Trailer Mod Complete

[Highlander]

Yeh if yer a Newfie oop'scan I say that

J

[ecossebob]

Hi folks a useful hint I received from a trailer design engineer.
I added a second axle to my 2001 26x using his advice. I had the same misgivings about correct tongue weight tracking etc and where to put the axles, it's quite simple.
Jack up the trailer, pull off the wheels, axle, springs etc and cut off the old welded spring hangers.
Position and weld the new spring hangers on a couple of lengths of angle steel. Space the hangers on the angle steel according to the specs for your new springs, you know what spacing should be for your old springs. I can't remember what steel size and spacing I used, If anyone is interested I can get the sizes next time I'm at the boat.
Mount the assemblies under the trailer frame, position them so the center hanger is positioned midway between the old hanger positions, this gives you a good starting position. Attach it to the frame using Ubolts. Don't tighten them up fully. I think 2ft spacing was what I used.
Mount your axles and wheels, drop the trailor to the ground and measure your tongue wieght. If it is acceptable tighten the Ubolts up fully.
If not jack up the trailer so the wheels are off the ground and use a come along to pull the assemblies to the position you want. If you position the center hanger to where the old axle was you will probobly be ok. Make sure the positions of the hangers are identical for both sides or your tracking will be off.
This was the method use by trailer builders to easily make custom rigs out of standard rigs when the weight distribution of the load was fixed and not controlable by moving it around.
Hope this gives you some ideas.
Thanks for listening Bob.

[Boblee]

Hi folks a useful hint I received from a trailer design engineer.
I added a second axle to my 2001 26x using his advice. I had the same misgivings about correct tongue weight tracking etc and where to put the axles, it's quite simple.
Jack up the trailer, pull off the wheels, axle, springs etc and cut off the old welded spring hangers.
Position and weld the new spring hangers on a couple of lengths of angle steel. Space the hangers on the angle steel according to the specs for your new springs, you know what spacing should be for your old springs. I can't remember what steel size and spacing I used, If anyone is interested I can get the sizes next time I'm at the boat.
Mount the assemblies under the trailer frame, position them so the center hanger is positioned midway between the old hanger positions, this gives you a good starting position. Attach it to the frame using Ubolts. Don't tighten them up fully. I think 2ft spacing was what I used.
Mount your axles and wheels, drop the trailor to the ground and measure your tongue wieght. If it is acceptable tighten the Ubolts up fully.
If not jack up the trailer so the wheels are off the ground and use a come along to pull the assemblies to the position you want. If you position the center hanger to where the old axle was you will probobly be ok. Make sure the positions of the hangers are identical for both sides or your tracking will be off.
This was the method use by trailer builders to easily make custom rigs out of standard rigs when the weight distribution of the load was fixed and not controlable by moving it around.
Hope this gives you some ideas.
Thanks for listening Bob.

Not far off what I did Bob (2006 steel trailer) except we bolted and welded the frame in place once position, been away so haven't been following this and with so many points that could be addressed will only do a couple.
As to how ratings are deterimined that will depend on where in the world you are but the lowest rating component will determine the final rating, for us it is basically tyres with a single axle you have to go to much higher profile and that means a deeper launching place, which is not always possible here so yes eventually we went tandem but for other reasons too.
Single verse tandem? bend/break a tandem axle and you are stuck unlesss your remaining axle can carry all the load where depending on bend a single axle can still travel even if tyres are sacrificed, maybe not important where help is easily available but help could be 1000 k's away here.
The standard single axle trailer (steel anyway) is basically just a local launching trailer without extensive mods especially if loading is more than an extra 100kg, re the flexing (steel) thats ok for normal loads imho but not when on rough roads with larger loads without at least good tie downs to prevent bouncing and damage, with aluminium I would be worried about flexing from my experience with it stressing and fracturing?

Yeh if yer a Newfie oop'scan I say that

Really enjoyed the stories our daughter told us about her stay there as an exchange student

after fixing the single axle problem,those three tiny lateral supports is what really bothered me,next time your boat is off the trailer look very closely at how really small each contact load bearing point is at those three locations.to me the 2-3 sq inch patches of crushed carpet bunk showed how concentrated the load was at those points.My next project was to convert to longitudinal bunks like a conventional trailer and also added three additional lateral support beams to alum i-beams.

I added another bunk between the two rear ones and scalloped them a bit to give better bearing surface.
We have a mid 2006 trailer and it was steel not alum but also had brakes for local regs but once rating goes over 2000kg must be braked on all wheels and be electric actuated not hydraulic but ok to use an electric actuator for hydraulic brakes.