ok heres the deal, my trail rig is too wide for most standard built trailers and a custom width one is going to run me 7k that I don't have, what i do have is a steel deck off a truck 8 feet wide by 11 long, it uses 6 inch channel iron under it for support, I'm thinking I could box in the channel for strength, use the stock 1 ton springs hangers and axle with the duallys and just add a hitch to the front. my only worries are how will a 6 or 7 thousand pound single axle trailer tow and how does one rig up brakes on it? I have hydraulic brakes on the axle but no way to actuate them.
any suggestions please?

How it handles will depend a lot on getting it correctly balanced (10-15% of total weight on the ball) and what you tow it with.

The brakes are easy. Buy a surge brake actuator from any trailer supplier. These use the inertia of the trailer to apply the brakes whenever it tries to overrun the tug. See most any larger boat trailer (or even tandem axle U-hauls) for an example. The front of your tongue will need to be a mono-beam (vs. A-frame) for most of these, but you can bring in the A-arms a foot or so back.

Real, honest to god, trailer running gear is not teriibly expensive, and it will be easy to get correct weight rated springs, etc, as well as find repair parts for.

you can pick up mobile home axles (id say 3 of em) some with brakes some without for about $75 per axle... thats what i would do.

Hunter

Originally posted by xjpart2
you can pick up mobile home axles (id say 3 of em) some with brakes some without for about $75 per axle... thats what i would do.

Hunter

Mobile home axles use a goofy wheel and tire size. The tires are rated to run for a hundred or so miles at 30-40 mph or something like that. Get boat trailer axles or order axles from Northern tool.

where do you get mobile home axles that cheap and do they come with rims and tires? I imagine rims for that would cost. I already have a coupler for it but thats set up for electric brakes, havn't been able to find a surge brake actuator with enough load capacity, I assume my truck is in the 5k lbs range and the trailer is at least another 1000, so say a 7500lb hitch is in order?
the truck is a 96 dodge ram 4x4 with cummins. probably spend most of the summer with both the camper in the back and the trailer on the hitch.
has anyone ever seen an electrically actuated master cylynder maybe?

Originally posted by xjpart2
you can pick up mobile home axles (id say 3 of em) some with brakes some without for about $75 per axle... thats what i would do.

Hunter

These aren't as easy to find as they used to be since most home dealers actually rent them to you when you buy a mobile home/modular. The axles get pulled and taken back when you have your trailer dropped.
Besides that most of the ones I've seen are around 9' wide!


Originally posted by Brawler

Mobile home axles use a goofy wheel and tire size. The tires are rated to run for a hundred or so miles at 30-40 mph or something like that....

Every set I've seen used 15" bias ply tires. I've seen modulars going down the highway at 55+MPH and they go a LOT further then a hundred or so miles. Most modulars here in MI are built out of state so before they even get sold they've gone further then that.


I'd go with the widest standard trailer I could find and build outriggers fore and aft of the axle to handle the extra width of the rig without actually having a wider trailer.

mobile home axles are a joke. Good for their intended purpose and that's about it. Wheels and tires are hard to get, you cant get parts for them, and they break often. If you're going to build it, build it right. Get some good oiler axles with brakes and build sturdy 10 ga drive over fenders. Also build it 102" wide and drive careful on those back roads:flipoff2:

try this link for good trailer parts.

http://www.redneck-trailer.com/

The best deal I can find for supplies is from Southwest wheel down in Texas. I am getting the 6 lug axles (cause I have a set of wheels and tires off a chevy) one with idler hubs and one with brakes, all the springs,hangers, and such plus a hitch for 500 shipped to me. Around here I would pay 600+ for just the axles. I figure steel is gunna cost me about 300 max cause I'm just running a skeleton frame and some runners to drive up on and strap it down. So for $800 you got a trailer that fits a fullwidth vehicle on it with brakes and can easily get parts for it if you need to.

ok I found a 10,000 lb surge brake setup so that cures most of my worries, the only thing I am still concerned about is how it will handle with a single axle? I used to tow a demo car on one but I was young and stupid so it tended to bounce a lot, is that normal with single axle or was it just that setup?

why not put another axle under it (the second does not have to have brakes (anybody arround Dallas needing boat trailer axles pm me i happen to have 15 of them (i will sell a whole boat trailer for 200$)

Brian

not sure about hwere you guys live, but for some reason an hour radius fro me is the mobile home capital of the east coast or so it seems. as for durability, yeah im sure you could pay a lot more and get somehting better, but my pops has a tripple axle gooseneck he hauls between 4-6 tons loads of timber on. has 40k miles on the trailer at least, and no problems to date. maybe its a rare instance or not but it works and parts are all over the place around here. as for width the axles come 3 different widths..9' 8.5' and 8' i beleive ( im guessing those are for single wide, double wide, and tripple wide sections :question: )


Hunter

Originally posted by ForestCam


Every set I've seen used 15" bias ply tires. I've seen modulars going down the highway at 55+MPH and they go a LOT further then a hundred or so miles. Most modulars here in MI are built out of state so before they even get sold they've gone further then that..

All the mobile home axles I have seen had 14.5 inch tires..

Couple of links:

How to Build Trailers Vol 1 & Vol 2 can be found at Northern Tools Web Site (http://www.northerntool.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/CategoryDisplay?cgrfnbr=166846&cgmenbr=6970&PHOTOS=on)

Note these books do NOT have plans, but a whole ton of good information collected all in one place if you plan on building your own.

If you are looking for plans, take a look at: Tuf Industries plans

Plans on eBay (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/ebayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1812573976&r=0&t=0)

I bought a set, and they would save me lots of time with trying to figure out a few things. Naa, you don't need a roll back bed for a trail rig (who needs ramps for a trail rig trailer?). Still I was impressed with these plans as they obviously have details of little "oh, sh!t I need.... " already figured out.

