weight capacity. Add an axle?
A guest arrived this past summer with a Holiday Rambler 5er carrying a Harley on a Hydrolift. He had 3 axles. HR never made a triple in a non toy hauler that I know of, so I asked about it. He added...
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I have been thinking hard on adding an axle as the cure for that as well as capability to add a rack/ lift to bring toys.
My idea is to add a 5200# axle with trailing arms, air bag lift wheel skirts from a TT ro match, well behind the primary 7000# tandems. It would look no different than youv'e seen on many a dump or cement truck with a tag. An easy job in my shop.
That way, we can adjust carrying capacity to the load.
I don't think a 5.2k axle/wheels/tires could take the abuse.
Well behind the two 7k axles ? Several inches or several feet ? You would sure have to do some serious engineering and use heavy materials in the fabrication.
Sounds like your sitting up a drag axle. Truck/trailer drag axles I've seen are usually of the size of the primary axles as they will have tremendous side loads applied while they side scrub wide around a corner.
The two 7k tandams will carry the load while the drag axle slides a big radius behind them as the trailer goes around a corner.
Interesting concept. If you decide to go with the drag axle I would use a tire and wheel with the heaviest capacity possible such as a Load G tire and wheel..
I'm surprised the RV industry hasn't gone with a spread axle on the heavier units.
I know the GN trailer (equipment and flatdeck) industry has started using spread axles on units with tandem 7k-10k axles. Drivers with 3500/4500/5500 size trucks report a much better truck ride/better straight line tracking in strong side winds/less load on the trucks drive axles and less worry about load placement on the trailer.
