Damaging your AS as you tow!

[grtwhthuntr]

While I have read on this subject, I'm not sure if fellow AS owner's really realize how bad the damage can be from deficient running gear. I have a 72 excella 500 that we had purchased last year. After reading the forum here, I realized that I had bad axles. While the trailer needed some repair, it was nothing that I relaized could be from the bad axles, i.e. Bulkheads coming loose at the ceiling, rivets throughout the trailer worn through and the rear end looking loose.
My thoughts after reading was just that I had rear end seperation and that I needed to take care of that...it would be ok for one trip... Well we cleaned it up and I put new tires on it (I should have realized the wheels should clear the skirting easily if only the axle would fall back down). We took our new AS on a short jaunt of about 100 miles and camped, had a wonderful time. We returned home and I was setting the trailer up at the house and noticed that I had more rivets missing and now had a piece come apart in the rear...hmmm.
So I looked into it more and yes I have bad axles...had that is. Call Inland Rv and received the axles in Oct., just now installed them. They were easy to install and I'm glad I did it myself. There are folks on here that say they used Dexter and I understood why $$ but, I will say this: the call that I made was Model # Serial # and how many. They fit perfect and I did not have to weld anything. It was a difficult decision for me with $$ versus ease, I chose ease.
So now I get to repair other pieces and parts as we go but, I feel better now that I know when we go to Ky. Lake next month I won't be literally vibrating my AS apart. CHECK YOUR RUNNING GEAR AND BALANCE IT!!!

[Silverhobby]

grtwhthntr, Good advice for any AS owner that wants to keep it "on the road safely."

[uwe]

Originally Posted by grtwhthuntr

While I have read on this subject, I'm not sure if fellow AS owner's really realize how bad the damage can be from deficient running gear. I have a 72 excella 500 that we had purchased last year. After reading the forum here, I realized that I had bad axles. While the trailer needed some repair, it was nothing that I relaized could be from the bad axles, i.e. Bulkheads coming loose at the ceiling, rivets throughout the trailer worn through and the rear end looking loose.
My thoughts after reading was just that I had rear end seperation and that I needed to take care of that...it would be ok for one trip... Well we cleaned it up and I put new tires on it (I should have realized the wheels should clear the skirting easily if only the axle would fall back down). We took our new AS on a short jaunt of about 100 miles and camped, had a wonderful time. We returned home and I was setting the trailer up at the house and noticed that I had more rivets missing and now had a piece come apart in the rear...hmmm.
So I looked into it more and yes I have bad axles...had that is. Call Inland Rv and received the axles in Oct., just now installed them. They were easy to install and I'm glad I did it myself. There are folks on here that say they used Dexter and I understood why $$ but, I will say this: the call that I made was Model # Serial # and how many. They fit perfect and I did not have to weld anything. It was a difficult decision for me with $$ versus ease, I chose ease.
So now I get to repair other pieces and parts as we go but, I feel better now that I know when we go to Ky. Lake next month I won't be literally vibrating my AS apart. CHECK YOUR RUNNING GEAR AND BALANCE IT!!!

How did you end up balancing your running gear? New axles aren't balanced any better than old ones, unless you bought them with disc brakes.

[Airstreamer67]

My solution to balancing the entire rotating mass of hubs, brakes, tires, etc, since I had no source near me to do so otherwise, was DynaBeads. A few ounces of those things will do the trick:

http://www.innovativebalancing.com/

I tried to get some Centramatics for my Airstream, but they would not fit my wheels. So, I used the Centramatics on my Jeep Wrangler (they fit just right) and bought the Dynabeads.

The Dynabeads are working very well, and actually provide more balancing effect because the rotating beads inside the tire are a lot farther away from the hub than is the edge of the Centramatic "wheel" and thus provide more balancing centrifical force. As a result, the DynaBeads provide more dynamic balancing effect ounce-for-ounce than the Centramatics. And, they're much cheaper, too, although a new set has to be used when a tire is changed unless you capture the ones from the old tire (probably difficult to do in a tire shop as they break the tires from the rims.)

[grtwhthuntr]

I used Dynabeads to balance the running gear, this was after I had the tires balanced (this took lots of weights to accomplish). Whether the Dynabeads work or not, who knows besides the engineers that designed them. They only begin to work as you come up to speed on the road. I researched the different options (centra-matics) as best I could and decided on the Dyna beads.
While I feel balancing the running gear is important, I really wanted folks who come to this forum, to understand that on our mature AS, it is very important and money well spent to check/replace those stuck axles. These are not like steel spring axles that you can obviously denote that they are bad.
Like I said previously about changing the tire, I couldn't understand why the tire would not clear the skirting. And I thought I was mechanically inclined...
If the tire does not drop as you jack up the trailer the axle is stuck...Duh.

[uwe]

Originally Posted by grtwhthuntr

I used Dynabeads to balance the running gear, this was after I had the tires balanced (this took lots of weights to accomplish). Whether the Dynabeads work or not, who knows besides the engineers that designed them. They only begin to work as you come up to speed on the road. I researched the different options (centra-matics) as best I could and decided on the Dyna beads.
While I feel balancing the running gear is important, I really wanted folks who come to this forum, to understand that on our mature AS, it is very important and money well spent to check/replace those stuck axles. These are not like steel spring axles that you can obviously denote that they are bad.
Like I said previously about changing the tire, I couldn't understand why the tire would not clear the skirting. And I thought I was mechanically inclined...
If the tire does not drop as you jack up the trailer the axle is stuck...Duh.

Makes sense now.
And, I come from the same school of thought. Every axle I have ever replaced has become the best improvement to a vintage trailer's running gear.