bedpan wrote:
I had never thought of the flex going all the way up into the frame but I guess that makes sense... The amount of flex you can see in the tires during a sharp parking lot turn is scary. To be honest I never thought of it as an issue. I turn the wheel as much as I need to to compelete my turn. I never put thought into the flex wear and tear on the axle hangers, frame etc.. It makes me want to re-think how I approach some parking lots, getting gas etc.
Lets hope Monday see's me back in action. I missed last week of holidays in the trailer and I have another week coming up late September that I am not holding my breath on.
Lynnmor wrote:
If you look at the frame rails from the end, imagine what happens on a curve. The two upright I-beams will tilt forming a sort of parallelogram, continued flexing like this will fatigue the metal and cause the failure you see.
Here is my crude example to illustrate the problem:
I------I I------I
Keep in mind the dynamic forces as you drive at highway speeds. That large and high trailer has a center of gravity far above the spring hangers and puts considerable force into the frame and suspension as you round a curve. A fellow poster on here, that I got to know because of these of problems, actually attached a camera to record the action. The frame flex was unbelievable and if you saw it you would wonder how they last a day.
You can play games with the folks already mentioned or you can build up the trailer to a point that it can actually be used. Had I not beefed up mine, I have no doubt that it would have never made it all over the USA, not even close. In addition to the frame improvements, I added shocks and replaced 100% of the items below the frame with better stuff.
