Re: [VACList] axle replacement

["Mr. Joy Hansen" <joytbrew@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Dick,

I'm out of pocket for another few days and got too many irons in the fire to
resume working with the axle thing.  However, I settled on 22 degrees down
as the starting angle.  Without knowing the engineering specifics, it seems
to me that the start angle will settle to about 10 degrees down with the
trailer weight.  I doubt that the torsion arm movement is more that 10
degrees during use.  I'm going to up the weight of the axle by 10 percent as
suggested by Andy.  This means detuning a standard 3500#s axle to the weight
needed for the trailer.  For my Argosy, I plan to use two 3000# axles.  The
5200# total for the original would then increase to near 6000#s- a bit more
than 10%, but .  .  .  I guess the most important thing is not to go too
stiff and damage the structure like worn out torsion axles would do.  Also,
if the down axle begins at 15 degrees and settles at 0 degrees with load,
then the wheel well might be impacted by the upward movement.  These angles
are in the Dexter specification sheets of the website and in the
specification sheet made up by the Dexter rep.

The engineer at Dexter will keep you on the straight and narrow when you
have the specifications for the axle prepared.  The only real problem is the
shock mounting bracket.  Dexter only installs one orientation and that has
the tab pointing down rather than up as with the Henchen.  I tried to get
Dexter to weld a tab identical to the original before assembly of the axle
as Dexter does for their assembly.  Welding after assembly will void the
warranty of the axle and most likely would weaken the torsion axle.  Since
most application of this type of axle do not use a shock, eliminating the
shock altogether might be possible.  Only the engineers of the list can tell
about the high frequency vibrations that might develope.

In the mean time, I'll just sit and read while I'm out of pocket.

                                                            '69 Safari, Joy