Does anyone here have rollers installed on their trailers? I am trying to protect my investment from those crazy dips in some drives at out of the way places. Any reccommendations
i have them on a 34ft avion and they work great. i have to have them for my driveway. trailer had the hard plastic ones when i got it, they will not hold up, get the steel ones from tractor supply.
I intended to install them on my '98 Safari before it got crashed. I had already bent both sides where it had little "scrape plates" to protect the bumper. I would spent the extra $$ and get good ones. My current trailer seems to do fine in most dips.
I am curious about the use of rollers, obviously Chummy does not need them, but I wonder if it would possibly damage your frame. You are placing an item below the bumper and when it hits the pavement it will put all the pressure on the rear of the frame. Granted the dents and dings you get when hitting a dip in a drive are unsightly but the soft aluminum or bumper has absorbed all of the shock. Just a thought.
I am curious about the use of rollers, obviously Chummy does not need them, but I wonder if it would possibly damage your frame. You are placing an item below the bumper and when it hits the pavement it will put all the pressure on the rear of the frame. Granted the dents and dings you get when hitting a dip in a drive are unsightly but the soft aluminum or bumper has absorbed all of the shock. Just a thought.
That's a good point on placing them below the frame - you don't want to further lower your angle of departure. I would pull a string between the rear wheel contact point and the rear bumper and then mount the rollers so they only protrude below that stringline as much as needed. The further forward you mount them the less contact they will make with the ground. FWIW.
Does anyone here have rollers installed on their trailers? I am trying to protect my investment from those crazy dips in some drives at out of the way places. Any reccommendations
DO NOT install rollers.
They "will" cause damage to the rear quarter panels should the rollers hit the ground, because the trailer will be artificially lifted with an added shock.
All Airstream trailers have built in "skids" plates added to the bottom of the rear frame. Slow down, drag the trailer on the skid plates and your OK.
If and when the skid plates become severely worn, simply replace them.
Andy,
I put 5" swivel wheels on my 03 28 SO.Safari when we brought it. They are just inside the skid plates and hang down just about 2". this has not hurt the trailer at all. I do agree with you about slowing down.
I have seen skid plates broken, even when going slow. I will take my chances with the wheels.
Eric
my 34 ft avion has 6inch frame and heavy steel bumper with swivel wheels.
i see a lot of swivel wheels on longer trailers and 5th wheels in campgrounds
all the time.
Andy,
I put 5" swivel wheels on my 03 28 SO.Safari when we brought it. They are just inside the skid plates and hang down just about 2". this has not hurt the trailer at all. I do agree with you about slowing down.
I have seen skid plates broken, even when going slow. I will take my chances with the wheels.
Eric
We replace dozens of rear quarter panels every year, that got damaged because the trailer had the dolly wheels.
I went to the lumber yard today, and bought a 2x10, cut it in half, and use that to bridge the low spot in our driveway. Our '63 has no skid plates, and I think a $7 piece of wood is cheaper than replacing several aluminum panels.
Obviously you can't do this while driving down the road, but it helps here.
My plan is to bring it home without them and see how it does coming up the driveway. My drive is not extreme but it would raise my awareness especially when I go to back it in.
I solved the bottoming out quite by accident. I installed air shocks on my E350 extended van and use them to raise and lower both the rear of the van and the Airstream. When I see a bottom scrape problem coming I inflate the rear shocks to the max and slowly move over the scrape zone of the rear of the van so it won't scrape than let all the air out of the shocks so the rear of the Airstream is higher off the ground so it won't scrape. Going slow and inflating and deflating timing the shocks is important than remembering to put the air back in the shocks at the right pressure for my unit once on level ground. It really works. Andy from inland told me that air shocks were a bad idea "an accident waiting to happen". Well after thousands and thousands of miles towing I think the air shocks saved us from many close calls not to mention avoiding bottoming out problems.
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