mobile home axles

[Chrisw]

How strong are the mobile home axles? I found a home made 18’ gooseneck trailer with 2 mobile home axles under it with brakes on both axles and said to have good brakes pads on it both axles. My question is would you be afraid of the axles with say anything under 10000lb on the trailer. Also the trailer is over built it very tough and kind of on the heavy side. How hard it is to get brakes or wheel bearing if needed? I don't plan on pulling this trailer all over the earth I just need a trailer to move stuff with in 20 miles of my house.



Also as a side note it was just built it has never had plates on it so there shouldn’t be many miles on the axles. It has 2” x 10” oak for the floor. The only down side is they didn’t make an easy way to secure a load.



any thoughts would be great, the only thing keeping me from buying it is not knowing anything about the mobile home axles.

 

[RustyJC]

Mobile home axles, brakes, wheels and tires are generally not built for continued service. They are generally adequate to get the mh to its site where the wheels are removed.



If you're really interested in this particular gooseneck, I'd check on replacing the suspension and axles with proper Dexter or equivalent components that are rated for your intended use.



JM2CW.



Rusty

 

[Chrisw]

Thanks Rusty, I did a search on the internet after the post above, and came up with the samething you just stated.



I'm not sure what I want to do now... ... ANY one out there have an old gooseneck trailer for sale? I hate to spend $4,000 for a trailer only to use it once or twice a month.

 

[y-knot]

Mobile Home axles are built as Throw-Aways. They are intended to be used once, at less then 2000 Miles, and then be discarded. Why? Because the Mobile Home community is just as competitive as any other market, and they only need to pay for an axle of sufficient quality too move the home to it's resting site. Same goes for the tires, they are specially made just for the mobile home industry and are very cheap. Again, they need to cut cost. Most larger Mobile Homes have 4 or 5 axles, thats 8 to 10 axles and tires for a Double wide. If they save 100 or 150 per axle by making them low quality throw-aways, they save $ 1,200 to 1,500 per trailer, What would you do?

Because the tires and axles are so cheap, most professional movers will bring 4-6 spare tires and 1 or 2 Axel assemblies or hubs. On one large construction job, we brought in 4 large modular office trailers. The guy's moving them from Georgia to Cincinnati had 13 flats along the way, and two bearing failures. I thought this was an exception, but the guy's told me it was normal and they even expected more. Bottom line is don't use anything less then a quality trailer Axel, like Dexter. They are built for a long trouble free life and the extra money they cost is well worth the expense.

There really is no way that a guy can build a trailer of similar quality to those manufactured for the intended use, and save any money. The trailer manufacturers buy in such huge quantities, that they can purchase the materials needed for less then . 30 cents on the dollar for what you would buy for. The only savings would be the labor, and time is what most of us do not have. Also, it is very hard to license a home built trailer, and many insurance companies will not issue a policy to a trailer that is not factory built.

 

[Chrisw]

Hum Thanks, I am going to keep looking for used but If I have to buy new does anyone know of a builder that makes a better then average trailer for a good price.



I found http://www.indianvalleytrailers.com to have the best prices for new on the net. I have seen one in person it seem to be a very high quality trailer to a novice person like my self.

 

[Grizzly]

I have a "Big-Tex 16' Pipe Rail" pull behind rated at 7000 pounds. Not a goose neck. Works great for me. Big Tex also makes goose neck trailers, big and small. Grizzly

 

[John - K5AWO]

Hum Thanks, I am going to keep looking for used but If I have to buy new does anyone know of a builder that makes a better then average trailer for a good price. .

Chickasha, Oklahoma has a lot of trailer builders that are very competitive. Used to live just north of there and noticed the stuff on their lots. At that time, they were the best you could buy and at a good price.



Do a seach for trailers and Chickasha. Should come up with a few hits.

www.redneck-trailer.com/locations/7.htm

http://trailer-bodybuilders.com/mag/trucks_contract_manufacturing_little/



Sooner Trailer Manufacturing Co. El Reno, OK 800-256-6668 Email. Stidham Trailers Chickasha , OK 405. 224. 6414 Email. Sundowner Trailer, Inc. Coleman, OK ...

www.horsetrailerworld.com/home/manu.asp



www.carlislebrake.com/distributorlist.html



www.cimarrontrailers.com/



yellow pages would be a good place to look also

 

[merryman]

Did older mobile homes have superior axels??

I ask because I have an old home built flatbed built with mobile home axels that I have been using for at least 25 years and my brother had it befor then. I used it for years hauling hay, mostly on the place, but also delivering hay to others. It has hauled cars, tractors, and helped us move. It has easily many thousands of miles and just two years ago I finally replaced the original tires that were so cracked they looked awfull. I have repacked the wheel bearings no more than three times in all those years.

I am now afraid to take it out on the highway for any distance, but it has been a very reliable trailer. Go figure??



Vaughn

 

[RustyJC]

Vaughn,



As my dear old departed Dad from Arkansas used to say, "Even a blind hog roots up an acorn every now and then. "



Guess you got a good 'un!



Rusty

 

[pwerwagn]

I would also reccomend a trailer with regular axles.

