I can spec from Dexter or is that non-negotiable?
This is the last item on the axle dimension that is bugging me.

[brian_bp]

While it may be possible to spec the spindle length, I doubt that it is necessary. 1/2" offset (wheel centre inboard of hub face; this is "inset" in the terms used by Redneck in their wheel catalog) is the normal Dexter configuration. Unless the wheel is unusually wide, it should fit, and all of the 13" wheels listed in that Redneck catalog are 4.5" to 5.5" wide; perhaps it is the WH1345-50E which is planned... that's only 4.5" wide.

I would have expected that the Dexter catalog would have all of the dimensions, but I just checked and the distance from hub face to arm does not seem to be shown.

[shoeman]

Exactly! I have been scouring the Dexter site for days, but that one aspect of the whole package is absent. Even the diagrams gloss over that one dimension.
I know...call Dexter and all will be revealed. That's next on the list, but if your only time to research this is later at night it is not always that easy.
Anybody out there have a number 9 Dexter axle that can comment on the distance from the torque arm and the wheel face and clearance from the arm to their wheel rim??

[G-force]

#9 Torflex, short spindle, minimum overhange (6" each side), 15x5 0 offset steel trailer wheel, ST205-75D15 tires, I got 1 3/8" from rim to torque arm. Tire is aprox 7 1/2" wide, it is outside the end of the torque arm, but if it was a smaller diameter, it would be close to touching as the tire overhangs the rim about 1 1/8" on each side.

[asianflava]

What I ended up doing was buying my wheels and tires before the axle. I measured the actual distance from the tire to the hubface.

I think there is an option for a short spindle. A short spindle would have prevented me from notching the sides so the arms could clear.

Call Dexter and they will walk you thru.

[Esteban]

Dexter's short spindle is 1/2" shorter. I used them on my axle. Dexter will do a "prospec" free to engineer an axle to your specifications. It's a good idea to get one before you order a customized axle from them.

[G-force]

One more thing to note, if you plan on having your walls protrude down over the sides of your frame, your going to need to factor that in when you specify your hub face distance. For example, mine is set at the minimum of 6" overhang on each side, my frame (and thus the spring hangers) are 58" and my hub faces are 70" apart. This leaves about 1/4" of gap between the frame and the inside of the torque arm. My tear body sits on top and is flush with the sides of the frame so the 1/4" is what I wanted. If your going to hange a 3/4" ply walls on the sides, I would bump your hub faces to a minimum of 7" overhang (with the short spindles.)

[shoeman]

Man, this is tying my noggin in knots. Looking at the Dexter info, Overhang is the distance from the outer bracket face to the wheel mount face on the flange, yes?
It seems to me that by spec'ing the bracket dimension and the hubface dimension desired, the overhang would naturally be a result of those specs, and not a variable number.
Once again, either I'm dense or the Dexter literature does not explain that well. I'm going to call them today and get this figured out once and for all.

[G-force]

Thats correct, the difference between the hangers and the hub face dimentions is both overhangs added together. For example, if your frame is 60" wide, order your brackets at 60" wide. The specs from dexter say you can have between 6" overhang to 10.9" (when using the short spindle) That means if your hangers are at 60", your hub face dimention can be 72" minimum to 81.8" maximum. At the minimum, the torque arm barely clears the frame so that is only suitable for trailers that the sides do not mount on the sides of the frame.

[shoeman]

Thats correct, the difference between the hangers and the hub face dimentions is both overhangs added together. For example, if your frame is 60" wide, order your brackets at 60" wide. The specs from dexter say you can have between 6" overhang to 10.9" (when using the short spindle) That means if your hangers are at 60", your hub face dimention can be 72" minimum to 81.8" maximum. At the minimum, the torque arm barely clears the frame so that is only suitable for trailers that the sides do not mount on the sides of the frame.

I've got a 57.75" frame with a deck/wall width of 60" . As long as Dexter knows that I'll be OK I guess.

[shoeman]

One more related question: How much clearance do you guys shoot for between the tire and the body?? 1" ?

I'm starting to get a handle on the concept.

[aggie79]

Shoeman - I'm right there with you.

After about three months of research, I think I've got down the vertical part of spec'ing the Dexter. My design has been floating back and forth between a TD and a TTT and with wheels within the outer walls and wheels on the outside of the outer walls. I finally had to construct a spreadsheet so that I wouldn't get a headache every time I thought of something else.

I haven't started on the width/horizontal calcs yet, but thanks to your thread, I am starting to get a handle on what to consider.

[Nitetimes]

One more related question: How much clearance do you guys shoot for between the tire and the body?? 1" ?

I like to at least be able to get my fingers between the tire and wall up to the second knuckle, so about about 3/4" or more is good.

[2bits]

Here's a pic of what I drew for my axle dimensions. Hopefully a pic is worth a thousand words, you'll also need the frame dimensions so they will know where to put the mounts. Mine has the center to center at 58" but I believe they will actually need the outer to outer measurements.

[shoeman]

I now have my wheels and tires all mounted so I can mock-up my axle dimensions. Sketching it all gave me 70" hub face to hub face, which seems short compared to what I've seen here for most folks. So I'm going to cut a board to 60" (the outside width of my planned shell) and place the wheels to give my 1.5" clearance tire to shell and measure the distance between the hub faces to verify everything.
Once I do that I'll call Dexter and see what they say. This seems to be one of THE most critical aspects of building your own frame and it'll be costly if it gets done wrong.