Overloading a trailer axle

[bdog]

I am a firm believer in overkill on my road trailers. I run 17.5s and 7-8k tandems on my trailers that only weigh 10k loaded. Would never hit public roads with an overloaded trailer. That being said I am trying to rig up a welding trailer that will never leave my property. It won稚 have lights, fenders, safety chains, etc. Mostly it will be moved around using my skid steer.

I bought a diesel rotary screw compressor that was on a trailer. 3500 lb axle. I took the compressor off the trailer and mounted it on a rubber tracked crawler. I want to use the trailer to put my welder, torches, tool box, etc on. I estimate it will weigh 4000-4500 lb when done. I know it would not be safe on the road but would it hold up for slow speed use on my property? The frame is stout enough for sure but I have no idea how much margin they design into these things. If it did fail it wouldn稚 be catastrophic as I doubt it would go over 10mph but I don稚 want to go to the trouble of building the thing and then have it fall apart.

 

[bcp]

An off-road trailer sounds like the best place to use an old mobile home axle.

Bruce

 

[TMGT]

Shouldn't be an issue, with safety margins build in and only seeing low speeds it should be fine.
I've seen 3500lb axles loaded to over 5k and driven down the road. Only issues were from hitting large bumps at speed that bottomed out the suspension hard and caused a slight bend, axles were still used after that.

Tires are the same way, load rating decreases as speed increases.

 

[Redlands Okie]

Go for it. With your welding and other equipment you can always swap out the axle if things go wrong.

 

[joeu235]

My dad bent the axles on his 7K gross weight trailer 20 years ago. He just turned the axles upside down and the trailer is still going fine. You could do something similar if something happens to yours.

 

[bdog]

Thanks guys. I will give it a go.

 

[square1]

I routinely (over)load my "woods" trailer with a single 3500 lb. axle (that I cut the width down and butt welded to match my tractor's stance) with 2/3 cord of wood. It's probably been abused like this for 3~4 years now with nary a problem though I did have tire belts separate one time.