Trailer Suspension

[Crews]

I was recently gifted this 12’ trailer. It’s got short fat pontoon boat trailer tires and 4 individual torsion axles. My recently deceased uncle hauled his 4-wheeler all over Alaska with it for decades, and even used it to haul all his stuff home to Texas. He had so much junk in it during the move that it was maxing out the torsion axles and popping tires. So he stopped somewhere along the way and had some fab shop install a “body lift”

It’s a great lil trailer with lots of sentimental value. I love highboy setups and the redundancy of tandem axles. But it’s in need of some repair. At a bare minimum the torsion axles are shot and the wheels/tires all need to be replaced. I’m not crazy about the tiny short tires. Because of axle placement, it doesn’t do too well at highway speed if it’s unloaded. And…. The whole thing just looks kinda goofy.

So I wanted to pick everyone’s brain here, and leave it as an open-ended question. If this was your trailer and you were on a limited budget, what would you do?

 

[nm.otter]

Tire life falls off a cliff when torsion axles get worn/bent. Special Trailer (ST) tires are expensive to start with, and (because they're designed for small wheel wells) they burn up fast under load.

If you're not pulling much weight, LT tires will cost less and ride better. OTOH, if you regularly overload them, they can fail in ugly and dangerous ways.

If you are pulling weight and logging a lot of miles, larger diameter wheels/tires can save quite a bit of money over time.

 

[Crews]

It may change one day if I save up the cash to buy a side by side, but for the foreseeable future it’ll be a light duty utility trailer with light loads.

I am curious if torsion axles can be rebuilt, or if it’s one of those things where you just cut them off and replace them.

 

[Weldor]

Dump the torsion axles and frame lift . Get two regular axles with 15" trailer tires and some fenders. . I would drop the deck over never a fan of high trailers. Frame looks pretty stout .

 

[Crews]

The deck over doesn’t bother me much. Definitely think the frame lift can go while I’m under there with a torch.

Do y’all think ripping out torsion axles and going back with traditional axles/leaf springs will be cheaper in the end? I know new torsion axle units are more $ but wonder if the ones in place can be rebuilt with new rubber?

 

[HairyScandinavian]

That's a cool trailer, definitely need some new wheels lol. I think for simplicity and sentimental sake I'd just slap new torsion axles on it and go. You can probably get them in complete kits with new hubs and all, could do oil bath hubs with a 10 year maintenance free guarantee easily that way. That's what I do with my boat trailers down here.

 

[JustAnotherTurboLS]

I would see how it looks with 15 inch wheel normal trailer tires and go from there. The bearings will enjoy not turning as many rpms

 

[BCsteve]

I’d want to A-frame that tongue. Not a big fan of the single tube.

 

[Crews]

I’m almost certainly going to cut out the body lift and get 15” wheels.

Definitely thought about A frame for the tongue too, maybe add some length while I’m at it. This sucker is hard to back and I’m not a bad backer.

 

[nm.otter]

If the trailer frame and your truck can both handle it, I would stretch the trailer deck a bit (forward) in the process. This will move the axles rearward - more like an equipment trailer. More weight on pin with less hanging off the back = better and safer towing.