Nyone have a homemade trailer with MH axles?

[Iplayfarmer]

It was not you Bob but I remember your issues.

There is another guy, Iplayfarmer, I think that is going though this. His axles did not have brakes and other issues. He decided to upgrade to trailer axles and that led to tons of issues. He needed new axles which lead to new wheels and tires. The the springs would not work so they needed replaces along with spring hangers. This led to fenders in the wrong spot, and the list grew.

He is doing a good job on it but he has now realized that a new trailer would have been cheaper.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/trailers-transportation/177216-what-axle-do-i-have.html


Chris

I kind of figured it was me you were talking about. Mine didn't start as mobile home axles, but the lesson is the same. A simple, cheap upgrade or modification on an obsolete or oddball axle is never simple or cheap.

 

[lostcause]

I can always ask the State Police here in Michigan to see what they say.

that right there is what i would do. there may be a lot of good help from the people here, but you do get a lot of opinions thrown in too. i've got an 11 year old trailer i built with mobile home axles and it has always worked well.

when i built mine i got a lot of flak from a local trailer manufacturing company that i was trying to purchase a few parts from. they told me how what i was doing was illegal and showed me two mobile home axle trailers in their yard that had supposedly been brought in because the police had stopped them and had them taken off the road because of that. they wanted to sell me two of their commercial axles with brakes, along with tires and wheels - somewhere in the ballpark of $1000, as compared to the $100 i paid for 3 mobile home axles, 6 tires, springs, u-bolts, and other assorted hardware. i went to the state police commercial vehicle enforcement office to sort it out, and it turns out that using mobile home axles was in fact perfectly legal. also, i was told that the tires i had that said "for mobile home use only" were in fact LEGAL to use on my trailer. unless the tires said "not for highway use" they were fine.

moral of the story: get it straight from the horse's mouth... there are good people here, but sometimes hearsay, opinions and maybe regional differences interfere with the facts. though, with all the discussion about these axles i've yet to see a link to any state's site - not a private site. where it says mobile home axles are illegal. i have some commercial axles with the exact same style and size as mobile home axles, so i wonder how you can differentiate between the two.

 

[jonyyuma]

Axles need the electric brakes...Tires that are in good condition and not dry-rotted...tires must be properly labled..

 

[Diamondpilot]

I kind of figured it was me you were talking about. Mine didn't start as mobile home axles, but the lesson is the same. A simple, cheap upgrade or modification on an obsolete or oddball axle is never simple or cheap.

Yes, you are right. I had MH axles in my head but you had odd ball axles. I forgot. But like you said its the same lesson. I have seen it over and over. Good learning experience though.:licking:

Chris

 

[Diamondpilot]

that right there is what i would do. there may be a lot of good help from the people here, but you do get a lot of opinions thrown in too. i've got an 11 year old trailer i built with mobile home axles and it has always worked well.

when i built mine i got a lot of flak from a local trailer manufacturing company that i was trying to purchase a few parts from. they told me how what i was doing was illegal and showed me two mobile home axle trailers in their yard that had supposedly been brought in because the police had stopped them and had them taken off the road because of that. they wanted to sell me two of their commercial axles with brakes, along with tires and wheels - somewhere in the ballpark of $1000, as compared to the $100 i paid for 3 mobile home axles, 6 tires, springs, u-bolts, and other assorted hardware. i went to the state police commercial vehicle enforcement office to sort it out, and it turns out that using mobile home axles was in fact perfectly legal. also, i was told that the tires i had that said "for mobile home use only" were in fact LEGAL to use on my trailer. unless the tires said "not for highway use" they were fine.

moral of the story: get it straight from the horse's mouth... there are good people here, but sometimes hearsay, opinions and maybe regional differences interfere with the facts. though, with all the discussion about these axles i've yet to see a link to any state's site - not a private site. where it says mobile home axles are illegal. i have some commercial axles with the exact same style and size as mobile home axles, so i wonder how you can differentiate between the two.

I bet if you went back and asked 4 other cops you would get different answers each and every time. Thats what we run into here.

Chris

 

[Iplayfarmer]

I bet if you went back and asked 4 other cops you would get different answers each and every time. Thats what we run into here.

Chris

Maybe it's the District Attorney that you need to ask as ultimately he/she is the one that will be building the case against you if you decide to contest it.

 

[tommu56]

What type of rims does it have?
My trailer made from MH axle had 5 hole lugs and 14.5 split rims with
a big center hole.
I got new rims from a place in Texas (I don't remember who) the15" 5 bolt hole and large center and had used LT truck tires put on them it has been fine for years.

tom

 

[lostcause]

I bet if you went back and asked 4 other cops you would get different answers each and every time. Thats what we run into here.

Chris

i went to the office for commercial vehicle enforcement and the guy i talked to called the lieutenant who was in charge of the place and i got the answers right from him. i figured that is about as accurate as i can get, and no offense, but i trust that more than forum posts that i have never seen backed up with anything close to official documentation.

aside from all of that, my personal opinion is that trailers with mobile home axles often get a bad rap because many of them are poorly built and then maintained to a lesser standard. most people build them because it is a cheap alternative, and since they don't have much invested, they often don't care for them well. thirty years later when they pull it out of the weeds and run it it down the road it without checking it over, it probably is unsafe. recently i loaded up a three year old commercially bought trailer for someone that was in far worse shape than my 11 year old built with mobile home axles.

 

[lostcause]

Maybe it's the District Attorney that you need to ask as ultimately he/she is the one that will be building the case against you if you decide to contest it.

my first thought about this would be... is the district attorney building a case against you because of using mobile home axles or because you caused an accident?.

if it's the former, then you'll probably be dead long before it comes to trial. around here there are so many trailers equipped with that style axle that they would have to triple our taxes to pay for the staff to handle the cases. i'll say it again: lots of people say they're illegal, so if that many people think so, where's the written documentation.

if it's the latter, well... i know how safety issues on here send people into a tailspin, but the safety issue isn't in the axles, it's in the operator. if you have a well maintained trailer that you don't overload and abuse, then you shouldn't have any more of a problem than someone with a trailer with conventional axles. if you're trying to use a 30-50 year old axle that you don't know the history of, then you never know what you will get. maybe the previous owner grossly misused it, or maybe it is rusting in places where you can't tell. it doesn't matter what type of axle it is at that point.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

my first thought about this would be... is the district attorney building a case against you because of using mobile home axles or because you caused an accident?.

if it's the former, then you'll probably be dead long before it comes to trial. around here there are so many trailers equipped with that style axle that they would have to triple our taxes to pay for the staff to handle the cases. i'll say it again: lots of people say they're illegal, so if that many people think so, where's the written documentation.

if it's the latter, well... i know how safety issues on here send people into a tailspin, but the safety issue isn't in the axles, it's in the operator. if you have a well maintained trailer that you don't overload and abuse, then you shouldn't have any more of a problem than someone with a trailer with conventional axles. if you're trying to use a 30-50 year old axle that you don't know the history of, then you never know what you will get. maybe the previous owner grossly misused it, or maybe it is rusting in places where you can't tell. it doesn't matter what type of axle it is at that point.

I was thinking if you get ticketed and decided to contest it due to "Officer Dogood told me it's okay" it's going to be a DA or probably and assistant that prosecutes.