Who needs an axle anyway?
So I have a work trip coming up that will prevent any progress on the trailer for roughly 7 weeks. Trying to tackle as many major things as I can before I leave. In that spirit I removed the axle tonight.
If you're considering doing this make sure you can dedicate about 3 1/2 hours of your life to laying on your back and screaming at nuts and bolts. Anyway...
I used a combination of jack stands and some saw horses to hold the trailer up in the air and raise the tires off the floor a couple inches. I then used a bottle jack to support the middle of the u-bolt bracket under each spring saddle.
By far the easiest part of this process was removing the bolts for the shocks and the shocks themselves.
After that I began to tackle the nuts on the u-bolts. This is not fun. Between the chemical resistant paint covering the threads and some sort of thread locking adhesive that the military used it was quite the job getting the nuts off the u-bolts. I used a 2 foot breaker bar and would certainly recommend a 3 foot if you've got it. There were times, because of the twisting pressure being applied, that the socket on my breaker bar was hot enough to cause burns. But, after 3 hours I had this:
I decided to pull the axle with the tires on and hubs intact just to keep it a little more mobile and easier to move. I have a feeling this is going to sit in my garage or under my covered back porch for a while until I can unload it. I also left all of the parking brake assembly, cables and handles attached because it was easier that way.
After pulling the axle I decided I was tired of trying to find someone to fabricate a new axle so I made a new one myself.
I figure a piece of 1 by 1 pine should easily support 3500 lbs right? Ok, maybe not. What it did do is allow me to double check my axle measurements before committing to the order I'm placing on Monday. I cut the 1 by to 63 inches, marked off the spacers, the hub faces and the spring centers and clamped it into place on top of the springs using the spring center measurements for placement. So far as I can tell this is going to work out exactly as I had planned, although in a fit of paranoia I may take the spare off the Jeep tomorrow and press it to the end of my "axle" just for further visual confirmation.
It looks like I'm going to order an axle through
www.dexterpartsonline.com out of Greenville SC. I spoke to Justin there on Friday, explained what I was doing and the dimensions I needed. He made a few suggestions and came back with a quote of $328 for a 3500# axle 59" HF - HF with electric brakes and 5 x 5 bolt pattern hubs shipped to my door in about a week and a half. I had also requested a 3" outer diameter tube for the axle so I could reuse the military ubolts and hardware. He let me know that Dexter would charge somewhere in the ballpark of $110 to do that but that he could put together a ubolt kit for about $20 that would allow me to use the 2" military springs without going to a 3" OD axle. Sweet! I would like to say that I called 6 or 7 different places and got numerous internet quotes and this was by far the best price and the best service I got out of anyone. Price quotes ranged from the upper $300's to $670 from a local trailer place (can you say rip off?). I'm going to place my order Monday and I'll make sure to post up how the service and quality is after the order.
For those of you that have done the axle swap do you have any pictures of the spring saddle area after the new axle is mounted? I'd be curious to see how it worked out. The military axle has a spring saddle on top and bottom but it appears the Dexter axle has it just on one side. I know the landscape style trailer I have only has spring saddles on one side as well. Any reason the military went with two?
