Crushing Harbor Freight axle

[123jay]

crushing Harbor Freight axle
I have the 40 &1/2" by 48" Harbor Freight frame and I got the 40 &1/2"wide fiberglass m100 kit .I want to put taller tires on.
So the co. I got the kit from dose a 38 1/2"kit.So my plan was to go with a narrow kit so if I get a flat it won't hurt anything.
After reading the post how a different manufacturer cut the 4' x8' down to 401/2" by 72" it did not look that hard.
So tore my trailer apart to do my first cut .happen to look at the axle . If I move the springs inboard the U bolts will tighten just on the light C frame.When the springs at the 401/2" they have the spindle in the C frame make it all one piece after reading 25 pages how they cut the frame down is it wrong to move the Trailer U bolts just to the light c frame

[rowerwet]

a picture is worth a thousand words, if you can post some pictures it would help us understand

[123jay]

As can be seen the axle is a hollow c shape with the spindles at the end. On XXXtop trailer cut down frame posting they say you can move the springs in 4" tighten U bolts just on the c frame . would that not be very week ? .
I want to move just 1" but one U bolts would be on the C frame

[KCStudly]

The U-bolts aren't really trying to crush the legs of the channel beam together, they would be trying to compress them like an accordion. With one U-bolt still on the bearing spindle, you should be okay. If you are still not comfortable with this, find or cut a couple of pieces of steel that just fit inside the channel and (have someone) tack weld those in where the inner U-bolts will land.

[123jay]

thanks for the reply KC I am going to set down think this out some more

[jgrote]

I agree with you; I would not just tighten onto the u-channel. You should be able to find some solid rod pretty cheap. Stuff it in there and tighten it up and you should be fine. If you have the means to weld it in even better, but I don't think it would be all that necessary. Your only other option would be to cut the axle in half in the middle, cut out the amount you need to lose, weld back together and add extra metal to the cut. Do you want to just move the springs or actually make the axle narrower?

[angib]

Bear in mind that as you move the springs inwards, you are increasing the overhang from the spring to the wheel centre, which increases the bending load on the axle. You are probably increasing the overhang by a third (to 4/3) so you should downrate the axle by at least a quarter (to 3/4).

Throw in an 'off-road' factor and you should be assuming the trailer carrying capacity is now half of what HF rated it for.

[123jay]

Thank you everyone for the input may have save a life .I wonder how many will flow the frame cut down post. .I think it better to just leave the trailer alone . I realize the post on cutting the frame down is just a running advertisement. Again thank you