Trailer Suspension Article

[spressomon]

We are talking to Loctite, see what comes of that.

Keeping dirt out of the fittings seems critical, you can start out with a sealed fitting and later it can start to leak. Very frustrating.

Martyn,
Anything particularly wrong with converting to threaded fittings and braided line (besides the cost that is)? This is how I set up my ARB locker/pump (instead of the blue line with push type fittings) and have had zero issues.

 

[Martyn]

Martyn,
Anything particularly wrong with converting to threaded fittings and braided line (besides the cost that is)? This is how I set up my ARB locker/pump (instead of the blue line with push type fittings) and have had zero issues.

No problem what so ever.

 

[MaddBaggins]

Good article Martyn. I'm glad you're coming up with a new better suspension now that I have already purchased my AT.
It's good to see the evolution and reasoning of your suspension setup.

 

[spressomon]

Good article Martyn. I'm glad you're coming up with a new better suspension now that I have already purchased my AT.
It's good to see the evolution and reasoning of your suspension setup.

I've been testing the new/latest AT suspension on my Horizon the past couple months. The main differences I have found:
Much faster cycle speeds of the suspension; much quicker dampening speed too (due to the shock not being as supine to the spring).
A little bit lighter in weight although probably not significant overall.
Fine tunable with 16-valve adjustments.

On last weeks 5-day foray I had ample opportunity to abuse the trailer suspension...which I did of course in the name of testing We got onto a snow field that we needed to cross rather than doing a 180 on the trail. It was deep in places, off-camber and downhill in two directions ;-). And to keep from sinking (which my heavy 100 and trailer like to do in mud/snow) into Locrwln's hole he created with his 80 (graciously he went first across the snow field). I needed to keep my speed up with the trailer...at one point the trailer bounced towards the downhill side of the snow field. I saw it coming over in my rear view mirror...and quickly hit the gas. Fortunately I had enough traction on the snow to pull the trailer back down...otherwise I'm sure it would have been a tough recovery and resulting expensive damage to the trailer and/or my 100.

Locrwln (Jack) and his wife Darcie watched at a safe distance. They stated my uphill tire (PS) was about 2'+ in the air and the downhill tire (DS) was near buried in snow...it was well on its way to tipping over.

I believe the much faster suspension of this new design allowed me to keep the trailer upright. Whereas the older suspension being slower to react to this type of input might have not faired so well (but we'll never know for sure ;-))

 

[Ireland]

That is excellent reading, I especially liked the summary on why torsion axles are not recommended for offroad trailers.