Thread: Drop axle on caravan

Originally Posted by bacicat

Ok, but what if the steel is brand new and dry? What's the best way of ensuring it won't rust in the long run? Am I just better off sealing the front so it doesn't get full of water every time it rains, but leave the back open for it to air?

You have two choices. Either seal up the tubes to the extent that they hold pressure and fill them with dry air or nitrogen, or leave them open so they dry out at the earliest opportunity. Preventing mud from gathering in the tube is a good idea so I'd suggest perhaps covering each end but leaving a significant downwards facing opening at each end. My car trailer has now spent 35 years out in the weather and most of the open tubes are just fine. The only rust that's been a problem is in lapped joins.

You can close the open end at the front as Bee utey said..
But yes, leave something open.

Boat trailer manufacturers tries this years ago and it made them rot out quicker.

End plate the front, leave a gap at the bottom to flush it out, and then por 13 or paint/lanotec/waxoil the internals...

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

Have you thought about stone ricochets off the tyre?
Just thinkin

oh, and how about a pic underneath

Spare is almost exactly where the factory put it 40 years ago, so not expecting any issues. Anyway, I would have thought a tyre was designed to stand up to a stone or two.

I'll get a pic underneath tomorrow - just for you.

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

one of these with a lot of diesel should work,,
you may have to park it outside for a while though

Where else would I park it? I can barely fit a motor bike in my garage... Unfortunately it will be gone from its undercover haven in a few days and back to roughing it in the driveway.

Ricochets can be dangerous to the towing vehicle, more so for vehicles towing on gravel roads. Many off road campers have a deflector to force stones down and away from the trailer stopping ricochets off the trailer and onto the tow vehicles rear door glass. Not much glass on the back of the 101.

Repeat post.

FWIW...I fitted a 4m length of 6mm drip irrigation hose with a 360 deg. spray , threaded it through the draw bar and connected the hose via homemade connector to one of those $10 centrifugal pumps which fit an electric drill. I dipped the pump input hose into a container of Lanotec and while the spray was operating pulled the hose through the draw bar sections. I then let it dry and repeated the process. I re-treat every couple of years. About 150ml is all that's needed for each side. No rust, it is always in the weather...

New drawbar finally all fully welded in. Mostly painted, but I ran out of paint, so a few bits underneath still need doing tomorrow night.

So, a few more pics.

A couple of shots of underneath - where the drawbar ties to the spring hangers and the extra crossmember welded between the main chassis rails. This also serves to stop the floor flexing above it - it was quite bad with me stepping on it, but now is rock solid. These pics are before it was fully welded.




A bit of welding porn... My mate is a much better welder than me.... The grotty bits at each end were my tacks... He wasn't happy with them and wanted me to grind them off and start again. He's a perfectionist, but I like that when it comes to things like this. I did get away with it - just.


All painted and looking pretty.