Spread axle setup?

I have the wide wheel spacing on our 2014 Heartland Wilderness TT. I don't notice any better tracking with the wide stance or problems turning over our old trailers. I would not pass on a TT just because it has wide wheel spacing but would far prefer standard wheel spacing.
Reason being if one tire looses air the good tire will hold it up off the ground or at least the rim off the ground. With wide spacing wheels one tire goes flat it will go all the way to the ground and do bad things to both the road and the rim. Forget about the tire it long gone. Oh a new 14" aluminum rim from Heartland is $198.50 shipped, plus the $100.00 for the new tire.

I challenge anyone to discern the difference between a spread axle and a closed tandem as far as sway is concerned.It's just more stress on the axles/tires which in most cases are already at or near the limit weight wise.
Just a retired truckers humble opinion.

I "think" I have them on my Forest River (PrimeTime) Tracer. I say I "think", because I don't know what standard axle distance is vs mine. Mine look like they could be spread axle based on pics and looking at others that are probably standard. On the wheel skirt mine says "EZ TOW". Mine are Dexter axles.

As far as a problem turning, I haven't had an issue. As far as how well it tows vs a standard wheel base, can't comment their either, as this is my first TT in 30 years.

Mike

icanon wrote:
Who makes these spread axle setups?

they are on "some " Forest river, and "some " Jaycos, and "some" of just about every brand.

I'm guessing they are Dexter axles

PrimeTime uses spread axles on a lot of their trailers. The spread axles gives room to have a longer spring equalizer and longer springs which help keep the load the same on both axles as well as giving a smoother ride. I like the way ours pulls and rides.

We have them on our 2011 TT. I can't say they tow better or worse as you would have to have identical setups with different axle spacing to confirm this. We tow about 6,000 / year and have not noticed any uneven tire wear. I tow in a straight line about 99.5% of the time and have to turn sharply about .5% of the time. The sharp turns don't seem to matter with the triple axle toyhaulers and the spread between the front and rear axles are much greater.

Plus if you ever want to upgrade to bigger tires/wheels/axles and springs for more load carrying capacity/safety you won't run into the problem of the wheels being so closely spaced that there is a danger of rubbing against each other.

Who makes them? Keystone for one, both Sprinter and Bullet lines.

Chip

Our 2011 Passport has them seem to work just fine tire wear is good

Who makes these spread axle setups?

The spread axle also make the TT more stable. It keeps the heat down as the tires are not heating each other up so much. As for scuffing tires. How many sharp turns do you really make? After all. it will need to be a 90 degree right turn off the highway turn to scuff the tires. You going to scuff them jacking tight into a campsite anyway.