bartmac wrote:Not that hard to bend an axle back....some chain and a jack Id reckon....hardest part is figure where its bent and how to apply the force so as to not make a pretzel out of it....done it on hydraulic cylinders out of tilt trays 4-5 metres long....there's always someone who wants to bend them or fit them without a stop tube....hardest part then is how much will it spring back so you have to over bend it ever so slightly
Pretty much Bartmac
There was plenty of heavy machinery around and a couple of 20 ton jacks but we first tried to drill a hole in the dugout wall and put some heavy steel bits in the holes, I said it wouldn't work and I was right unless the object was to remove a great slab of the wall
They are very very strong axles trust me and yes the springback was a big problem, it was incredible how far over it had to be bent considering we were only bending the last 6", it was so easy to bend by hitting the post in the rest stop I thought it would be easy, there was a press in town but even if it could be done it would have meant waiting at least three days.
The biggest problem was getting it all back together (to measure) and then dismantling time and time again, if you are going to travel in this country you need to be able to fix basic problems or have big pockets.
The young bloke went across to Alice along the oodnadatta track and blew a tyre at William Creek on his camper trailer (std ford 14") $250 later he had a tyre that would probably not pass roadworthy, He got to Alice with a broken spring hanger $1000 later for two new springs and fitting.
Met a bloke near Hilston NSW it cost him $2500 to get a distributor diagnosed and a new one fitted but he supplied the distributor from Melb to Onslow WA and then it cost him another $200 to get the compressor solenoid wire put back on so his aircond would work the whole old mazda van wouldn't have cost that.
is 10 months old and the tyres supplied have done a little over 3000km. Already the inside tread is feathering on both wheels. I put on my unused 3rd tyre for my return home and the internal structure completely collapsed at 90kph on a shallow bend. No warning. Just collapsed! 
The trailer handled it well fortunately. 
I have had two tyre dealers in Queanbeyan and Bowral look at the tyres and they showed me how the tyres are domed and uneven in the tread. So two new tyres from a branded manufacturer later I am on the road again. Has anyone had similar problems?
