bigKlittlecar
Member
Those Force 10 bbq's are awesome! Had one on our family sailboat. Good addition to an awesome trailer!
Restomod to Rock Crawler with Timbren Axles
- Thread starter Shapeshifter
- Start date
Shapeshifter
Restless Adventurer
Thanks. Cant wait to use it.
I am about to replace my Dexter axle with Timbren 3500HD with 4"lift. I noticed that in your previous post the 4 bolts for the outboard arms were to be torqued at 70-75 ft-lbs. After reading your post it had me a tad worried, so I went to the instruction for mine. The same bolts are to be torqued at 130 to 140 ft-lbs. Seems weird that there would be such a discrepancy, but after checking various install instructions on their site, I see that there is indeed a variance.
Hope you get it worked out. Yours is the first negative thing I've heard about Timbren.
Good Luck.
Hope you get it worked out. Yours is the first negative thing I've heard about Timbren.
Good Luck.
Shapeshifter
Restless Adventurer
I just think that there should be some way to pin the two plates.
Also I dont know if you read my comments above about the trailing arm travel spec for the 1200lb system. The actual travel is about double what is spec'ed.
SamM
Adventurer
After seeing the problems you had with the Timbren suspension, I have decided to modify the mounts for the Timbrens on my Schutt military trailer. The Timbren design seems well thoughtout but I can see the problems. I hate that you have had difficulties with it. I'll be using the 2"x2" axle on mine. Since that will be the case, I'm switching to steel angle instead of the rectangular steel that my design currently has.
Thanks for posting your experiences with it!
SamM
Thanks for posting your experiences with it!
SamM
Shapeshifter
Restless Adventurer
Thanks, but the "difficulties" have been minor. All custom projects will need refinement.
Are you switching to angle to save weight?
Shapeshifter
Restless Adventurer
It is a Kolpin brand gas can that I had on an ATV. It's made for ATVs. Kolpin had the original design. It seems like Rotopax has stolen the market from them now.
SamM
Adventurer
Yes, but I have also noticed that my aluminum frame needs to be more rigid to carry the weight of the box that I am planning. When I lift the trailer the back drops. Steel angle 4"x4" should be enough to strengthen the frame and will give me 2" more lift over what I have now. This will also give me more room to install a water tank under the frame. The more I looked at it, the more I decided that I needed to change it. As I said, I'm using the optional axle. It just makes mounting the Timbrens much easier.
SamM
Shapeshifter
Restless Adventurer
Sam, I just looked through your build and I now understand what your 4x4 angles are for but I'll be curious to see how you affix them to the frame. I will follow... Im glad I lifted mine the extra 2" and because of the width of your trailer, you will be glad too. If your knee is well enough to get in and out of a roof top tent, it should be fine to get you up in to your lifted trailer. I damn near lost a limb just getting out of one of those tents to pee one night....:bike_rider:
I chose to weld the Timbren s on because of the difficulty my configuration has with using bolts also.
SamM
Adventurer
Shapeshifter,
My frame has 4"X1/2" aluminum flat plates that I used to mount the 2"x4" rectangular tubing. The tubing just isn't long enough to stabilize the frame. I bought them too short. Just wasn't thinking. The Timbrens will bolt to the angle steel fairly easy. The angle steel will just make everything easier to deal with. The way the trailer has been rebuilt it actually sits lower than it was stock. The idea was to cut the width to match my Jeep. The frame rails now are 51" from side to side. It's not exact but it's close. The structural integrity was really compromised when I started cutting it up. Adding the steel should fix it. The pictures should show you where the angle will directly bolt to the frame. The brackets with the holes will bolt to the frame on the inside of the frame rail. The frame rail is the bare aluminum part in the middle of the frame. I'm only doing one side at a time. The frame will be bolted and epoxy glued together.
Sorry for the thread hijack!
SamM
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Shapeshifter
Restless Adventurer
I got chance to take the little trailer on some hard trails and I am happy to report that it works better than expected! The trailer takes normal trail abuse pretty well and the cargo stays put. I was running with the tires at 32 psi so the Timbren suspension tended to "chine walk" a little when driving on faster washbord. Next time I will air down trailer tires to 15 or 20 psi and see how that works.
The trailer track width is less than the Jeep so it follows around and over corners really well. I did not get many pictures or get much video at all but here is what I have so far.
When relatively level, the trailer can pitch over 90 degrees without interfering with Jeep or equipment mounted on Jeep.
The trailer track width is less than the Jeep so it follows around and over corners really well. I did not get many pictures or get much video at all but here is what I have so far.
When relatively level, the trailer can pitch over 90 degrees without interfering with Jeep or equipment mounted on Jeep.
