Trailer woes...

[GarethM]

  On 12/03/2025 at 08:29, green heart said:

 

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..

🤔

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It wouldn't work as the shaft rotates within the tube and the rubber inserts stop it turning but acts like a very low tech shock absorber, think pinching your finger in a door jam.

 

To make it work the shaft would need to be longer than the tube with an exposed end to allow for the tab.

 

Personally I'd never have a single axle trailer with rubber suspension, seen the rubber fall apart.

 

As Jase suggested solid axle like an old Sankey.

[Bob_z_l]

  On 12/03/2025 at 08:41, GarethM said:

It wouldn't work as the shaft rotates within the tube and the rubber inserts stop it turning but acts like a very low tech shock absorber, think pinching your finger in a door jam.

 

To make it work the shaft would need to be longer than the tube with an exposed end to allow for the tab.

 

Personally I'd never have a single axle trailer with rubber suspension, seen the rubber fall apart.

 

As Jase suggested solid axle like an old Sankey.

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Agreed. Then that would mean springs. 

 

Mine were plenty bouncy enough empty just on the rubber. Put springs on it? 

At least the Sankey had some weight in them by virtue of their construction. 

[GarethM]

  On 12/03/2025 at 09:18, Bob_z_l said:

Agreed. Then that would mean springs. 

 

Mine were plenty bouncy enough empty just on the rubber. Put springs on it? 

At least the Sankey had some weight in them by virtue of their construction. 

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Whilst not a bad idea in itself, a trailer in that weight class is what 120kg empty and I'm not sure of the vosa position if you got pulled.

 

If it was me and that had happened to the same trailer more than once I would be skipping it entirely and buying something else.

[openspaceman]

  On 12/03/2025 at 08:41, GarethM said:

It wouldn't work as the shaft rotates within the tube and the rubber inserts stop it turning but acts like a very low tech shock absorber, think pinching your finger in a door jam.

 

To make it work the shaft would need to be longer than the tube with an exposed end to allow for the tab.

 

 

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Not really as the square tube could have a slot into  which a set screw could locate, the slot allowing the square to articulated in the tube.

 

How are these things put together and what currently holds the square shaft into the tube, I cannot believe it is just friction?

[GarethM]

  On 12/03/2025 at 10:58, openspaceman said:

Not really as the square tube could have a slot into  which a set screw could locate, the slot allowing the square to articulated in the tube.

 

How are these things put together and what currently holds the square shaft into the tube, I cannot believe it is just friction?

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So out of the many millions of trailers, you want to redesign a cheap trailer.

 

And adding a slot & set screw is simpler than just making the shaft longer and a bolt and washer on the end?.

 

Either way, skip it and buy something that's better than a Halfords special.

[green heart]

  On 12/03/2025 at 11:04, GarethM said:

 

Either way, skip it and buy something that's better than a Halfords special.

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So that's just what I was inclined to think, too.

So I started to look around at alternative trailers..

However, manufacturers of the useful small 500/750kg trailers all seem to use these torsion-bar suspension units...

Perhaps they prefer to fit them, having a useful built-in obsolescence ??

-but with a real safety issue, for the end user ! 😟

 

[green heart]

  On 12/03/2025 at 10:58, openspaceman said:

 

How are these things put together and what currently holds the square shaft into the tube, I cannot believe it is just friction?

 

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Yes, rather worryingly, they DO seem to be just held in place, by friction alone!?!

I find it difficult to believe, too. 

And it obviously must work, reasonably well, for a least 5 maybe 10 years, before they suddenly and completely fail...

😟

 

[Haironyourchest]

  On 11/03/2025 at 22:10, 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 .

 

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A pretty shocking read... Have you checked the suspension units are properly aligned? If the alignment is a bit out, it puts a side pressure on the wheels, you know the thing in the pamphlets in the waiting area at the DOE garage, about "Every km your misaligned wheel is being dragged 10m sideways" type of thing. A side pull could rip the stub out. Could be one or both of your suspension units were bolted or welded on slightly out of square..

[AHPP]

If people will insist on buying from Wales.

[woody paul]

  On 12/03/2025 at 22:22, Haironyourchest said:

 

A pretty shocking read... Have you checked the suspension units are properly aligned? If the alignment is a bit out, it puts a side pressure on the wheels, you know the thing in the pamphlets in the waiting area at the DOE garage, about "Every km your misaligned wheel is being dragged 10m sideways" type of thing. A side pull could rip the stub out. Could be one or both of your suspension units were bolted or welded on slightly out of square..

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I have heard and see some bad work from ifor williams, and one was a plant trailer with a axle stub end out of line once it had been weld on to beam. Owner could not work out were the vibration was coming from, until he sat in trailer while his mate drove it up farm drive.