We have a hillsboro tandem dually (23,500 gvw) that has been a good trailer. I also have a pullite gooseneck with triple axles that has been good, and is relatively light weight for the capacity it has. I also have a accutrak 16' untility trailer, its been good too.

The only trailer we have with a MH axle is a small, 8x10 trailer, with a single axle. It is a pain in the butt. the tires suck. However, we have never had bearing failure or anything. It does not have brakes.

If you have the ability to build a trailer, it IS sometimes cheaper to do it. I built a tripple axle gooseneck that copys the pulllite I have and I saved almost 500$ doing it myself.

--Jeff

 

[jkalchik]

Another suggestion to use something other than mobile home axles.



My Dad & brother built a tilt flat bed 14' trailer some 20 years ago. They originally put mobile home axles under it and the brakes just never worked right, even after new backing plates, magnets, shoes, etc. My brother pulled them out and put in a new pair of Dexters 3 years ago, and not a lick of trouble since then.

 

[KevinO]

I have a set of never used 85" wide Dexter 6k axles w/electric brakes if anybody is interested PM me.

 

[Eric_77]

Our trailer (Utilimaster) was built with Mobile Home type axles and they were good axles never had a lick of trouble with that but they stopped making the brake parts for them so Iswitched over to a Dexter axle at that time. I went to higher rated axle than waht was on it before so no apples to apples comparsion but the braking is twice what the MH brakes were. upside to the MH was very low deck height and the tires are inexpensive (but not high enough capacity for the axle rating in our case) tires lasted about 3-4 years at 4k a year. The biggest drawback to the MH tires is the wheel it cannot be balanced and it must be installed properly (it can be installed crooked ) or the wheel WILL fall off.

 

[Chrisw]

Well guys thanks for the advise.



Since I have started looking for trailers I can't understand how come used trailers hold their value so well? it is unreal, I can't buy a used trailer cheap enough even if it's beat up to put new tires, deck, brakes on it and I am back at the same price of a new one :--) Why keep looking maybe I should just buy new one and have a trailer to last a life time. Or I could sell it when it need some work for the price of a new one and buy another problem solved :-laf



anyway thanks for the advice

chris

 

[jimk]

axels

Did older mobile homes have superior axels??

I ask because I have an old home built flatbed built with mobile home axels that I have been using for at least 25 years and my brother had it befor then. I used it for years hauling hay, mostly on the place, but also delivering hay to others. It has hauled cars, tractors, and helped us move. It has easily many thousands of miles and just two years ago I finally replaced the original tires that were so cracked they looked awfull. I have repacked the wheel bearings no more than three times in all those years.

I am now afraid to take it out on the highway for any distance, but it has been a very reliable trailer. Go figure??



Vaughn

I also have had good luck with the mobile home axles. I have used my trailer for several years and yet to have a single problem with the axels . I did clean and repack the bearings with marine grease. I use my trailer the same way you do. They are not the best for sure, but I am not afraid of mine, as if nothing else the of years of no problems is worth something? JimK

 

[jrobinson2]

I've used several trailers with mobil home axles over the years, I've never had a problem with bearings at all, not even on heavy loaded trailers. The brakes seem to take about the same amount of maintenance as any other old trailer (never had the pleasure of new brakes on any trailer) the 14. 5" doughnut tires are a constant PITA, they come loose if not installed perfectly and seem to constantly need air, a lot of problems with bead leaks if they sit unused, the "mobil home use only" tires wear quite fast and higher quality replacements can be pricey, on the other hand used tires mounted on a wheel are only 45. 00 around here. Most MH axles need to be shortened to use on a regular trailer, if not done correctly tire wear can be significant . I seems like about 3500 to 4000 lbs per axle holds up ok, much more and the tire and spring problems start popping up, they seem to have about the same capacity as a standard 6 bolt axle, certainly less than an 8 bolt axle. I wouldn't use MH axles on a highway trailer but they work Ok for a short run light use trailer, if the price was right.



Jared

 

[GIT-R-DONE]

I would check on EBAY for price comparisons and also there is another TDR member here that sells trailer, I think he is in Texas, but I cant remember his name. Scrap the idea of using the MH axles as they might be ok for just around the house ... . but for any type of real use or for highway traveling, I would not do it. JMO

 

[jimk]

tires

I would check on EBAY for price comparisons and also there is another TDR member here that sells trailer, I think he is in Texas, but I cant remember his name. Scrap the idea of using the MH axles as they might be ok for just around the house ... . but for any type of real use or for highway traveling, I would not do it. JMO

I have bought some new tires for the 14. 5 that are good , I dont remember the rating , 14 ply but they are used in Europe. They are taller than the trailer house tires that I am using now. I have never used the tires. I am saving them if I have a long way to go . The trick to making trailer house tires is to use a lot of air pressure when loaded and when I am not using the trailer I back off the pressure to 50. I am allways on the watch for some good used take off tires.

Now for the better axles Dexter or what ever, there use to be a place in Azle Texas that supplied a lot of the vendors with parts. I dont remember the number of the place but the prices was good. JimK

 

[Eric_77]

Souhwest Wheel is where we got our replacement axles, best price we could find and I know alot of shops buy there (kind of a retail slash wholesale place)



http://www.southwestwheel.com/