LR stub axles for trailer

[roverrescue]

Have searched a bit and not really come up trumps so Ill just jump in.

After nearly 5 years, with 10 - 15 trips up the cape and onto its 3rd set of poxy "trailer springs" my bush boat trailer did the twist, at 80 kays the other day.

Im left with a chassis that is relatively straight, all other components (axle, shock absorber towers, fish plates and springs) bent or broken...

Seems the perfect time to beef things a little. Ive never really been happy with the ride of the short trailer springs and up this a way most off road boat trailers flog around on hilux front leaf springs... so after a yarn at Cairns Springworks Im getting a pair of front luxs sorted out. Ive a pair of eye-to-eye shock absorbers so that will be easy too...

So the next bit is the axle. Up till now Ive been using a 45mm axle running ford slimline bearings and un-braked LR hubs. Im a bit over repacking/ replacing the bearings before every trip and see the opportunity to upgrade the running gear. In the shed I have a pair of LR (off the disco) stub axles, and hubs, with bearings. If I knock up an Al blanking plate in place of the drive flange, with a tapped hole in the centre. I can see me running rover bearings all round (130 and boat), and whats better oil filled trailer bearings which hopefully will last a little longer than one trip and a few months. The axle proper for the trailer will then obviously be say some 50mm solid bar with 10mm flanges welded to each end with the 6 hole bolt pattern for the stub axles.

If this is such a great idea :) why does it seem no one does it????

regards
Steve

[hook]

Your not alone.
This is what I'm doing.
Only have to carry one type of bearing, rims, tyres,other parts etc.

[Blknight.aus]

mate it works like a dream....

but dont go oil filled on a trailer, if it sits for a while the top half of the seal dries out and when it turns the oil gets thrown out.

since you wont be using the drive flange correclty weld it up and then drill and tap a grease nipple into it. then Every time your about to go out give it a single shot of grease.

when you jsut start to get the grease flicking up from the seal dont add any more untill you pull them down to repack them and then its a case of rinse and repeat.

[roverrescue]

Hmm, I had thought of the half bearing sitting out of the oil bath... what about an oil / grease blend???? I really dont like grease nipples on boat trailer hubs for there lovely habit of unseating the seal letting in the salt.

will measure up the 130 tommorrow and get onto making the axle. long shot but anyone know the distance from flange to flange (not including stubs) for a sals axle???

steve

[Davo]

Lots of people have done that . . . they just tend to use Toyota parts!!! :p

I'll be doing the same thing, whenever I get around to it. (Er, with Landie, not Toyo parts though.) I did have a trailer once with grease-nippled hub caps and that worked really well, and it was a trailer that sat around a bit, too, but the bearings were fine anyway.

Now I just need an engine that could actually pull a trailer. :(

[Blknight.aus]

will measure that tomorrow and yes the one shot semifluid grease is great in bearings but I dont advocate using it for boat trailer bearings as it really really really does not like water...

in sort of the same way that burning aluminium doesnt like water.

[JDNSW]

I have had the same idea in the back of my mind for several years now. I am thinking about the possibility of making the actual axle from two long section axle housing halves welded together. I will actually be using Series bits, as I have plenty of them.

My current box trailer is running on Series hubs and bearings with adapters I turned up to fit the original axle. The drive flanges have press fit blanking pieces blocking the hole, but you could even use two mudguard washers with a bolt through the middle and some silicone gasket sealer.

One point worth bearing in mind is that the bearings will have a much larger load safety margin - remember these bearings operate quite happily on the rear of a 130, and few if any trailers would have an axle loading approaching that.

John

[roverrescue]

Yeah John, the axle loading is one of the reasons i think the ford slimlines are flogging out so readilly on those wonderful cape corries... will take a few photos and measurements, being a boat trailer the springs, hangers, shackles, guards will be mounted to a 50X50X6mm angle cradle which will get gal dipped then bolted to the trailer chassis. Once im happy with the loading position I will tack weld the cradle for corrie gaurding.

steve

[roverrescue]

Well the axle is getting machined up.

For future reference a LR axle from flange of stub to flange of stub is ~1386mm.

The only real issue is then to work out wheel offsets. I want the trailer to +/- track with the 130, but the trailer wheels are disco so I jiggled my axle length to allow for the deeper offset on the disco rims, 20mm bigger offset per wheel, so my axle is going to be 1425mm.

To make the trailer axle flanges less complicated the inner part of the stub axles will be machined down, all they will leave is the 5mm locating lip, the axle will be machined to accept this. Obviously that will make the stub axles "custom" but I figure they will last a long time and Ill probably never have to replace them.

While Brad is doing all this machining I am getting him to ream out the splines in a pair of old drive flanges. I will cap the flanges off with a filler for the trailer but they will also double as "free wheeler hub" say if i do a diff or a CV... rather than pulling axles (maxis not so easy to pull)/ CV out bush I can just rattle off the drive shaft, swap the maxi flanges on the 130 to the non engaging trailer flanges and run in 2WD??? never know when it will come in handy!

will whack up piccies once the job is done.

Steve

[Lucus]

Weld up the inside of the stub axle with a piece of 6mm plate. Tap a 1/4 ntpf thread. Run a remote line through the diff housing and up and out the top. Run the line to a convinient central location (that wont get submerised to avoid salt entry) and fit grease nipples to the line. Prime the lines and fill the hubs. Voila simple to grease and water proof....:D

[roverrescue]

Yeah, I had thought of going through the stub... but being a trailer axle there is no diff, and the axle is 50x50 solid bar. By dead reckoning there will be at least 50mm of drilling the end stock before clearing flanges etc etc... just seems like hard work. I have found that a 1 1/2 in gal water pipe threaded cap with a bit of love will weld nicely to the outside of a standard LR drive flange... then Ill tap the outside of it for oil/grease.
Steve

[p38arover]

What I don't understand is that is apparently illegal to use a rear axle housing from a Land Rover as a trailer axle.

I saw a trailer build up in a RR club mag where they used it to cary a spare diff for trips away.

[roverrescue]

Ron,
before I moved to Qld, I vaguely recall a small trailer law in NSW stating that trailer axles needed to be solid bar, not welded, not bolted. This was about 10 years ago and laws change.

In QLD there does not appear to be a law against welded axles (can buy drop axles etc etc) and like wise bolted stubs. Brad at Cairns Springsworks did say a welded stub to a tube, think gal water pipe although technically strong enough would be frowned upon.

When building a small trailer in QLD, unbraked under 750kg it is the manufacturers responsibility for roadworthiness. I reckon an old landy axle would make a great axle if you didnt mind the pumpkin?? Certainly stronger than say the normal 45mm stock bar of a boat trailer... and spring mounts would be light years stronger again???

Steve

[Lucus]

I think the back half of an an old disco/rangie chassis with an a frame attached would make a fantastic trailer. Coils springs, disc brakes, same stud pattern as the car. I cant fathom what so wrong about using a diff housing out of a car as an axle assembly?:(

[p38arover]

think gal water pipe although technically strong enough would be frowned upon.

Steam tube maybe, galv water pipe....hmmmm!



I reckon an old landy axle would make a great axle if you didnt mind the pumpkin?? Certainly stronger than say the normal 45mm stock bar of a boat trailer... and spring mounts would be light years stronger again???

A great way to carry spare axles and a diff. :D


I think the back half of an an old disco/rangie chassis with an a frame attached would make a fantastic trailer. Coils springs, disc brakes, same stud pattern as the car. I cant fathom what so wrong about using a diff housing out of a car as an axle assembly?:(

I guess the disavantage would be the weight of an old chassis.