Handling Differences Between 3 axles and 2?

[RobertN]

I found that out the first time I towed the 5th wheel to the sailing club; we were able to park in their lot during a three day class. Coming home went thru the bridge toll plaza; price doubled for those extra two axles(5th wheel).

Not sure about down there but up here many tolls are by axle, not a bit deal unless you have to go through it every day.

 

[slowzuki]

The mobile home style axles are also available commonly in construction equipment trailers but have replaceable backing plates for the brakes and multi-leaf springs. The tires are DOT approved, not mobile home use only style. You can convert them to an 8 bolt 7000 lb axle with the right brake drum.

 

[Diamondpilot]

The mobile home style axles are also available commonly in construction equipment trailers but have replaceable backing plates for the brakes and multi-leaf springs. The tires are DOT approved, not mobile home use only style. You can convert them to an 8 bolt 7000 lb axle with the right brake drum.

Yep, a totally different animal. Still a pain in the butt to center the wheels right but you can get service parts. Seems like every time I got the wheels centered right I would have a flat or another issue and it would have to come back off. I will not even mess with them anymore, just too many headaches and tough to make a dime on.

Chris

 

[slowzuki]

I've never had a problem with centering mine, they always are bang on. I know lots of other people do, I wonder if there are a few brands of rims with slightly different fits? I've had a terrible time seating beads on the darn things. Load range F with 12 plys do not like letting the sidewalls seat!

 

[CrownHawg]

I'm with Chris on this subject. I have a triple axle Zieman trailer under my 32' Advantage boat and it is a dream to pull. In sharp turns, the leading and trailing tires will scrub some, but not to a point of concern. The boat and trailer weigh around 12K and it has 6k axles as well.

On a different note, my dad and I built a trailer years ago and used MH axles. The trailer is REALLY heavy, built out of 3" thick walled square tube and those axles are stiff. The wheels I can do without though. In fact, that thing has been sitting in my field for about 20 yrs now since all tires are flat and I have no interest in finding new ones.

To the OP, if you don't buy this trailer, since I'm in AR, I will buy it! Sounds like a deal!

 

[Renze]

My parents have a three axle trailer and it's a aweful. While going strait, it's fine, but when you turn, you can see the tires twisting under the side loads of being pushed sideways. Three axle trailers do not like to turn!!!!!

I would go two axle with duels if you wanted to carry more weight. I would never own a three axle trailer.

Eddie

I worked in the 5th wheel trailer business for a couple of years, and Eddies words are exactly what we recommended to customers. 3500Lb axles (or 1800kg/4000lbs in Europe) are usually light duty axles, with torsion suspension you can easily bend a swing-arm of the first axle when cornering around a kerb: its two against one, the one axle will give.
When stepping up into the 5400lbs (or 2.5 ton) segment, the axles are already of a heavier duty class, can take much more abuse, the tires are bigger, commercial grade and have a stronger carcass, etcetera.

If you really want HD you need 205/65R17.5 tires which are slightly higher than the 195/65R16 we used for tandem duallies, but because these are tires for medium size trucks, they will last two or three times the mileage of light truck&van tires, with a lower rolling resistance, means less fuel consumption.
When deck height isnt of key importance, we often sold them with 205/65R17.5 as duals on a single 5.5 ton air brake axle.

The only time we sold 3 axle trailers were for market wagons that really needed the low floor height in combination with a 7 ton gross trailer weight, on six 195/55R13 tires. that gave deck heights as low as 25" and still carry 7 ton on the tandem dually...

However, this may be way over the top for private use only...??