Building Trailer Axle

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I Have An Old Boat Trailer That Ive Converted To A Steel Bed Utility Can Iuse 2.5 Oilfield Pipe For Axle? If So How Can I Calculate How Much Wieght It Can Haul Nayone Have Expert Advice
Reply:1- what kind of weight are you planning on hauling, 2- I think 2.5" is adequate, I don't know if trailer axles are hardened. 3- but i'm woundering how are you connecting the spindle to the axle. One sure fire way to tell if it's over loaded is if you see smoke and sparks in the rearview.
Reply:I wouldn't recommend old oilfield pipe for such a use for a couple of reasons.1.  Oilfield reject stuff tends to come heavily magnetized, hard to weld, harder to keep welded.2.  They're finding that stuff really contaminated with bad stuff that causes cancer etc.The beam part of your axle is less of a determining of your capacity than your spindles and springs.  If you're using your boat trailer axle and just expanding or shortening the axle then chances are most likely the axle is a thirty five hundred or two thousand pound capacity.And easy way to guesstimate the capacity of an axle (mobile home axles excluded) is to look at the lug pattern.  Six lug generally equate to fifty two hundred pound to six thousand.  Eight lug mean seven thousand.  The difference generally between these two is you can't have a seven thousand pound capacity with only six lug wheels.  This is just for spindles and bearings, beam size (wall thickness) and springs have to be considered also.Any other pattern, like five lug, generally means thirty five hundred pounds.  The little five lugs and four lugs are usually two thousand pounders.Eight thousand pounders up usually go wet (oil bath) and get real pricey.  I can buy a seven thousand pounder with brakes new for a lot less than three hundred.  But an eight thousand pounder is almost three times that.When you fab up a trailer axle keep in mind you're not only putting whatever you're carrying on that trailer at risk.  You're putting everyone that shares the road with you at risk.  That includes little kids in car seats.  Maybe your own.life is good
Reply:Thanks For Your Input Iunderstand The Wieght Issue,as Well As Oilfield Pipe Again Thanks