Building your own trailer????????

[Egon]

Somewhere I have heard that mobile home axles are illegal for conversion to conventional trailer use. This may only apply to areas North of the border. I just don't know.

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[wroughtn_harv]

The biggest problems with using the mobile home axles and tires is folks want to use them to build small trailers.

The tires are fourteen and a half inch and a minimum of twelve ply. You have to use them because nothing else will fit. The springs are mono and rated for seven thousand pounds plus the axles are always over width.

The bottom line is you have a small trailer that's got tires you can't replace at your local tire store. Your axle has been shortened by a novice and susceptible to failure. You have no suspension because of the rigidity of the springs and the stiffnes of the tires.

You have expended considerable energy into a project that has limited value and utility.

The sad thing is one can go to regular trailer supply like Dallas Axle and buy the right springs, axle, hubs, coupler for a reasonable amount. You can get hubs that match your tow vehicle so you don't have to carry a separate spare for the trailer. And when you're done you have something of great value and utility.

 

[LBrown59]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( <font color="blue"> I have a 3 pound coffee can about one third full of them. </font>

What's your point? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif. Gerard )</font>

The man said that he had a hard time finding them .
I told him where there are some.
What's so confusing about that????

 

[LBrown59]

</font><font color="blueclass=small">( Somewhere I have heard that mobile home axles are illegal for conversion to conventional trailer use. This may only apply to areas North of the border. I just don't know.

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif )</font>

Ain't heard anything like that on this side of the border.

 

[LBrown59]

Just one thing to look out for. Be wary of "mobile home axles".
***I was reading that they really are designed to be used just once .
fractal
=============
***This myth like all others regarding the Mobile Home Industry is made up from twisted facts and half truths, as well as commingled facts.
The truth of the matter is as follows.
They are not designed for just a one time use.

As to double wide homes.
When I first got my dealers license the customer paid a deposit on the wheels tires and axles and had the option of keeping them or returning them for a full refund of the deposit.
The returned wheels tires and axles were used on another new home.

In later years the federal highway department ruled that the tires on the returned
wheels tires and axles could not be used on new units. This applies only to the returned tires and does not effect using the returned wheels and axles.
( imagine the tremendous boost in sales of new mobile homes tires this created for manufactures of these tires )
*Like most hair brained ideas of any regulators this resulted in fattening wallets rather than benefiting the consumer or John Q public.*
Manufactures still use the returned wheels and axles on new units by putting new tires on them.

The above applies only to double wide homes.
It has never been the general practice or policy to return wheels tires and axles from a single wide as they stay with the home.

 

[LBrown59]

Just one thing to look out for. Be wary of "mobile home axles".
1*I was reading that they really are designed to be used once,
2*and making a general purpose utility trailer out of them can be hazardous to your, and others, health.
fractal
========================
1*Most of the wheels tires and axles come from doublewide homes and are used only once because once installed at the site these homes are seldom if ever moved, so the wheels tires and axles are no longer needed by the purchaser.
The one time use results from the purchasers needs and has nothing to do with the design or function of the wheels tires and axles. The one time use is only on the consumer end of the spectrum because the returned units are used over and over again on new home shipments.

The wheels tires and axles are left on single wides because unlike doublewides these units are not set up permanently and are frequently moved from site to site or trailer court to trailer court.
Some folks set then in a trailer park and later move them to a private lot.
Some people later sell them to another person and that person has to move the home to another location.
So then the wheels tires and axles on these homes are used over and over again too.
BIW - The same wheels tires and axles are used on both doublewide and single wides.
2*What's hazardous about hauling a Sub compact or compact tractor on used wheels tires and axles that are beefy enough to haul homes that weigh many many times what these tractors weigh?

Hundreds of homes are being hauled every day on used wheels tires and axles.

