Mobile home Axles

[Dargo]

Jimbrown, what you say is pretty well what my uncle who has sold thousands of mobile homes says; the axles pretty well are junk for all intents and purposes. They will get the home to the home site and that's about it. They are purpose built, and that purpose is to get the mobile home from the sales lot to the trailer park. Any other use is not advised.

jimainiac, yeah, I'm out there all right.
My avatar is 'beating a dead horse'. It's a long running inside joke at my expense. Once I have my mind set to doing something, it's beating a dead horse to try to tell me I can't do it.

 

[tlbuser]

They are 7,000# Dexters with UMH (Universal Mobile Home) hubs.

Are you sure they're not UTG (utility trailer grade) instead?

 

[tommu56]

I have had a home made single axle utility trailer made from a Mobile home axel for over 30 years and not had any problem with bearings it has thousands of miles on it.
The only thing I did is to by drop ceter rims for it (had split ring ones on it) after the original tires wore out in about 5 years.

and the only problem after that was I had a rim get trashed when some bone head (me) forgot to tighten the lug nuts and oveled the bolt holes.

tommu

 

[jkpell]

Thanks for the input. I found a place Dexter axles, i think, that sells the hubs. I don't think these are "true" MH axles, just they have the same wheel and hub. I see these used on dump trucks and other "heavy" equiptment but I really do not like the way they look or mount.

 

[Grand_Pooba]

I have a single axle (MH axle) cargo trailer that my father built about 20 years ago for hauling fire wood. It burns up a set of bearings about every 2K miles. The first set burned up while I was hauling a load of wood home and nice state trooper pulled me over to let me know my trailer was smoking. I check and repack/replace the bearings before any heavy hauling since then.

 

[EddieWalker]

My Dad bought a trailer with three moble home axles on it. It was a large box off of a bobtail truck that had been converted to a trailer, and even though he got a great deal on the thing, it cost him allot more to fix everything on it.

The axles are just plain junk. He was pulling the trailer with his RV and I was following in his pickup truck when we lost the first wheel in the Mojave Desert. It just went flying off into the desert.

The entrie axle was wasted with no way to fix it.

We bought a new axle in Bakersfield and replaced it.

Then about 500 miles later, the tires started to wobble. The lug nuts wouldn't stay tight. We had to stop about every hundred miles to re-tighten them.

By the time he got here, just under 2,000 miles, the hub asseblies were burned out and the wheels where wobbling. He bought new axles and we replaced them when he got here and we've never had any poblems with it since. We've taken it on several trips including almost 5,000 miles on one trip without any issue with the new axles.

I would never own a trailer with moble home axles.

Eddie

 

[swines]

what that says is, if we said it would be ok to reuse them on other houses, people would, and we wouldnt keep selling axles because the first set is your last set. but we want to sell axles so... no you cant use them more than once.

I don't think so. What that says is that the manufacturer has made a product for a one-time use and will not warranty the product for more than that - it also gets to liability on the product if used more than once.

The cost of the product is as low a possible because of its limited usage, and that cost is factored into the delivery of the manufactured housing. This is no different than "wasting lumber" for concrete forms, or any other type of material or product that is used temporarily.

 

[gboudreau]

I built a trailer 4 years ago with 2 mobile home axles and have had no problems with them. I reworked the brakes to turn them into hydraulic brakes, with using a break kit from northern tool. I did have to replace all 4 tires with new tires that did nto state they were for mobile home use as the DOt would not put a sticker on it with them. My father has a homeade 4 axle equipments trailer he used for years to move his 680 case backhoe and john deere 450 crawler loader and never had any problems with the axles or bearings.

 

[HarryVanderpool]

Take a look at this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/Shallotman/Garden2004004.jpg

We assembled this trailer in 1976 with mobile home axles.
Notice that these axles have the 5 bolt pattern.
I put a couple thousand miles on this trailer annually and it weighs #8800 lbs loaded.
Last year I bought four new 12" Dexter backplates and brake assemblys.
They bolted right up.
Also replaced all bearings and seals.
I have no question that it will be good for another 30 years.
Now, I could throw all the money that I want at new axles and it would not give me one bit better service than it does already.
Timkin bearings work every bit as good on these axles as on any others.
The same goes for the brakes.
How much better can you get than WORKS PERFECTLY!

 

[Rara Avis]

Note 4 is interesting...
www.championtrailers.com/Mobile home axles.pdf