Dexter makes a hub and drum that converts MH axles to 6 lug GM pattern, and has better bearings. The bearings are expensive though, about $100 per wheel. The center of gravity of a loaded trailer is generally at the top of the tires, unless the deck is higher than the tires.
OK, I'll p*** on this one, finding a car trailer up here for under a grand is few and far between and right next to impossible. Jim, I'll talk to you on Sunday for sure. I'll be towing my lightweight t-bucket and the 41 truck more than anything. My back is screwed but I'd love to take the T back to Missouri to blast around the old hometown. That's why it'd be towed, but seems like over the past couple years I've needed a trailer for something or another and couldn't borrow one. I will be towing with my 02 extended cab Z-71 with a 5.3/tow package in it. Oh, one more thing I've had a CDL A for over 20 years so I understand the downfalls of a nonbalanced load...lol
I don't know what a design life is. What happens at 5000 miles, does the tubing fail, the hubs, wheels, tires? If I were an engineer, I would want to know what caused the failure, rather than telling lawyers once a week that it isn't our problem. I fully understand backyard builders making blunders, but I think the mobile home axles have their place in the hobby, used with common sense.
As an engineer I can tell you that design life is in almost every commercial component that you buy. Companies build in design life to sell more product, if they sold something that will last forever, they won't be selling many of that product in the long run, you will sell a lot of product to new customers for 2-3 years, but no returning customers. If the product is designed for a 5 year life, pretty good chance you would be buying a new one in about 5 years. This way they get new customers and also returning customers, increasing sales at the same time as reducing the cost of making the same product. On the axles, my quess is they most likely they use under-size bearings. By using an smaller, undersized bearing they keep costs down. The properly sized bearing will support a load for a calculated time and at a certain speed. By using a smaller bearing, they can design something to handle the same load and at the same speed, but sacrificing the time before failure.
That trailer looks heavy-like heavy enough to carry a backhoe-If you just want to haul cars-something lower and a little lighter might be easier to tow
Gee, I guess seven years' experience in selling and servicing car haulers and other trailers counts me in as "uninformed" then...
Swade41; Theories don't count much when it comes to wheel bearings and axle cross-section. On any used trailer the first thing to do is repack the wheel bearings. What the axles came off hasn't got a ****in' thing to do with much of anything............ Towin', buildin' hangin' with guys that tow and build for all my adult life. I'm 73. A good sturdy trailer has very little to do with how it looks. How does it handle behind your tow vehicle? Will it carry the weight of what you intend to haul? Does it fit your budget? Yep. Inspect and repack the wheel bearings. x2. (What is supposed to be wrong with them??) They are cheap and practical and you know, some people think if it don't cost a lot it ain't any good..............
I've looked at those before. The trouble is that by the time you buy those conversion pieces, you've almost bought new trailer axles.
Why convert from perfectly good bearings? NOT! Not with spindles and wheel bearings and wheels and frames, the only components in a trailer. The one thing that will wear after going fifty thousand miles or so is the rotating part, the bearings. Routine maintenance. A no-brainer. The axles on my two '29 rides probably have three or fout hundred thousand miles on them and absent collision damage they'll do that again......... Modern car axles and bearings are made the same basic methods as they were decades ago. Nobody has "re-designed" the Timken Tapered Roller Wheel Style Bearing since Christ was a corporal. Oh yes, they've tried, but they havent' improved on it...... You can't tell me with a straight face that engineers design wheels and frames and tow bars and bearings to have what you call "design live". Give me a break...................
Just finishing up buiding a custom 12,000 lb.GVW trailer to haul my antique John Deere 1010C dozer to the tractor shows. I used mobile home axles. (JUST THE AXLES) because I had a few laying around. You can buy Dexter 8-lug drum/hub ***emblies and 12x2 electric brake ***emblies that will fit the MH axles. Start with a idler axle (no brake MH axle). The biggest part of the conversion is fabricating or modifying a bracket to mount the backing plate. When I got done, I can use the old MH drum/hub ***embly or the new 8-lug drum/hub ***embly. Another route that might work is to find late model axles with good brakes and buy the 8-lug Drum/hub.The secret is to measure your wheel bearings to be compatible to the hubs and the axles.Here are a few shots of the project
Well, that sure changes my opinion about engineers. I always thought they engineered safety into products and not poor design that will fail so they can sell products.
Like I said the debate could go on forever. This is one of those areas that I think people should just agree to disagree.
