Hi, this is Claus from Great Aussie Campers, and I thought I comment on Steve’s experience with our trailers.
Steve had an unlucky outback experience and now thinks it is all Great Aussie Camper’s fault. Steve called me once in Broken Hill indicating that the right wheel hit the mudguard and left some rubber marks inside the mudguard. He had it checked by a trailer place in Broken Hill and confirmed that all was ok. I asked Steve if the axle had moved. He confirmed that all was in order.
He calls me again a few days later, this time from Bourke and the axle has moved. The movement appears having sheered the centre bolt and loosened the U-Bolts.
Steve has a standard Yengo off road trailer which we have sold a lot over the last few years. This is after all our bestseller. We have tested the trailers extensively off road and our customers have used them off road. Quite a few customers made the big lap (Cape York, Kimberley etc) and had no problem whatsoever. We believe our Yengo, the same specs Steve got, is well built for an off road trailer.
For the axle to move, Steve must either hit something very hard, driven too fast (not to conditions) or have overloaded the trailer. Normal off road use cannot move the axle.
Steve’s trailer has 7 leaf outback springs, rated at 1530 kg; the 45 mm square axle is rated at 1350 kg, the total trailer is rated at 1350 kg. I had a fully laden camper on a weighbridge and it came in at 1120 kg. This included 2 full gas bottles, a full 85 litre water tank, a full kitchen with gear, chairs, table, benches, firewood, axe, shove, chain saw, lights, 5 litre of petrol and some food.
For Steve’s trailer to sag with 1530 kg rated springs it must be overloaded or he must be driving too fast for the prevailing conditions or both.
Axles are traditionally fitted on top of the springs, not below. Every camper trailer manufacturer I know of puts the axle on top; the centre bolt has a nut on top and again every camper trailer manufacturer I know leaves the axle this way and does not flip the centre bolt. Alko Wetherill Park confirmed that this is the proper way for assembly. (BTW, I have checked the axle location and the nut location of the spring centre bolt of my 76 series Toyota Landcruiser, and guess what, the axle is on top of the springs and the nut is on top, not on the bottom of the springs....)
The U Bolts are fitted with a pneumatic rattle run which are run by a large 3 phase compressor. Steve has a photo of the U Bolts on my swag when the trailer left our factory and we could count the free threads. We run a test and assembled the same axle and the same U-Bolts and at a fully tightened position had the same amount of threads. This is proof that the U-Bolts were properly tightened. It is unnecessary to tighten the U-Bolts routinely after 500 km. However, common sense would indicate that during off road use you check your trailer every day so that you can attend to any issues if something ever gets lose or starts sheering.
Steve ordered a standard Yengo which we provide with a 45 mm square axle. They come standard with a Landcruiser Hub. This is the name of the stud patterns (indicating it fits on an 80 series Landcruiser or a Landcruiser Prado). It does, however, not imply that Toyota builds the hub. The 45 mm square axle does not come with parallel bearings but with standard bearings. Steve could have upgraded to our heavy duty upgrade (50 x 50 x 3 mm chassis, 100 x 50 x 3 mm drawbar, 50 mm axle with parallel bearings, rated at 1600 kg) at an extra cost of $ 990 but he elected to go for the standard specs. He cannot now criticise the bearings of the standard specs.
We have manufactured many Yengos with the exact specs as Steve’s Yengo and never had any problems with wheel travel. I have taken a test trailer with only 6 leaf springs to the Oodnadatta Track and had no problems whatsoever. I was driving to conditions and my camper was not overloaded so again, I must guess that Steve did not do what common sense would indicate he should.
We believe that our 2000 mm drawbar has at standard specs sufficient strength. We never had a problem with a cracked drawbar. Even Steve does not have a problem with a cracked drawbar; he just worries that it might crack... Again, he could have done for the heavy off road upgrade if he was that worried but perhaps he did not want to spend another $ 990 for it.
