Trailer: single or twin axle

[Jimbo]

Originally Posted by Pete7

IThe likes of Jimbo and Tim have no chance unless they go down either the Gym or chippie.

Oi! Who says I'm involved in Tim's latest enterprising venture?!?

(P.S. - I live next to a chippie, and it's starting to show, so careful...!)

[Downhilldai]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Its 36mm, but even with a 4 foot bar they only just come off. The likes of Jimbo and Tim have no chance unless they go down either the Gym or chippie. Rogue Wave has the physique you need for this job

Pete

Mine's only 32mm and my bar's only about 2', but who cares about size

"A small nail isn't a problem, as long as you've got a big hammer to hit it in with"

[PeterR]

Tim have you come to any conclusions yet??

[Tim M]

Well I had a thought the other day which pretty made up my decision for me. I'm going to get a heavy duty twin axle jobbie so I can use it for anything else I might happen to buy. Just got to find the right one now!

[Windchill]

Twin axle trailers go backwards extremely wel remember: they go where you put them, and don't "snap" round unexpectedly!

The height of the hitch, load balancing on the boat, and load per axle all have a bearing on stability when towing, but overall, a propoer 4 wheel close coupled trailer will always out perform a single unit. On soft sand/shinle, remember that the load per tyre is halved.

Manual handling is not a problem if you know the knack: just make sure you specify a heavy duty jockey wheel. I wind it up so that the front axle is off the ground, then it turns like a single axle unit!

I was able, single handedly, to turn a 6m Zodiac with a 135 optimax through 180 degrees on my own.

Having towed horses for many years, I can also tell you that if a tyre blows on a twin axle trailer, you can usually reciver the situation relatively easily. A single unit (which is illegal for livestock anyway) would be a brown undies job!

[mike]

Hi we have just got a dixon bate roller jobbie and its very heavy duty, twin axle. Went for disc brakes and v happy I did as I can get at everything and also have ordered 2 additional jockey wheels from a chap on ebay for £35 each they go horizontal when underway and I plan to have them at the front then in the event we have to do a stupid turn the front wheels of the trailer will be off/just on the ground.(assuming we wind all 3 down).

Will be putting decent pressure into the tyres and hopefully that will be enough.
Re turning I use a discovery and have now got 2 front tow hitches ie left and right as well as the rear one. I find this is an easy way of getting excellent turns on a twin rig.
had a chap at trident trailers make up the second front one and it cost £90.00 made and fitted.
mike

[BruceB]

I did have a sigle axle De Graaf on order but ended up paying the little extra to go twin. While I carry spare hubs and was changing them out every year in addition to physically checking them before long journeys I suppose experience of club boats losing wheels has coloured my judgement!
I haven't ever had a problems with bearings but I did have a wheel rim crack on a two year old trailer before. Took me several goes looking for the clicking noise of the crack on the perimeter of the rim before the paint cracked and it was visible. By this time half the circumference was cracked and the wheel was not far from falling off on a corner.
I think four wheels sounds safer for some of the long tows planned later this year despite the maintenance load............

[Hugh Jardon]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Its 36mm, but even with a 4 foot bar they only just come off. The likes of Jimbo and Tim have no chance unless they go down either the Gym or chippie. Rogue Wave has the physique you need for this job

Pete

i think i've got the big nuts version and i have had them off numerious times, is no big deal, i use a two foot long breaker bar and they come off easily. if you only had a regular socket set with a regular socket handle i think you would struggle. dont use a ratchet handle as the force could/would damage it

[BruceB]

I picked up my, admittedly over specced, twin axle trailer yesterday from De Graaf and today picked up the new hull. Just towed around 600miles (400 with boat on) and am very pleased how she rides. Very smooth and stable with better directional stability when reversing

[Tim M]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Its 36mm, but even with a 4 foot bar they only just come off. The likes of Jimbo and Tim have no chance unless they go down either the Gym or chippie. Rogue Wave has the physique you need for this job

Pete

How tight exactly should the hub nut be?

[prairie tuber]

Originally Posted by pathalla

Somewhere in the hills of Pennsylvania rests a 16 inch trailer tire and drum. I lost a wheel off a tandem axle trailer pulling a boat on the P.A. turnpike due to bearing failure and didn't even notice it. Some lady pulled along side honking and waving and yelled over informing us of the loss. Strangest thing was I never heard or felt anything at all while towing. I shudder to think what would have happened to the boat at 65 mph with a single axle. Check your bearings regularly!

I use a twin axle 8' x 16' foot flat deck trailer to haul my SIB around. The weight of the trailer is probably triple that of the boat and motor. Overkill? - perhaps, but the flat deck works really nicely with the tunnel hull, and I got the trailer dirt cheap. I find that backing this trailer into tight spots is easier with the twin axles and smallish (16") tires becuse the trailer turns more predictably (gradually) than a single axle trailer does.

I had a similar experience to the one Pat described above with having a trailer tire go flat on a highway and it having a minor effect on the handling of the rig. For me it gives some extra peace of mind given the condition of some of the lake access 'roads' in these parts. Also, the handling of a twin axled trailer is much less squirrelly when the roads are icy.

[Hightower]

So what's a maximum Gross weight for a single axle trailer?

[iandl]

Originally Posted by Hightower

So what's a maximum Gross weight for a single axle trailer?

unsure what the max is but my last trailer i made had an 1800kgs axle .......5 studs ....I reckon you could go to 2000kgs but havent seen one

I

[bedajim]

Originally Posted by iandl

unsure what the max is but my last trailer i made had an 1800kgs axle .......5 studs ....I reckon you could go to 2000kgs but havent seen one

I

Here's one at 2000 kg but the shipping may be expensive

http://www.trojan.co.nz/index.asp?PageID=2145833594

[Hugh Jardon]

Originally Posted by Hightower

So what's a maximum Gross weight for a single axle trailer?

i would agree with 1800 kg

mine was the heaviest capacity single axle i found, trailer is 400 kg so the capacity is 1400 kg giving total of 1800kg

the last double axle trailer i had was an indespension with a total load of 2600 kg and the trailer weighed in at 750kg

[floater]

hi

is this of any use ?


http://www.sbstrailers.co.uk/accesso...t.asp?m=12&c=7

Andy