Trailer woes...

[green heart]

Is it just me, or have others struggled with this?

I have a little old Ifor Williams P6e trailer (6'x4' size, 2 wheels only, unbraked, 500kg payload), which seems to snap a rubber-torsion stub axle, every 5 years or so -3 times now ! 

This is the smallest of my 5 trailers, used monthly, and I therefore never overload it, honestly!

 

It's previously happened on the M6, and once again last Friday, going round a local cross roads with a small chipper tied down, and an oncoming car was good enough to catch my errant trailer wheel..... 🥴

I was sufficiently 'disappointed' that I had Indespension units fitted after the last failure, but they seem just as bad/rubbish (and confirmed by the trailer fitter, IIRC!).

 

This morning Ifor's customer service boss says she's never heard of this, in her 20 years tenure -but Indespension suggested a 5-10 years lifespan today.

 

So, with thousands of such trailers in occasional use on UK roads, by my reckoning, that must add up to quite a lot of catastrophic trailer failures ?

 

It seems both daft -and frankly dangerous- that there is no safety restraint, to prevent the seemingly inevitable release of the internal stub/shaft, causing catastrophic failures? 

Is it just me??

I'll try and get a photo attached, tomorrow. 

[Muddy42]

Pics would be helpful.  if im not mistaken those are the stub axles that have two 90 degree bends in them like this.

 

 

i dont like them, the design just seems weak. Can you somehow fit stub axles like this? I have replaced with these before (not on an ifor william trailer). You may beed to adjust the wheel guards, drill new bolt holes, bit of welding or get bigger wheels.

 

 

 

[Jase hutch]

What about a beam axle  ?

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, Jase hutch said:

What about a beam axle  ?

Do trailers under 750kg legally need suspension.

 

I would like to know what the point of failure was, was it steel breaking or the stub pulling out of the rubber suspension component?

[Deafhead]

1 hour ago, openspaceman said:

Do trailers under 750kg legally need suspension.

 

I would like to know what the point of failure was, was it steel breaking or the stub pulling out of the rubber suspension component?

I had this happen a few years ago, the steel/rubber bond breaks down. From memory, I had the same problem with a Jet80 sidecar in the last century.

Edited 22 hours ago by Deafhead
Additional info.

[openspaceman]

42 minutes ago, Deafhead said:

I had this happen a few years ago, the steel/rubber bond breaks down. From memory, I had the same problem with a Jet80 sidecar in the last century.

I remember one of the firm's trailers losing a wheel on the M25 but I was busy elsewhere and never found out the cause. Spectacular tailback in the rush hour is all I got told.

[green heart]

Thanks all of you, for some thoughtful responses I will consider.

 

I confess I was surprised how bad the corrosion was, on the failed nearside stub housing. There was also a very thin mud-crust, nicely concealing the same.

A prior hammering and inspection would probably have picked it up...

 

But on the previous stub axle failures, the steel shaft had catastrophically wriggled out of the rubbers and box hosing.. um, as er, some male drivers are possibly familiar with?? 🥴

Sorry, thinking of a friend..

 

On a serious note tho, the design does seem to lack a safety consideration, to avoid such wholesale failure .

 

[scbk]

One modification would be to get a paint pen, and write your name and postcode on the wheel rim. So at least if it comes off again, someone could post it back to you

[Bob_z_l]

8 hours ago, green heart said:

Thanks all of you, for some thoughtful responses I will consider.

 

I confess I was surprised how bad the corrosion was, on the failed nearside stub housing. There was also a very thin mud-crust, nicely concealing the same.

A prior hammering and inspection would probably have picked it up...

 

But on the previous stub axle failures, the steel shaft had catastrophically wriggled out of the rubbers and box hosing.. um, as er, some male drivers are possibly familiar with?? 🥴

Sorry, thinking of a friend..

 

On a serious note tho, the design does seem to lack a safety consideration, to avoid such wholesale failure .

 

 

I've never had this with any of my small trailers. Had bearings wear and wheels threaten to escape, never the whole unit....

 

Couldn't it be solved by having a "tab" welded on the inside so that the shaft can't be pulled through the tube?

 

 

[green heart]

1 hour ago, Bob_z_l said:

 

 

Couldn't it be solved by having a "tab" welded on the inside so that the shaft can't be pulled through the tube?

 

 

 

Exactly this !

Hardly an expensive manufacturing consideration, for the road safety benefit.

If this regularly happened to a make of car or truck -we'd all know about it and the manufacturers would soon sort it out !

I guess maybe I'm just too used to wearing seat belts and that 'safety' mindset..

🤔