Thread: Drop axle on caravan

Well, I'm calling it a night. Caravan is now 2 feet off the ground, and blocked up safely. Old u bolts cut off and the front of the springs unbolted, so the old axle is ready to come out, but I'm too stuffed to do that tonight.

Old master cylinder is off and in the bin, new one installed. New brake line ready to be run in. If everything bolts up ok I should have new brakes working tomorrow.

Here's a quick question - the chassis is in great condition, but as is very common, it is covered in surface rust. Now I could spend almost forever with a wire brush cleaning it, but if anyone knows an easier way, I'm all ears.

Plan is to clean it up a bit, then coat it in something waterproof like some brush able bitumen or similar.

So, anyone got a brainwave that will save me several days hard graft?

Get a wire brush that bolts onto an angle grinder. Still a nasty job, but a lot faster than hand brushing.

Also, for cleaning the tank, try Borax. We had a water tank that had diesel in it, and Borax removed the diesel smell/taste. You can get it from Woolies/Coles (powder).

I used a wire brush wheel in a drill to remove rust from my boat trailer. Much easier than by hand but make sure you wear gloves and eye protection.


I cleaned my van tank with a product that I think is called Tank Clean. I was from the caravan super store on Hume Hwy Campbellfield. I think it was around $10. I have it in the shed so will confirm tomorrow.


If you need a hand with the axle give me a call, I'm around all weekend.

Whew! All done. . New axle, brake lines, master cylinder in, brakes bled up and working, new tyres on.

A couple of big improvements over the old axle. First up, I've got 110mm more clearance now, and the hitch is now 460mm off the ground, but the biggest thing is that you no longer have to jack up the van from the chassis to change the tyres like you did before. With the drop axle, if you jacked it up under the axle, the wheel was too far up in the guard to allow it to come off the wheel studs... Stupid design. All good now though. No clearance issues - heaps of room in every direction. The old tyres had bottomed out on the guard before - there are holes in both sides that need repairing before I drag it around in the rain, but now, even with the suspension fully bottomed out - and with bigger tyres, I still have around 40mm clearance. So a few pics below...

The old and the new - shows how much drop there was in the old axle. (The drop axle is upside down but you see what I mean..)


The greasable shackle pins are as new - as were the bushes. I don't think it has done too many KM to be honest.


Pretty new bits....


How it sits now - heaps of clearance.


New master cylinder.


I am going to need to build a set of steps now - the original slide in step was already gone, but it didn't take much to step up into it before. It's a bloody big step now... I don't thing SWMBO would be able to get in and out of it as it currently sits..

Thanks for everyone's input, it was greatly appreciated.

Originally Posted by bacicat

Here's a quick question - the chassis is in great condition, but as is very common, it is covered in surface rust. Now I could spend almost forever with a wire brush cleaning it, but if anyone knows an easier way, I'm all ears.

Plan is to clean it up a bit, then coat it in something waterproof like some brush able bitumen or similar.

So, anyone got a brainwave that will save me several days hard graft?

A suggestion: As others have said, clean off the obvious rust with a wire brush on an angle grinder...as much of the scaly stuff as possible. Then wipe it down with a rag damped in dilute phosphoric acid (...GLOVES) to remove the powdery remnants. Now paint it with rust converter and let it react and then hose it off and let dry. A couple of spray cans of etch primer and you will probably have it primer- coated in a few minutes. Let it dry and top coat with Wattyl metal epoxy or whatever. Once that's dry and cured, paint it with a couple of heavy coats of the bitumen stuff to reduce 'gravel rash' breaking through the protective epoxy coating... should last you 5 yrs at least... then just recoat with the bitumen stuff!

An alternative is to simply wire brush to get rid of the scaly stuff then give it a generous spray with a lanolin based material ...eg Lanotec. It will 'adsorb' into the metal surface and stick like "you know what does to a blanket". Just hose it down every few months and a quick respray with the lanolin. An old mate of mine who served his 20+ yrs in the RAN swears by the lanolin in keeping rust at bay from his experience as an engineer at sea...

Its good to see an older van given some new life.

For my lifted van I bought a cheap plastic step that sits in the inside step area when travelling.

That sounds like a good idea. I like simple, that's why I have a 40 year old van in the first place.