PS
I got a kick out of your sceen name of fractal as it fits in with how you fractured the facts with your above comments .
L
O
L

 

[LBrown59]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Mobile home axles arent designed for one time use either, Dad ran the landfill and did all the earth moving for a large trailer plant and they reused their axles. As far as puttin them on a utilty trailer think about the fact that they only had 4 axles undr a 16 by 80 foot Builtmore home and traveled as far as california from MS with them. Most folks that have trauble with a house trailer axle usually have trouble with the tires. They dont last long at 30 psi. The side wall says 90psi required. I have a neighbor that used to recycle their tires. Hed fix the flats and mount new tires to the ones with big gashes or destroyed tires. Most of the ones on the sides of the roads were blown out because the tires had a puncture from being pulled through screws around the plant then loosing all the pressure on a long trip from a leak. Many tires last about 5000 miles under these big loads and are subjected to alot of sideways scrubbing going around corners in tight area they get put into.
I think Dayton makes the wedges for the trailer hubs to lock the wheels on they used to make alot like that for smaller equipment trailers. )</font>

==============
Mobile home axles Aren't designed for one time use either, Dad ran the landfill and did all the earth moving for a large trailer plant and they reused their axles.
Taylortractornut
4,000th Member
=====================
You're right they are used over and over and are designed for it.
I worked in a mobile plant for a while even though i was a licensed dealer at the time.

 

[MadReferee]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( You have expended considerable energy into a project that has limited value and utility. )</font>

The trailer that I built and mentioned in a previous post is still in use today by a local carpenter, almost 15 years after I sold it. He uses it to haul his tools and equipment between job sites.

If it's constructed well by someone who knows what he is doing (and I know what I am doing /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif), it will last a long time.

 

[LBrown59]

1*Years ago, a number of people sued some of the mobile home manufacturers and/or delivery/setup companies for removing the wheels and axles, then charging high prices to replace them if the home had to be moved in the future.
2*So I think now you'll find nearly all dealers include in their contracts the fact that the tires, wheels, and axles are NOT included in the price of the mobile home and will be removed when the home is installed.
3* Some insurance companies will not insure a mobile home unless the wheels and axles have been removed,
4*and I learned that some rural utility companies will not provide utilities to a mobile home that still has the wheels and axles under it.
5*More regulations all the time.
Bird
**********************
I've had a Mobile Home dealers license since the year you turned 33.
During those years I have heard every myth rumor and half truth imaginable about the MOBILE HOME INDUSTRY.
Been there done that and have 3 drawers full of tee shirts. LOL

1*This probably happened with doublewides as usually the wheels tires and axles remain with single wides. Anyone would be foolish to purchase a single wide if they weren't permitted to keep the wheels tires and axles
2*I have never done that or required the customer to surrender the wheels tires and axles. Any dealer doing that don't deserve the sale and it should be a red flag for a consumer to walk off the lot.
3*Not exactly correct. Here's how it works, or at least it did with the 2 different insurance companies I was licensed through a couple of different times.
A-Some insures won't insure a MH period with wheels tires and axles or without wheels tires and axles.
B-Some insures will insure them at the higher M.H. rates and it doesn't matter whither they have the wheels tires and axles on them or not.
C-Other insurers insure them at the steeper MH rates if the wheels tires and axles are attached or if you remove them you get the same lower rates that the stick built homes enjoy.
4*Another case of distortion.
Some if not most electric companies provide 2 levels of rates.
A The higher mobile home rate. The MH rate usually requires a larger deposit held over a longer period of time.
B A lower residential rate with a lessor deposit required, that's the same as for any other house.
To qualify for this lower rate the home many be required to meet one or more of these items.
1-The home must remain on the site for a certain length of time before applying for the lower rate.
2 -Some sort of masonry foundation must underpin the home.
3- Wheels tires and axles must be removed.

5*The mobile Home Industry is one of heaviest regulated industries in the country
and the banking and insurance industries are 2 of the most under regulated ones,

I would be far more leary of converting a travel trailer or RV trailer than I would be with using a mobile home.

 

[rdln]

My flatbed has the mobile home axles all 102inches of them, I bought it used and it has been a good trailer.

The brakes are junk. I have been able to replace the components with new parts from a Hudson trailer dealer.

The mobile home use only tires are junk (for a trailer that is used frequently) and will earn you a fine around these parts. But you can replace them with Load King LowBoy heavy duties (AN excellent DOT tire) also there are better rims with a "bump" which prevents rotation if the clamps come loose.

I bought this trailer soon after I decided to make money with the tractor and I was still a little green /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif, if I knew then what I know now I would have passed on the mobile home axle setup in favor of six or eight lug one piece truck type wheels.

I bought the trailer building books (vol 1 and 2) from Northern and have found them worth it though the author has a fetish for the goofy offset tongue "step neck" couplers.