Ok I have a 36' foot bumper pull cargo trailer. It has triple 3500 lb axles. On a trip from OR to FL It weight in at about 16Kish. I want to add bigger axles like 6K/7K axles. Well the 3 3500's are good for 10500lbs, and 2 6k or bigger would more than cover that. Now would the trailer lose any stability dropping one axle? I would like to do 2 7k axles, easier on the tires during manuvering. The axles are torsion style and I would be putting in leaf spring axles instead. What cha all think?

My thinking is that since the "footprint" of the axles overall will be smaller I would have a little more empty tonuge weight than I do now. Howver on a plus side, I can decrease the wheel wells and have more room inside as well.

 

Should work, just watch the balance and hitch weight. You will miss the torsion axles and it will be a bunch of work. I have built many trailers and had quite a few commercially made trailers and given the choice I will use a torsion axle any time. My enclosed has 2 8K torsion axles and really pulls great but it’s only 24'. I am getting ready to build a open tilt bed car hauler (for a very low car and because my jeep is way to tall to fit in the enclosed) and will be using 2 3500lb torsion axles with 22 degrees of drop built in to help keep it low. I would love to build one of the TEXAS Rollback type trailers but would really need to get a look at one first. Wish you were closer, I would take your old axles off your hands.

 

I've seen where guys have pulled the wheels off one axle and chain it up out of the way. Just a thought...

 

From what I read, doing all that work to modify the trailer sounds like a lot of extra $$ to eliminate one axle and avoid some scrubbing (which is also present on a tandem).

The sale of of your three axles and 6 wheels/tires may or may not come close to covering the cost of two new axles and 4 tires/wheels, plus a spare at least.

As far a empty tongue weight goes, that would probably depend on where you center the tandem axles. I would think that those 3 axles provide a larger area to carry the weight and would be to your benefit right now.

I've got 3 axles on the boat trailer and like the fact that if I do have a blow out, there are still 2 tires on that side holding the weight.

I give a +1 on the torsion axles; and know folks who have had to chain up a sprung axle to get home.

The exercise seems like a solution to a non-problem, but it certainly can be done.

edit: on your weight given (quote: It weight in at about 16Kish), is that 16k the weight of the loaded trailer only, or truck and trailer? Obviously, if your axles can only support 10.5k and you're trailer alone is near/at 16k (even with 2k or so of tongue), your trailer needs to take some steriods or you should get another trailer.

 

I forgot about having to chain a sprung axle up. Had a bearing go out while towing a van. 6 hrs from home, not bad being I was coming from AZ, and I made it to FL. I had to drive the van and wife drove the Dakota and wounded trailer. (yes a dakota )

I guess I will stick with torsion. I blanked out about having to hang the spring hangers and equalizers. I could probably come up for a use for the axles if I can't sell them.

The trailer weighed is at around 16K when I was moving the family back to FL from OR. It was fully loaded. Total with truck was a tad over 24K. On the scales the trailer weighed in at over 15K, so I guessimated with about a 1200lb-1500lb tounge weight put trailer total weight about 16K.

On the scrubbing part I broke a weld on one of the wheels and it went flat. Had to get a new trailer wheel on the roadtrip. I'm looking at 6K axles mainly for extra weight margin and bigger tires. I am going to get another cargo trailer as well. We might have to move in another 1 or 2 yrs again.

I'm pretty sure I wore these axles out. within 3 days of being home finally 4 tires were flat on the trailer. I'm glad I made it safely. it was a 7 day trip. to go 3000 miles. Nice and slow. I have yet to tear into them and inspect the spindles and hubs.

 

Just thinking out loud here, but those seem like terribly light axles to be on a triple setup. I am looking at a Wells Cargo car trailer catalog here.... They jump right into dual 6k axles well before there is any mention of a triple setup... 6k axles, i would think would be much more tolerant of scrubbing as they are significantly heavier all over. Maybe you would be better off putting 3 6k torsion axles on and running 2 of them when you arent loaded heavy, then add the 3rd if you were going to run heavy......

Trey

 

2500, what is the GVWR for your trailer anyways? Is it listed on it or on the title?

FWIW, my boat trailer has three 3500lb axles on it, and that trailer only has a 10k GVWR (with 9700 on the axles). I cannot imagine putting another 6k of boat on top of the one already on it and pulling it safely. yikes.

Maybe you should consider yourself lucky that you didn't have any other trailer hauling issues.

Curious, what size of steel frame is underneath the trailer? Is it comparable to other 10k GVWR trailers? Considering the trailer as a system - installing HUGE axles underneath it doesn't necessarily make it any stronger or able to carry more weight if the frame wasn't built for it either.

 

If your running as light weight a trailer frame as it sounds I would stay with the triple axle setup. This distributes the weight over alot more area to keep from stressing the frame. That's probably why they used 3 axles when they built it. I have a triple axle flatbed that I run heavy all the time and like it because the trailer carries the additional weight instead of the truck. This way I can keep the pin weight lower on the truck.

 

I'm kind of with durasmack, who would put a light weight axle on a trailer that size even if it's in a triple configuration? Care to share what brand of trailer? My 24ft Haulmark has twin 5k axles. My next trailer will have the 7k's on it.

 

The trailer is a Kendall There is a plate on the side of trailer that lists it as about 10200 GVWR.

Durasmack, thats a good idea. I would pull the middle axle tires if it was empty.

The trailer frame is 6" channel welded like [] with 2x3 cross tubes every 24". With the same treatment for the tounge but using 8" channel. To me it seems they have a pretty solid frame, but they just skimp on the other things. Heres a pic

I didnt plan on running it that heavy. I even left my tools, and "heavy" thing up in storage so as to not over load the trailer. So much for that idea.

 

That trailer frame looks to be made of small stuff and not all that beefy. Certainly not in the 16k category that you have loaded. I've seen 3-car trailers heckuva lot sturdier than that and they're around 16k.

I don't think Kendall skimped anywhere, it's merely a long 10k GVWR trailer probably designed to carry lots of lawnmowing eqpt, and nothing real heavy. I bet if they built 16k trailers, they'd be a little more stout.

My advice is to use the right tool for the job; if there's another trailer in your life to carry heavy loads - I'd get one stronger than this one.

 

If you do change to 2 axles measure your axle center from the center of the hitch ball to the back of trailer. To pull right you need a 60 percent axle center. Never go under 57 percent and that would only be moved fowards to remove tounge weight. But it will pull nice at the 60 percent if you re- distribute your load. Some trailer manufactures dont really go buy this "rule" from the old days but it really does matter for trailer sway and feeling of control.