Thread: Drop axle on caravan

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

While your at it, get him to weld another hitch mount (like on that ARB trailer) so you can use a lunette on the 101 pintle.

Doing some interior work at the moment. New cupboard doors cut, painted and installed.

Old and new.


Back on and looking very 70's...

Very nice, I need to replace my doors as they are crumbling chip board material! Did you make them from scratch, or modified doors?

New doors made up from scratch. Just used sheets of 9mm ply from. Masters at $8.50 a pop for a 1200 x 600mm sheet. Got 8 new doors out of 2 sheets. Old doors used as templates. A bit of stuffing around, but worth the effort. . Used a small circular saw with fine tooth blade to cut it all up. Ran the saw along a straight edge clamped to the sheet of timber, then just hand sanded the edges. Used a sealer on the wood, then 2 coats of paint.

Well today I towed the van to a mates workshop as the next bit requires more room to work, a decent level floor and a kick arse welder.

So tonight after playing with an angle grinder for a couple of hours, the draw bar fell off...


New one will be taken right back to the spring hangers and secured in 6 places to the chassis rather than the factory 4 places. The triangulation, larger box section and the 6 points of contact should really stiffen it up.

Originally Posted by bacicat

Well today I towed the van to a mates workshop as the next bit requires more room to work, a decent level floor and a kick arse welder.

So tonight after playing with an angle grinder for a couple of hours, the draw bar fell off...


New one will be taken right back to the spring hangers and secured in 6 places to the chassis rather than the factory 4 places. The triangulation, larger box section and the 6 points of contact should really stiffen it up.

Hey look, your not the only one

There's something just a little but wrong about a van without a drawbar....

Cap - have you got an after shot of the new one? What sort of length did you make it?

New drawbar for mine is almost ready to weld in. The new crossmember is now secured to the chassis and isn't going anywhere. I have test fitted both new bits for the drawbar, and all looks good. It is about 500mm longer than standard. A bit longer than I was going to make it, but the guy helping me has some knowledge of these things and convinced me to add an extra 100mm more than I was going to.

Tomorrow I'll tack it all together and my mate will weld it up for me on Monday. There will be heaps of room for twin gas bottles now, and maybe a small toolbox, but that will depend on what sort of ball weight I end up with. It was sitting on 85Kg before, and hoping to be closer to around 120kg when I'm all done.

If things go as planned, it should tow pretty well when I'm done.

Gav, is it at Mick's?
What time will you be there?