Suspension Options

And as a follow-on to what Lowsuv said, if you are wanting to go on unimproved roads, or anywhere that low hanging plumbing would be a problem, consider that carefully when shopping. For instance when I was shopping, I found a trailer ( I can't remember the brand or model ) that I liked the floorplan, but the plumbing was low to the ground, and even worse, it was at the back edge of the trailer. So it was in double danger of dragging. On my Funfinder 189FDS, the plumbing gray/black drains are essentially right behind the tire, and fairly high. Knock on wood, I have never dragged any of that on the ground, and I have been up a few roads that were somewhat rutted, rough and unimproved.
Of course, if a guy ever has that left rear tire tire come apart at speed.....it's gonna play havoc with all that plumbing being "right there" !

Time to do some real life crawling around .
gmw_photos and profdanT139 each have FunFinders and seem to be happy .
ProfDan is a boonedock freak .
gmw has the right idea about the tire upgrade .
on the west coast is where the boonedock trailers are more prevalent .
a komfort with shock absorbers and upgraded tires has served me well .
Arctic and Nash ( same thing ) are okay also .
throw in the Lance and you have the most obvious well built for boondocking .
look at the max payload , size of the trailer frame , ground clearance , tank capacities and go to work .
any of the 5 would be better than the rest for gravel road service .

If you are looking at trailers in the 21 to 23 foot range, there should be plenty available that have sufficient axle capacity. An example ( although shorter ) is my 19' funfinder. It weighs 3900 pounds ( that is total. There is 3400 pounds on the axles, ready to go camping ). It has two, 2800 axles, so there is plenty of reserve axle capacity.
I agree with the previous poster that pointed out the value of replacing existing tires with better quality. In the the 14" size, I am using Kumho 857, which is a "light truck, commercial" tire that they also market as suitable for trailers. With these four tires, I have 7496 pounds of load capacity, and as stated earlier, I have 3340 pounds on the axles. That means the tires are running at approximately 44% of their rated load capacity. I say approximate, because that would assume the trailer is balanced evenly left to right and on both axles, an honestly, most trailers are not. Point is, it is good to have excess capacity in reserve, for both axles and tires.
Shop carefully. Go to dealers, and crawl around under trailers to see what the axle capacity really is, rather than just believing what a salesman says they are.

Lance's are a good trailer, but the one's I've seen have pretty low ground clearance. The reason you step up into the dinette in the slide is because the wheels stick up into the cabin, dropping the whole trailer closer to the road.

I wouldn't take one off road without lifting it first.

Jimmc wrote:
I am the original poster and was looking at Lance trailers. They are pricey but appear well built. The Lance brochure and one site selling them touted that they have torflex torsion arm suspensions. I was wondering if that was really good or more hype. It was interesting since my old Casita has a torflex suspension and seemed to be pretty rough. Of course, that was a single axle suspension while the Lances have dual axles.

The rubber torsion axles are good and I wouldn't turn one down because that is what the manufacturer used. Just remember, the rubber doesn't last forever and you can't replace just the rubber. You have to change the entire axle. Airstream has used rubber torsion axles for quite some time and Avion used them their last couple of years. Rubber torsion axles will give you a better ride, axle for axle, not including the equalizer. As long as the axle ratings are strong enough for the trailer you will be fine. Some rubber torsion manufacturers recommend an axle rating of 1.25 for tandem axles. Others don't. It makes sense when you realize that over a large bump, like a large speed hump, one axle will be carrying the entire load for a short distance.

I am the original poster and was looking at Lance trailers. They are pricey but appear well built. The Lance brochure and one site selling them touted that they have torflex torsion arm suspensions. I was wondering if that was really good or more hype. It was interesting since my old Casita has a torflex suspension and seemed to be pretty rough. Of course, that was a single axle suspension while the Lances have dual axles.

I wouldn't worry about the axles and be more concerned about what's above the axles. I sure don't see any trailers sitting beside the road with broken axles. But I see a whole lot of trailers with a multitude of "other" problems - and that's just what I see from the outside.

I would look more at the suspension ratings than types. As others have said TT manufacturers tend to skimp on the suspension. Look for the heaviest axles and larger tire sizes. Under 15" you will be stuck with using ST series tires and not be able to upgrade to more durable LT.

If you are looking at a tandem axle trailer you need to understand the difference between the leaf spring and the rubber torsion arm suspension. There are advantages and disadvantages of each.

The main advantage to the tandem leaf spring axle is the "equalizer" which allows each axle to move under the load without much change in the spring compression. This is a huge advantage since it will take up much of the shock. This is also the reason that some folks feel that a tandem axle will ride better than a single axle. As mentioned above, you can check out Dexter's aftermarket equalizer. As far as the wide spread axle placement or the regular axle placement, I prefer the regular configuration. It won't "scuff" as bad since the tires are closer together. The wide spread axles are for trailers with weaker frames that need the added support spread out further.
Avion, for a while, used Dexter leaf spring axles that were split in the middle to a center pivot point. This gave them "independent" leaf spring axles. I think that they were too expensive and the frame required a center support. They sure did tow well.

The rubber torsion axle will give a better ride, per axle, but it doesn't have an equalizer. That is why many of the axle manufacturers will recommend that you buy the axle at 1.25 times the actual load required for that axle. Keep in mind, each axle may have to carry the entire load when going over large bumps since there is no equalizer. Also, the rubber will go bad after about 20 years or so. Flexiride is the only rubber torsion axle that I know of that has adjustable torsion arms. They are on 6 degree splines that allow you to remove one large bolt and rotate the torsion arm.

In conclusion, if it were mine, I would pick a quality leaf spring axle (regular axle spread) setup for tandem use and a rubber torsion setup for single axle use. I would choose this setup because of the way the axle systems function. Having said that, I wouldn't turn down a nice trailer because it didn't have the axle system that I liked best, as long as they were set up and rated properly.

Since you are on the west coast, I would look toward Northwood Mfg. Their frames are built in-house and advertised as an off-road frame. They also include shocks on each wheel which should really help the ride on rough surfaces