Gordinho80's Offroad / Camping Trailer Build

[navigator]

ask him to go ahead and spray the lug nuts with PB Blaster for you

[Gordinho80]

He posted the axle at $50. I asked what was the best he could do... he said $40. Asked him to shoot the lugs with blaster so I can take a look at them, also told him I wanted to look at the hubs/spindles... so I might be taking one of those apart to exam.

I figure worst case... I'd need new bearings, which I would probably just get the whole hub assembly... but the springs and the axle bar should be in good shape and worth the $.

[chevycrew]

When I bought new axle beams for my trailer they were 90 each. That was just a straight bare beam.

[Gordinho80]

Axle acquired!









Hubs look to be in really good shape for being 25-30 years old. The dust caps are screw on. The lugs are a little short, but they nuts thread fully with the H3 wheels mounted. They came off rather easily with the impact gun. 3 of the 4 U bolts came off easily, 1 had to be cut off. I plan on replacing them and the spring hangers as well. All in all... WELL worth $40!

[Gordinho80]

So looking at this hanger kit...

http://www.etrailer.com/p-APS1.html

$53 shipped for the hanger kit and 4 replacement U Bolts...

[Gordinho80]

Neighbor came through with a 20' length of 2.5" tube. Only need 10' of it to run front to back. Need to relocate the A frame bars for the spring mounts... Which I'm ordering this week. Hoping to have axle in place next weekend.

[Gordinho80]

Hanger kit and u-bolts ordered! Will clean the axle up this week and get it ready to mount. I still want to reinforce the rails where the springs will mount... think a 2.5" angle inside the existing frame will suffice...

[v7guy]

Looks like you scored a pretty good deal with that axle. Things are really moving along!

[Gordinho80]

Pepboys and Autozone failed at providing me with replacement wheel studs. Placing order with Summit tomorrow AM if the local trailer shop doesn't have them. Might delay getting the trailer rolling on new axle.

[Gordinho80]

Neighbor came through yet again with more steel! This time, 3" angle that he had 1 side cut down to 2.75" to fit inside the side rails of the frame! This is done to reinforce the sides where the springs mount. Got the angle cut down and tacked in place yesterday. Got the springs mounted today! My 1/2" drill bit took a shit on me, so I couldn't drill the axle enough to get the center pins inside the axle rod. So the axle is not 100% in place. Still need the wheel studs/nuts, but picking up some used 285/75-16 tires tomorrow to put on for the rest of this year. It should be rolling soon! Then I can build the box and extend the tongue.

[Mudwheelin]

Cool man, its looking great.

[dirty anton]

looks good mario! are you going to bring this to the next tecore or is it more for trails and camping and stuff?

[Gordinho80]

It will definitely be at next TECORE. It will eventually have am integrated kitchen and a roof top tent.

[snowmirage]

So um... you're going to build these for the rest of us that could use one when you're done right Mario?

[onelow1ton]

Looking good

[Gordinho80]

Wheel studs and lug nuts came in. The knurl is pretty much spot on... I think these are actually .001 larger but they fit. Problem is they are SHORT! Almost scary short. The next size up with the knurl size I need is 3" long, they'd stick out passed the wheel face.

My concern is the following:

Studs measure 1.313" long. The lug nuts are 1" long (25mm fully threaded). With the H3 wheels in place, the studs only engage 12mm of the nuts. The studs are 7/16"-20 thread, that is 11.11~mm wide. I've got .89~mm more thread engagement then stud diameter, across 6 lugs per side. Is this sufficient? I'm a little concerned with how little engagement I have, but I'm no engineer who will be able to determine if I'm in a safe zone.

EDIT: The original studs were the same length, but the replacement lug nuts are much longer, over twice as long. With the original stud/nut, I had full engagement, so essentially I was getting as much thread engagement as this. BUT I never ran the axle with this setup, the original steel wheels where much thinner at the lug nut holes.

[JCrayton99]

How many threads (if any) do you have protruding? As long as you have a couple threads out I see absolutely no problem.

Sorry for the question that youve pretty much answered already, mind is fried from the week from hell Ive had. All I see is numbers and Im not processing them...

[Gordinho80]

NO threads protruding... thats my worry.

[JCrayton99]

Ahh ya. Id be weary of running them, but I always try to be on the safer side of things. But if you find someone who tells you its safe to run and you trust them, more power to you.

[fishsticks]

Were you able to apply proper torque to them without galling the threads? I say run them if so.