i have a camper trailer frame im turing into a righauler and need advise.

it currently has 3 axles on it all 3500# axles and 2 have brakes. trailer is 25 ft long. this will be for towin my jeep and some times some quads as well or gear.

im about to start on the deck but currently with three axles the jeep is not long enuf to clear them all so if i did drive over fenders i would have the jeep on the fender(front or rear) while towing.

options
-run like that
-take out dead axle so it clears
-raise frame into a deck over

im in ca so as far as i have read 3 axles are fine as long as trailer does not exceed 10k#


thanks!

-raise frame into a deck over


that is what i would do if you have the resources. construction is much less time consuming,and the end result is cleaner and more versatile without fenders sticking up if you can end up with a completely flat deck. if not,youll still have shorter drive over fenders :)

I started with a basic travel trailer. It had 4" drop axles and was sprung under. The get a full deckover, I swapped to straight axle beams, and went with a sping over. Im about 30" to the top of the deck. Works out great for a crawler or atvs.

lop the third axle off..........you dont need three axles for one rig.
save money on two less tires and less drag and less scrub.
deck over is nice but the cost of materials versus just removing an axle???
also a lower center of gravity is nicer

lop the third axle off..........you dont need three axles for one rig.
save money on two less tires and less drag and less scrub.
deck over is nice but the cost of materials versus just removing an axle???
also a lower center of gravity is nicer

i know the two axles are enuf for just the jeep but bein that the trailer is so long if i decided to add anything on in the future would the two axles rule it out? like a small camper or pop up on the front?

youll need 3 axles if they are 3500#ers and you want to leave the trailer 25 feet long,unless you swap out the 3500 # for something bigger. youll also prolly need to move them. most campers(ALL the camper frames weve made trailers from) have their axles pretty close to centered,and leaving them in place will render the back portion of the trailer useless. if you dont want to do some figuring out of what you want to carry,and what it will weigh,and move the axles to the optimal spot,you might as well,take out an axle,and cut the rear frame down to a point where the axles are properly located,and keep the trailer for 1 rig.

as far as cost of materials- unless you were planning to screw down 2x's without adding any additional crossmembers or outriggers,youre gonna hafta buy materials either way.

depends somewhat on what you have layin around and what you can get cheap/free/recycled,but you wont really need much extra material to do a deckover.

youll need channel or box tubing for crossmembers. angle,channel or flatstock for the outside rails. angle or box tubing for diagonals down to the main frame.

youre gonna need all that to build the deck right on top of the frame. the only difference is that you can get away with some shorter pieces to fit inside the frams rails,and you can use shorter pieces to make the outriggers from,so you dont need to find X pieces of material(i like them at 18" apart) that are all the same and X inches long to use as crossmembers on top of the frame.

i personally like the usefullness of a deckover with very small or no fenders. id rather have a high deck height than a low trailer with gi-normous fenders i have to drive over and load things around. as i mentioned,construction of the deck-over deck is alot less time consuming.

my 2 cents,for what theyre worth :)

I'm in the process of the samething mines gpt 2 6 lug axles and some where in the 20ft range. I'm just gonna chop it down to like 18ft and throw some c channel across it for the decking to bolt to and strenght. then just make some small drive over fenders 6/8 inches high should clear or may be a soa might be enough for a deck over design

is their a big stability difference on a deck over?

i know it depends on how much squat but how much room would need to be above the tires?

the trailer used to be longer and axles were centered. we have takin around 5 feet off the trailer to the right length and dove tailed the back.

when turning into a deck over what are the best methods of lifting? longer leafspring mounts? change to spring over with blocks?

when im refering to deckover in the above posts,im talking simply about the method of deck construction. you do not have to lift it at all,if you dont want to. a deckover doesnt have to be completely flat-it can have small drive over fenders incorporated if you want it to.

to clarify:
a non-deckover trailer has the crossmembers and outriggers incorporated into,the main frame rails. you will cut the crossmembers to length,put them inside the frame rails,then weld to each frame rail. then you will cut the outriggers and weld them to the outside of the main framerail.

in a deckover design you will cut the crossmembers to the width of the deck you want,place them atop the main framerails and weld them on. this is why i keep saying the deckover is much faster and easier to build-you spend alot less time cutting and fitting smaller pieces. if your main frame rails arent tall enuff to clear the style/mounting system of your axles,you can simply put a drive over fender overtop. in this situation ill put a crossmember right in front,and right behind the axles to support the fender,even if it screws up the 18" spaceing slightly. with tripple axles youll want 2 short(frame width) crossmembers between these 2,to support the deck between the fenders.

having said all that,if you want a completely flat deck(wich is definately nice) and need to lift the trailer some,it depends on how much you need. if you have drop axles,trade them for straight axles,that will get you 5-6" right there. there is almost always someone with a higher trailer that wants it to be low that will swap you.

after that,if your axles are SUA,spring them over.

after that,or if you just need a couple of inches,cut your hangers off and space them downward on piece of 2" box tubing. more than 2" id construct a subframe(big square) with cross pieces to keep the axles from leveraging on the tubing the hangers are mounted on and twist it away from the main frame.

hope that clarifys some things :)

are you working on a bumperpull or a 5th wheel frame? not that it matters much to the discussion,just curious :)

bumper pull, it all just clicked in my head thanks for goin into detail

so where are the pics of said frame?

as soon as i build a gate area to keep it on my property then ill do a lil build thread on it with all the pics you want lol

cool. looking forward to seein pics :smokin:

just came across a 10k dexter HD torsion axle with 3k miles on it for 300 bucks... so.... ditch mine for the single or just run my 3?

I'd definitely want at least two axles just for stability. Plus the trailer itself might not be built to handle all its weight going down in one spot instead of three spots.

I had same issue.. I decided to run all 3 axles to be safe on weight and then built drive over fenders

my jeep front tires will be up on fenders while in transit

http://www.impaks.com/images/ken/camper/100_5915.jpg

http://www.impaks.com/images/ken/camper/100_5914.jpg