Drum wear - Magnet - Bearing Questions

[Hummer]

When I was talking to the axle design engineer we talked about shocks and he said they were not needed.

I kind of look at it like this, I asked him if it were his trailer and he could put on anything he wanted what would he do and he said the 5200 lb was what he would do as the AS would never likely see a dynamic load applied that put it into the next range where things really start to ride hard.

On the axles I took off they were in the next hard range and I had things going bad. Coming back from Vermont we stopped and I opened door and the overhead storage over my berth had torn away and was down on the bed. I fortunately had tools and was able to get it back up and screw it in place.

I knew then something was bad wrong and I had read all the warnings folks put in about tearing it up and I could not find any engineer that took a torsion bar design course but several had some automotive courses and they said 50% to 66% loading was the ideal.

[switz]

Interesting that the highest rated axle Airstream uses is 5,000 pounds found on the 31' Classics and one of the single axle Bambi trailers. I see in excess of 8,200 pounds on the axles when loaded excluding the tongue weight. That means the axles are supporting roughly 82% capacity all the time. Makes me wonder if they will have to be replaced just after the warranty expires?

So, empty at the factory, the total trailer weight was around 7,175 pounds. Deducting the theoretical 730 pound tongue weight would mean the axles were supporting around 6,445 pounds or 65% of their capacity.

Following the logic expressed above, one could need 8,000 pound rated axles to run at 55% load. The four 16" Michelin LT225/75R16/E LTX M/S2 tires are rated for a total capacity of 10,720 pounds. So the tires would become the weak link in the suspension with the higher capacity axle rating. I have not seen Load range F or G for 16" tires.....

Makes one wonder about all the lowest bidder/lowest possible cost parts we acquired at the highest possible price assembly.

[cwf]

IMHO.. hahah.. that's funny.. ahem.. excuse me... but, couldn't the 'shocks' be there for dampening of 'pitch'? For you folks who never get into the 'whoop-de-do's' of some highways, not an issue.

However, there are roads in Louisiana and Oklahoma specifically with lots of 'tilted' road surfaces where the TV will rise as the AS descends... on one road, I thought I had broken the AS as the induced bounce was very severe... would fresh "shock absorbers" damped this effect? I don't know but, I will be doing under my usual 62-65MPH when in that area... IF I go again...