Dual axle boat trailers

[craigk1]

Load sharing dual axles or dual slipper springs what's the best.Doing some dirt road plus little beach driving any has anybody towed both or one off these trailers any advise would be a great help thanks

[shy guys]

Have had both load share all the way new boat I bought has slipper will be replacing with load share ASAP

[shane450]

The all4adventure boys have twin slipper springs on theirs , it goes everywhere

shyguys why don t you like the slipper set up ? any reason the load share is better ?

I m just about to build a trailer for my rig for the same use .

[Noelm]

There is a very vaild reason for load share, just the name is a give away, lets look at a very common scenario, you have dual slippers, so the two axles are not connected in anyway, you drive into a garage (or reverse into your driveway) and it has a bit of a rise across the footpath, when one wheel is on that rise ALL the weight of the boat and trailer is on that wheel (and spring) as it is "forced" up while on the rise, a single slipper can, and will, just fold up and bend, because it has 4 times the weight on it! get the idea? on a load share, the rocker moves to "share" the load on the other spring, pretty simple really. That being said, I am going to swap my trailer from load share to double slippers, pretty strange hey?

[shane450]

There is a very vaild reason for load share, just the name is a give away, lets look at a very common scenario, you have dual slippers, so the two axles are not connected in anyway, you drive into a garage (or reverse into your driveway) and it has a bit of a rise across the footpath, when one wheel is on that rise ALL the weight of the boat and trailer is on that wheel (and spring) as it is "forced" up while on the rise, a single slipper can, and will, just fold up and bend, because it has 4 times the weight on it! get the idea? on a load share, the rocker moves to "share" the load on the other spring, pretty simple really. That being said, I am going to swap my trailer from load share to double slippers, pretty strange hey?

why you swapping ?

[Noelm]

I know it seems to be the reverse of what I said (and in a way it is) my current trailer (Sharkcat) is a shit to tow, even at low speeds, currently it has very short 7 leaf load shareing springs, I'm going to have a go at dual slipers at "normal" length, that being 720mm from the bolt centre to the centre of the "slipper" bracket, now doing this might do nothing, but I am willing to give it a shot, the springs are shagged anyway, and need replacing, so, my options are, replace the current setup, with some custom made eye to eye springs (they have to be custom, as there is nothing the same as I have) or, replace the whole setup with dual springs and hope!! I might add, it also has 10" wheels, so they might contribute to the bad towing too. As it stands, the only speed I can tow at that seems reasonably OK is around 70KPH max, which is fine, as I only live 2k's from the ramp, but to go anywhere else will be a slow old trip. I have tried moving the wheels back and it helps a tiny bit, but it puts so much weight on the tow ball, the poor old 'cruiser is like a dog with worms dragging it's bum along the ground! So I am going to fool around with the whole suspension setup and hope!

[Feral]

Straight slippers does mean you can have the frame lower, but it does need either not to heavy a load, or reasonably smooth paths / roads your driving over. If its an over ride brake system, the load is probably light enough not to worry about load sharing, and take advantage of the lower trailer height.

[SunnyCoastMark]

Hey Craig,
Load sharing is OK if you are doing a LOT of milage on corrugated dirt roads or if your trailer and boat are more than 3 ton. Aside from that, there are a few pros & cons:-

Load Sharing

FOR:- Smoother ride on rough roads.

The weight is distributed out a little bit more over both axles (as per Noels example) - but not as much as people think. - The travel in the rocker box and shackles is limited and this is very eveident when you go over a kerb for example - the roker arm and or shackles will "bottom out" - at which point they are no longer load sharing......

AGAINST:- More Expensive

More moving parts - which always requires more maintenance and will result in more failures if not maintaind regularly (Imagine the rocker springs siezing up at diffrerent angles on each side of the trailer) - I have seen that with box trailers - never mind boat trailers. Try buying half of one side of a tandem rocker set up. - A lot of places will only sell the full side. If you can get the individual components - depending on the supplier - they aren't cheap. Not saying you can't - but it is more problematic.

If you have a flat tyre - the suspension will drop on that side, meaning you have to deal with the flat immediately.

Difficult to move around by hand as all 4 wheels are always on the ground (can't wind jockey wheel up or down enough to take weight off front or back wheels)

SLIPPER SPRINGS

FOR:- Cheaper

Easy to maintain - rust doesn't pose any short term issues. Easy to replace.

If you have a flat tyre - it is quite safe to carefully proceed with only 3 wheels. - I know guys who have driven 100's of km that way. One guy lost his wheel - didn't even know until his next fuel stop.

Easier to move around by hand as you can push the coupling end down to take some weight off the rear wheels - then it moves around almost like a single axle.


AGAINST Bit of a rougher ride on rough roads - the slippers will wear a bit more in to the wear plates (if you have them) - due to the increased back and forth action.

Not recommended on heavier trailers (over 2.5t)

Hope that helps.

Mark

[Noelm]

What Mark said it pretty well on the money, my old cat (way over 3tonne) had 8 leave twin slippers and it towed like a dream, that is what I am basing my conversion on, but the old boat also had 14" light truck tyres, so.... maybe that is the biggest factor in why my current setup is bad, might pay to try some new wheels first maybe? The only problem I ever had with the twin slipper setup was when I reversed up againt the gutter at home (missed the driveway) and one spring "slipped" out of the box thing at the rear, now that a whole bag of fun to get back in!

[craigk1]

thanks for the help and info guys thinking of going with slippers plus detachable shockies for long trips ect kimberly or cape york trailer is a oceanic custom 5.2 carring a 525 mclay fortress 100 yam 4 st thanks for the help