6' x 4' Wooden Sider Trailer

Axle

Note -Building your own axles should only be undertaken by a skilled and proficient welder. Good weld penetration with no porosity or undercut is required to ensure the strength and integrity of the axle is not compromised. If you have any doubts about your skills, leave axle building to the professionals, poorly built and poorly welded axles can cause accidents and kill people.

Click here if you would like more information about building your own axles

This trailer plan/guide does not contain any overall dimensions for axle length as variations in hub/stub and guard design as well as rim offset & tyre dimensions can alter the hub to hub length.

Axle Measuring

Before measuring up your axle, bolt the springs back onto the chassis.

If you are having the axle made for you, getting the required axle measurements to your axle manufacturer as soon as possible will reduce the waiting time while your axle is being fabricated.

Firstly we need to clamp the guard approximately around the area where it is to go. If you are unable to clamp the guard or if the clamps will not hold, tack weld the guard on.

Position your tyre and rim inside the guard and line up the outside of the tyre flush with the rim of the guard, both vertically and horizontally. If you are pushed for room within the guard, you can move the tyre out so that the start edge of the tyre tread is flush with the guard.

Once the tyre is in position, measure from the inside hub mounting surface of the rim, to the outside edge of the spring. If your springs are set up correctly this will be the same measurement as the outside edge of the chassis. We'll call this measurement "A".

Measure your chassis width across the central part of your chassis for measurement "B". The Hub to Hub face measurements will be measurement "A" x2 (doubled) added to measurement "B".

Measuring between the spring centre bolt centres will give you the spring centres. Another way to get this is to measure your chassis width "B" and subtract the width of one spring.

These measurements should be all that is needed to get the axle manufacturer started. If you are going for a different style axle (ie, stepped or dropped axle) then further measurements will be required.

Now its time to fit the drawbar and get back to building the trailer - click DRAWBAR below