Mobile home =Trailer house. one way trip one time most of the times and the axles get pulled out from under them. In Washington State you can't get a new trailer with mobile home axles, hubs and wheels inspected. It isn't axles as much as the hubs and wheels and tires. There are still a lot of them floating around and a lot of those axles get used for farm trailers around here. I'd leave that one to someone who wanted it for a mudder, crawler or similar rig and go find a real car trailer. As several guys said, decent ones can be dirt cheap if you have the cash in hand when they come up for sale. I bought plans for a tilt bed off Ebay about five years ago and haven't used them yet but at the price of steel and torsion axles it may be a lot less expensive to find a used one now.
Not all Mobile home axles are created equal. 20 years ago, they were a light version of a 7000 lb lowboy axle. The new ones are equiped with stamped hubs and drums, wheel bearings abot 1/2 the size of the older ones, and brakes that have really thin linings. The new mobile home tores are the equivilent of the 50 mile spares with similar construction. The older ones I would use without hesitation. the newer ones, not so much. If you shop around, you can find torsion axles complete for the price of good hubs and bearings for a MH axle. And design life is figured into everything. Why build a cell phone with components that will last 20 years when most people throw them away after a year or two at most.
I reject the idea that any ("design" life) tables on such things as wheel bearings, 'house trailer axles' as opposed to 'others', exist, even in the darkest corners of engineering skunk-works. (if my definition of 'design life' is that it was actually designed to fail at a certain point). To do such things would be criminal. Yes, after testing or statistics are gleaned, a "life expectancy" might be established, but giving engineers creedence to actia;;u spend more time/money to 'dumb down' the design of a steel component, axle spindle, wheel, frame girder, or wheel bearing to fail at a given point is lame-brained.
Around here the new MHs get their axles removed and set back to be put under another. They can get alot of use out of them
I'd say run the other way...fast. The price isn't always worth it. How much time, money and knuckles have you put into your ride? Are you willing to risk all of that, plus your life or that of a family member. I say again...run!
Nash, I really don't want to get into a lame-brain discussions as you call them. As an engineer, yes I work under a credence. But that also doesn't release me from designing the products that the company has instructed me to design. If they instruct me to create a object that will NOT be used anything longer than 3 years, it would be against company interest to design it to last a lifetime. It just doesn't make sense to do it. Cars, TV's, cellphones, appliances, list goes all have an "expected life". That expected life is dictated by the quality of materials and manufacturing techniques, all selected by the engineers for life expectancy and cost. Sure that TV may last longer than the expected life, but that is the exception. Yes, it is possible to extend that expected life through increased service, cleaning and repair. Same is true, the axle life can be extended through increased service, But that doesn't change the fact that it wasn't designed to do be used for anything other than a HOUSE TRAILER. Using it for any other purpose VOIDS all warranties and manufacturer responsibility for that product. So , if the axle is used for any other purpose other than it was designed for, the owner (YOU) are responsible for the results. If there is a failure under any use other than a house trailer, it is not the fault of the axle manufacturer, not the fault of the bearing manufacturer, and definitely NOT the fault of the engineer doing his/her job. The criminal act was done by the person using an item as it was not intended!
I have two trailers 16ft and 20 ft. The 16 is built heavier and more rigid but I have to constantly adjust my bindings. The 20 is no problem, both have twin 3500lb axles. I long-haul with the 20. counting the days til the Jalopy showdown WOO HOO! peace
From Dexter axles website. AXLES - Can mobile home axles be reused? The Dexter MH (mobile home) type axle is designed for limited usage in the delivery of manufactured homes and has a one-time limit use. The axle has steel forged spindles that are not precision ground. The brake ***embly is welded onto the beam and not intended to be field replaced. Additionally, the bearing package is smaller than the more expensive service type axle. Most MH axles are also equipped with a single leaf spring suspension for very heavy loads. We do not have components that would convert MH axles to serviceable ***emblies.
well its good to know that if i want to ever buy a mobile home in the future that the axles are good for about 3-4 road trips, and the tires are only good about 2-3 .... whether their **** or not, it really seems like you guys are exagerating a bit.
MOBILE homes, jesus christ i was thinking rvs or those pull behind camper homes. LOL now the claims make more sense. ill just be quite now.
My trailer is a dual height with drive on fenders tapered to match the slight dovetail & loading ramps ... But my center deck width is 80 inches I transport antique tractors, cl***ic cars, rods, tall stepvans So my trailer has an application in the design My advice is to stay away from used trailers in general You have no idea what they were used for previously They could have been overloaded, poorly maintained, abused .... If you do buy a used trailer, consider one someone just bought and hardly used - lots of them available Jim
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