MM49 you bring up some really good points. A lot of people don't set up the WDH correctly.
Your observation brings me back to what I was trying to get across. Most trailers with a WDH set up incorrectly, won't break the trailer frame.
69,
This is exactly what I said was causing some of the tongue/body integrity issues. Funny, now you agree. It is not an Airstream issue. It is a dealer/owner hitch adjustment issue. Check out the 2010 Summer, Fall and Winter issues of
Airstream Life magazine. It is all in there how to correctly set up a weight distribution hitch for Airstreams that will work just right. One particular hitch was mentioned by an Airstream dealer in southern California as being especially problematic as the spring bars are really more bars than spring. It is the Equalizer hitch. Staying away from that hitch probably will go a long ways in keeping the tongue/body integrity issue moot. Or, just go with substantially lower spring bars for stouter trucks and vans. Many truck manufacturers now do not recommend restoring all the weight taken off the front axle, some only half. That results in less tension on the tongue and less stress. When a dealer sets up a hitch the trailer is empty and the tow vehicle typically not loaded for camping. Add 1500 pounds of water and stuff in the trailer and people, dogs, bicycles, etc. in the tow vehicle and the hitch is then incorrectly set up. It needs to be adjusted for the load. Most customers never bother to mess with it after the dealer has set it. Therein is part of the problem and fosters observations in RV parks and campgrounds with incorrectly adjusted hitches.
As to your comments about torsion axles needed new rubber every twenty years. This is also almost laughable as that is a maintenance item on a product with a long life span. Twenty years on a standard box trailer is often the lifespan of the entire trailer
if it makes it that long! I still think your comments could be more valuable to the OP if you did not come across as trying to discredit Airstream in deference to helping somebody make an informed decision. Maybe the trailers you make work better with springs and shackles but I will take torsion axles any day. My new trailer's spring bushings were going south seriously within 5000 miles, they were some kind of plastic. Had to spend money for the Dexter bushings and equal flex system. Two years of new ownership and spending money on maintenance when had I bought an Airstream the rubber torsion axle parts would have lasted twenty years. As far as an Airstream or any torsion axle supporting the entire coach (except tongue) as it goes over a bump, that all depends on how strong the axles and springs are. Strong axles can handle the load, weak ones perhaps not. You know that---you build trailers.
BTW, I was sorry to see Avion go by the wayside. Competition is good in the industry. They were stout, heavy, well built and had real furniture inside. A real product. But, in the economic bean counting scheme of Fleetwood and other owners they just could not stand up to the economics of the day. Had they still been made maybe Airstream would have stronger frames and tongues. Maybe not! We will never know.
