hi am restoring a 1971 fiberform and the wheel is tilted. after looking at the axle I noticed that the axle is rusting and craking apart. is this repairable, is there a way to get this fixed or would it just be cheaper to look for a new trailer.
Wow, that's nasty.
Is it rusted through?
Hard to tell if it is repairable. You need good steel to weld back to.
I would think you could find a replacement axle. I would feel safer with replacement over repair.
Tractor Supply sells complete axle and spring kits. I think they're pretty reasonable. At my store they're on a rack in the back left corner of the store behind the truck toolboxes.
yeah its nasty all right, i have a welder comming to look at tommorow, but from the looks of it, its a lost cause, i wondering if should even have him come over to look at it, i dont want to waste his time.
Northern Tool, Reneck Trailer Supplies, Atwoods, Champion Trailers and others all have replacement axles for reaonable amounts if the rest of the trailer is good. I think a replacement axle is probably going to be cheaper than having a portable welder do the job.
I'll second that!! I live near them and the counter people know what their product are and are always helpful.
That being said' around here you can buy a dead boat on a trailer for a couple hundred bucks. I just bought one to replace a roller trailer. Got it for 100.00 and cost me 40.00 to take the boat to the dump.
i dont think you have enough left to weld to and the rest of the axle is most likely in the same shape
from the looks of your pics your axle will need to come off any way to weld
Tell the welder not to come. To weld it you need good steel as a base on which to weld new steel reinforcements. There is no good steel in this axle. You would spend more money getting it repaired than a new axle costs. And a repaired axle would be marginal at best. Don't waste time and money on this thing.
I've gotta go with everyone else... replace the axle and also look at replacing the leaf spring retainers as well if not the leaf springs too. Pic 3 looks like the bottom spring is completely out of the retainer... or what's left of it. Don't shortcut this repair with welding corroded steel, you'll most likely find yourself on the side of the road with a ruined day out on the water.
well, you all were right. the welder said the same thing. therefore, i have decided to replace the axle. any advice on how to mesure the axle so that i get the right size also any other advice would be great.
Go to Champion Trailer and then to the "How to measure an axle". There are two basic dimensions you need but since your axle is already bent it will be tough to obtain. Those two dimensions are hub face to hub face and spring centers. Hub face to hub face means you remove the wheels and measure the distance between the outside surface of each wheel hub. This is the surface the wheel butts up against when mounted. The spring center distance is the distance between the center of the two springs. The only other considerations are axle capacity -- yours is probably a 3500# axle, and whether you want to buy new hubs with it. I recommend you do that since yours are probably in pretty tough shape since the rest of the axle is toast.
