Fun saturday morning replacing the trailer axle

[kenny]

I'm getting too old for this stuff. It took me and my fishing partner 3 hours to change my trailer axle. The hardest part was busting the 4 stainless nuts bolting it to the trailer frame. My 5 year old Coastline trailer is in good shape but the axle plate was on the verge of failing. They put a 1"+ piece of aluminum plate between the aluminum Ibeam and the galvanized steel plate. On one side the plate was bending and one bolt was almost all the way through the plate. the washer looked like a tiny funnel. My buddy is 12 years younger some he was on the dumb end of the cheater pipe. The part was $450. and picked up by a friend coming from POC. His son dropped it off at the house on his way back to TAMG.
In one image I'm holding what steel & aluminum mixed with saltwater makes. It's like calcified something or sheetrock! That stuff growing like a "rock garden" is what bent the plate in one the image above.

[kenny]

....and so it doesn't happen again quite so fast, I put a 10x3x1/16" piece a thin hard plastic drilled for the bolts between the 1" aluminum plate and the steel. I also just invented the absolutely best way ever to rinse your wheels and axle, the oscillating sprinkler!

[Root Canal]

Good job Kenny. Trailer manufactures know that if you bolt dissimilar metals together
it causes problems. Just maybe they do that to sell more replacement parts.

[kenny]

They know but there's really no other way. Apparently aluminum is too soft for an axle. The 1" plate that Coastline puts between the plate & the frame acts as an anode rather than the trailer frame like my old McClain trailer. I'm going to see if the really hard plastic between the layers will help or not.
If I didn't launch 3 -4 times a week it wouldn't happen as soon.I cut the fender boards off the fenders because they drain right on the torsion bar, wheel, and axle. Going to silicone a 2.5" ethefoam backer rod on the fender instead,

[dbarham]

Corrosion x and axle grease then drive it down a dirt rd.

[kenny]

I corrosionXed the chit out of it, which increased the difficulty of installation x5. The hardest part after the bolts was raising the axle into place with two floor jacks. Had to fight the asymmetrical weight of the hubs and keep the plate level.

[dbarham]

Sounds like a PITA

[FlatoutFishin]

That oscillating sprinkler idea has been around since man first started 4 wheeling...leaves a dirty *** driveway, but sure helps breakup that gumbo on the undercarriage!

[dbarham]

That oscillating sprinkler idea has been around since man first started 4 wheeling...leaves a dirty *** driveway, but sure helps breakup that gumbo on the undercarriage!

Been off roading again bro?

[TroutSupport]

Let's see pics of the new axle

[kenny]

Ok, I'll take some after dinner and before I walk.

[kenny]

Here ya go.
In the pic with the torsion bar you cab see the black plastic spacer between the layers of dissimilar metals. The bearing buddy's have hard plastic screw in hexagon caps too.