Third: GOING OUT OF STATE? California is really nasty about trailers being too wide. You may find yourself in the middle of the state and getting your "too wide trailer" impounded. Yes it has happened. :(

What are you towing all this with? To make a flat deck ON TOP of some tires means lots of weight up high. Not cool if you are in the mountains.

Tom :usa:

I found an electrically controlled master specifically to convert surge to electric brakes. I can't recall the place, but it was one of the online places. I think it was like $300.

Electric brakes are so much nicer than surge.

the trailer will be a few inches shy of 8 feet wide overall and seeing as thats the max width everywhere that I know of I should be ok. height is not a concern, i plan to run the tires right up thru the deck, I can run em over when loading unloading, this will be done specifically to keep weight down low.
yeah electric would be nice but if I am going that route I am going with teh expensive linear setup and that would require axles with electric brakes. I'd probably just modify a stock trailer if i had one with the capacity I need.
yeah a second axle would be nice but then I'd have to buy them as well right?

Make sure to use two axles. A single axle trailer will tow horrible down the road with a vehicle on top of it. The only way it would maybe tow decent is with a fifth wheel. I don't know if you have checked into axles yet but I would consider torsion axles if I were building one. I built a 24' fish house last spring with one axle and it tows horrible (to be expected with the lenght). I would have loved to use two axles but the pivot the axle swivel's on wouldn't allow me! Torsion axles are relatively inexpensive and have the suspension built into them, thus allowing your trailer to ride a few inches lower than one with leaf's. You can even order them with the degree (location of axle shaft in relation to the center line of the axle)of your choice built into them!

:beer:

Here is a link explaining them http://www.al-kousa.com/prod_rubsus.htm

It is with good reason that a lot of people, me included, who have dealt with adapted automotive axles, mobile home axles, etc. are telling you to go with standard trailer hardware. I can't see it costing you more than $1-200 more than you are looking at to get some jerry-rig on the road...probably not even that much.

Data point for you to compare to price of just a surge coupler, brake lines and fittings:

Northern Tool item 124258-C159:
6000# rated axle w/springs and electric brakes, 6 lugs on 5.5" circle. spring pads 70" center-center, hub faces 87.5" apart. $299.99.

Might not include hangers and shackles, which would be another $13

You could go up to 7000# rating, 92" wide for not much more.

Or for maybe $100 more you could get tandem running gear. (2X 3500# axles, 4 springs, 2 ea hubs, 2ea electric brakes on rear only) not counting another pair of tires though. Tires may not run much more, as you will have few choices for load range E tires for the single axle. You need to look at weight ratings on the tires. Much better to run tandems at 50-75% of tires max rating than single axle at 100+%. If you tow into remote areas, you can chain a wheel up and limp out if you blow a bearing or some such.

I get any of this stuff at at least two different local places for just as cheap as Northern (if not less) and save the shipping. Also it is easy and no extra cost to get axles made up any length you want. And repair parts are available within 50 miles of danged near anywhere.

It generally isn't a good idea to use trailer axles, but if you intend to I believe that sixroblees sells a kit to convert the hubs over to a six lug chevy.
A standard measurement to use when building a trailer is tha the center of the axle or axles is 1 inch behind the center for every foot of length. If your trailer is 16 feet long then the center of the axles will be 9ft. 4 inches from the front of the trailer. (This is the measurement for a bumper pull not a goose neck) another thing is that the tongue should be square with the axles this is also an important part of how it will pull. The deck it's se;f can be any where and any shape that you want but the toungue and axle must be square.
I do not recomend using hydraulic brakes because of the tendancy not to be albe to back up. Buy regular axles and a brake controller. I have built one single axle dual wheel trailer and the indiviual that bought it was very pleased with it.
If you have any other questions I would be glad to answer them for you just PM me

BTW 7k sounds like someone isn't planning on using ky on you:D

A standard measurement to use when building a trailer is tha the center of the axle or axles is 1 inch behind the center for every foot of length.

Is this including the hitch or is it just the actual "usable" length?? The floor of mine will be 20' and 23 and change including the hitch.

the reason i am asking is because i have bought a trailer that the dude had started to build for 2 jeeps, but i am going to tow just my 5300# K5, so i am going to chop-off the last 8' and relocate the axles forward ('cause if i dont, the axles will be at the VERY end of the trailer, plus, he made it tilt and i the part that tilts will not hold any weight). I have been searching for the "Ideal" formula to move them, and what you just said seems to be the best i have heard yet.

thanks rob

yeah I wasn't too amused by that figure either. as I am leery of the towing habits for single axle I'm gonna do tandem, depending on what axles I can find locally will decide surge or electric. you can back up with some surge brake hitches, they have a solinoid that blocks the action when the backup lights come on.

Originally posted by yield2me


I have been searching for the "Ideal" formula to move them, and what you just said seems to be the best i have heard yet.

thanks rob
Check out this page for the Magic Formula (http://www.redneck-trailer.com/pdf/A/select_axles.pdf)

harley m had some good advise.

1st find a company that delivers mobile homes.
(not the company that sells mobile homes a
company that delivers them!

they will sell you a axel cheep

2 buy a convershion kit from six roblees

3 make a single axel trailer whith out
springs.

basicaly 4 pads that sit below the axel
for the tires to sit on .
whith ramps to drive over the axel.

a lot of peopple around here have built
these trailers and they work great

and are cheep to build

You better check your local laws, somtimes your Dept. of licensing
won't license new trailers that use mobile home axles with Calif. style wheels.
It would also tow a lot better with at least two axles.
I've seen too many trailers flip over because they start waving back and forth out of control
You've got a lot of money In your junk, wreck It on the trails not the road.