Safari 30' bunkhouse owners club!

[rluhr]

Sorry for the confusion. I'm thinking that re: ball height and the Hensley low point measurements, that we have a methodology problem. So many people were working on the trailer this a.m. that I think that someone may have changed the screw jack tension on the Hensley during the measuring process.

Looser screw jacks would cause the front end of the trailer (and back end of the Armada) to drop, and I believe that is what happened around the time we were taking those measures of the hitch ball and Hensley before the axles were replaced. Thus, those two measures should not be taken too seriously. They probably show far more elevation gain (3 inches) than we really got. The 3/4" lift at the wheels is more indicative of what really happened.

I also failed to note that I have been increasing the tension on the Hensley screw jacks over the past several months in an attempt to compensate for the back of the Armada riding lower and lower over time. Increased tension didn't help. Eventually this led to noticing that the axles were bad. Now that the axles have been replaced, I am able to use the original tension that we set up the Hensley with three years ago, and get better leveling.

My conclusion here -- based on my experience only -- is that bad axles can mess with your weight distribution, by changing the hitch ball height. In other words, the 3/4" decrease in trailer height made it impossible to get the truck and trailer properly leveled. I suppose if I'd replaced the stinger to one with a 3/4" deeper drop I would have been able to compensate. But that would only be masking the true issue, which was the axles failing to hold the trailer up as far as they should, and not having proper 'travel' in them to suck up the bumps.

[robandzoe]

Originally Posted by overlander63

Rob, Axis exited the Airstream axle business a year or so back. The two main choices now are Henschen and Dexter.

Actually, we are still getting Axis axles and mine are good to go! GSM deals them and I'm liking ours. Good luck with your next 4 years and the replacement thereafter.

R/s, an Axis fan!

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Originally Posted by overlander63

Rich's trailer is still here, and I'm going to verify the trailer is level, and remeasure the ball height. We're thinking that Sophie misread the tape measure...

Hi, Yea,Yea, blame the poor dog!

Sophie, do you want to move to Lakewood?

[Rick Gillis]

I did a quick check on my unit yesterday. The height from the ground to the wheel well was about 25 inches. Since winter is quickly approaching I'll have to wait until spring or our winter trip to dive into any of the other details. Our Bunkhouse has about 8,000 miles on it.

[wheel interested]

How often do new Airstreams need their axles replaced? Now that you have new axles Rich (and howdy Terry!) will you and the gang at Inland Andy be able to determine why they failed?

[Amsterdamer]

It looks like our height to the wheel well is between 25" and 25 1/2". It's difficult to tell, since I have it parked on dirt/grass and it is not level. I took some pictures and it looks very similar to the others that have been posted: An appearance of slightly beyond optimal angle under load.

On the Inland RV site, Andy has a nice diagram indicating starting and normal load of a Henshen axel.

Making Henschen Axles Tour


Notice that there is a taper from the axel mount to the wheel mount, so the pictures actually show that the load that the wheel is placing on the axel is within the normal load range.

The center of the wheel hub is still near the bottom of the axel.

Yes, there is a little snow falling.

[Minnie's Mate]

Originally Posted by wheel interested

How often do new Airstreams need their axles replaced? Now that you have new axles Rich (and howdy Terry!) will you and the gang at Inland Andy be able to determine why they failed?

I'm with Carol, how soon should the axles need replacing?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Anyway, it seems that there are tons of vintage Airstreams that have their original axles (most need them replaced long ago) but some have made it for 25-30 years or more with the originals. I know InlandAndy once said that he has seen others that needed replacing within a short time after manufacture. It seems that something was going on with Rich's...maybe from a bad batch or could it be that the earlier models had a lighter duty axle than the later models? He stated that the frame for the 30' Safari was the same as for the 30' Classic, did they not use the same axles as the 30' Classics? Should they have used the same? Did they use the 30' Classic axles on later 30' Safaris. Just pondering out loud here. It seems that one axle being flawed from the factory on his trailer is understandable, but both axles on the same trailer being flawed? Unless there was a whole bunch of axles that were flawed at the same point in time...maybe bad batch of rubber rods?

[Inland RV Center, In]

One end of one of the axles is being shipped to Henschen today. Sending a complete axle is not necessary.

It will be pulled apart and examined in their laboratory, hopefully answering, "why did it fail" question.

We will learn the results of those tests, at a later date, which could take about 4 weeks or more.

Once we have the data, we will post it accordingly.

Andy

[Minnie's Mate]

Thanks Andy. Looking forward to reading the results here.

[SafariSS]

Andy, what brand of axles did you guys put under Richs Bunkhouse?

[overlander63]

Originally Posted by SafariSS

Andy, what brand of axles did you guys put under Richs Bunkhouse?

Rich requested, and got, Henschens. 5,000 pound capacity, up slightly from his OEM 4400's. He has detailed his experiences with the new axles compared to the old ones in his blog.

[rluhr]

I've heard from four other Bunkhouse owners at this point. Only one (RossFam05BH) has provided a picture that indicates torsion arms outside the "normal" range as depicted on Inland's website. The rest seem to be within normal operating range as far as I can tell from the photos.

