Kickapoo Tad
New member
It has been a while since I posted, or, for that matter, done anything on our Taxa Tigermoth. Things have changed recently, as far as doing things.
Quick recap: We bought the Tigermoth (Jill) this past Spring for our upcoming retirement adventures (136 days away!). It had some damage that was repaired by the body shop we bought it from. Besides some upkeep stuff the really big thing it needed was a new axle as the torsion bar axle was bent on one side. Not all bad news as I really wanted to increase the clearance and make it more back road worthy. I decided on the Timbren 2200 pound four inch lift suspension.
The first job was removing the old axle and I have to say good work Taxa for a robust mounting! It took a lot more effort and grinding to get that done!
The next step was making sure the Timbren axles were even which took modifying my floor jack to hold the suspension and then a lot of crawling, pushing, shoving, and a soft dead blow hammer to get them in place. Bit once that was said and done the came out within a 1/16 of an inch from each other. I was pretty proud of my work! That was until I mounted the hubs and saw that when I would put on the wheels I wasn't going to clear the body of the Tigermoth. When I had measured I neglected to take into account the rim offset.
Onto plan "b," if I only had one. After a bit of deliberations, over the course of a couple of sleepless nights thinking that I just ruined our trailer, I decided to enlist the help of a friend who is a skilled welder and mount a 4x4 square tube to each side of the trailer chassis.
Dan came over, approved my plan, said it would be easy and got to work. About an hour later Jill had two outriggers mounted. After Dan left and the paint had dried I offered up the axles again and there she was! Back on her own two tires!
I love the wider stance she has and the increased height. It does mean having to carry a folding step stool with us to make getting in and out easier, bit small price to pay.
Now a few shake down trips and back to planning the adventure!
Quick recap: We bought the Tigermoth (Jill) this past Spring for our upcoming retirement adventures (136 days away!). It had some damage that was repaired by the body shop we bought it from. Besides some upkeep stuff the really big thing it needed was a new axle as the torsion bar axle was bent on one side. Not all bad news as I really wanted to increase the clearance and make it more back road worthy. I decided on the Timbren 2200 pound four inch lift suspension.
The first job was removing the old axle and I have to say good work Taxa for a robust mounting! It took a lot more effort and grinding to get that done!
The next step was making sure the Timbren axles were even which took modifying my floor jack to hold the suspension and then a lot of crawling, pushing, shoving, and a soft dead blow hammer to get them in place. Bit once that was said and done the came out within a 1/16 of an inch from each other. I was pretty proud of my work! That was until I mounted the hubs and saw that when I would put on the wheels I wasn't going to clear the body of the Tigermoth. When I had measured I neglected to take into account the rim offset.
Onto plan "b," if I only had one. After a bit of deliberations, over the course of a couple of sleepless nights thinking that I just ruined our trailer, I decided to enlist the help of a friend who is a skilled welder and mount a 4x4 square tube to each side of the trailer chassis.
Dan came over, approved my plan, said it would be easy and got to work. About an hour later Jill had two outriggers mounted. After Dan left and the paint had dried I offered up the axles again and there she was! Back on her own two tires!
I love the wider stance she has and the increased height. It does mean having to carry a folding step stool with us to make getting in and out easier, bit small price to pay.
Now a few shake down trips and back to planning the adventure!