So in my opinion we can't yet conclude that there was a bad batch of axles. But as to the cause of this, and whether my axles should have lasted longer, I can't say.

I can say that I already like the 5000# axle upgrade, because of the slightly higher clearance (3/4" at the wheels in our case), and the increased shock-absorption I'm seeing in my sideview mirror during turns. I may eventually go to Load Range E tires as well, just because I've had several belt failures in tires over the past year (with all brands of tires!)

As always, "your mileage may vary." Remember, we averaged 20,000+ miles per year. With that kind of heavy use, my tendency is to over-maintain the trailer rather than wait for things to break. Those original axles probably had many miles left in them, but for our situation I felt it was time to go for the upgrade.

[SafariSS]

We managed to take a week for the Thanksgiving week to travel this year. We decided to travel the Natchez Trace and take it easy, hiking and dry camping along the way. We did have two nights of rain and on the way home I had to tow through rain about three hours worth however. In the back of my mind I am always thinking about leaks, you always read about people with leaks and rotten floors you kinda expect it if a leak is let go. So....I always find myself looking under cabinets, inside plumbing chases, feeling around windows to the point my kids think something is wrong with me! Well, this time I found a leak. Most bunkhouse owners have dealt with or will deal with the front storage box access door issue, I dealt with mine under warranty and chose to replace the front panel with a solid piece to eliminate a leak point and I was planning on putting two more drycells in there anyway.



After my tow in the rain, I notice a damp pillow on the front bedroom bed. I once dealt with this issue and it turned out to be the polyurethane at the base of the black frame window was not there. This time I think it was being force into the drain hole at the bottom of the Hehr window as I could see the spray from the hole on the window screen. I started to poke around and decided to pull the bedpanel up and look at the floor. Bummer, I felt damp carpet, so I proceeded to pull back the carpet to look at the sub-floor and yest it was wet. Then I removed the pop-riveted panel from the previous access panel to see what it looked like from the inside...



I found damp insulation at the bottom as well as the top. The top would be attributed to the window, but the bottom upon further inspection could have been leaking from the bottom. It appears the bottom channel that the bolts go thru the trailers frame have been leaking from either under or above the exterior beltline. This beltline was replaced when my previous repair was made and the Acrly-r was new. I have included another pic that shows the sealant with a "crack" in it, I find it amazing that if that layer of sealant is all that keeps the water from finding its way in? Furthermore, I wonder why this area seems to get so much flex. My original access door cracked on either side in less than 7k miles of towing, which also would be a sign of movement. I wonder what a non front storage aluminum frame has up there, do they flex? I do tow with a 3/4 ton but the ride is very nice, not harsh. Comments??

[Minnie's Mate]

Originally Posted by SafariSS

Comments??

Bummer. Could it be leaking where the old hinge was at the lower location? I can't tell but it looks like it may be there in the exterior photo. It is probably glare, though.

[Antique Pedaler]

Originally Posted by Inland RV Center, In

One end of one of the axles is being shipped to Henschen today. Sending a complete axle is not necessary.

It will be pulled apart and examined in their laboratory, hopefully answering, "why did it fail" question.

We will learn the results of those tests, at a later date, which could take about 4 weeks or more.

Once we have the data, we will post it accordingly.

Andy

Did you ever get a response? We have a Bunkhouse in family.

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by Antique Pedaler

Did you ever get a response? We have a Bunkhouse in family.

Henschen has received one end of Rich Luhr's axle.

As of today, no report yet.

Andy

[Inland RV Center, In]

We replaced Rich Luhr's axles, since his originals, played out.

The original weight rating was 4400 pounds each, as specified by Airstream.

In Rich's case, the torsion arm angle went beyond zero degrees.

We replace Rich's axles with 5000 pounds. That corrected the poblem and raised his trailer as he previously reported.

We cut the old axle in half and sent that half to Henschen for lab tests.

We now have the lab tests.

Since the axle had a zero weight load for about one month, the starting angle returned to near normal.

The durometer tests showed the rubber rods to be within specs.

The overall answer, was no defects, of any kind.

Conclusion: It's now obvious that the original axle rating, as chosen by Airstream, namely 4400 pounds, was inadequate.

The 1200 pound increase on Rich's trailer showed a considerable improvement, even with a starting angle of 22 1/2 degrees.

We will get together with Henschen next week, and see if we can have a special "axle" for the bunk house owners.

We will look into 5500 pound axles, with a 35 degree starting angle.

We will post the results of our inquiry in a few days.

It appears then, that all the bunk house owners may have a forth coming axle problem, depending on use and loading.

Andy

[Minnie's Mate]

It appears then, that all the bunk house owners may have a forth coming axle problem, depending on use and loading.

What does that mean for the rest of us? Do we get warranty replacements? Extended warranties on the original axles at no cost? Obviously, it was an error in design if the axle should have been the 5,500 LBS. axle.

[SafariSS]

Well Tom, not to be pessimistic, but I suspect we get the shaft!

Look forward to meeting you guys at the CanOpener (I am in 121),how many bunkhouses, just two?

[rluhr]

Yeah, I would not hold my breath for a warranty replacement either.

Wish I could make it three bunkhouses at the Can Opener but this year we'll be on the opposite side of the country.