Building your own axle

[Poormans Boatright]

As some of you might already know my rusty old axle broke on me the other day, luckily in my driveway. After pricing what a new galvanized axle would cost (around $300), I decided to build my own. Only I used stainless pipe for the axle, this should out live the boat. I had to order the 2" round weld-on spindles from Northern Tool online as they were out of stock in the store. They had the leaf springs and 5 on 4.5 hubs. I bought the u-bolt kit on E-Bay.

The spindles were just a little shy of being a perfect fit into the 2" i.d. stainless sch. 40 pipe, so I used a small piece of shim stock to take up the minimal slack and thus making aligning up the spindle to the pipe easy. With little to no slop the spindle fits pretty straight in the pipe, after first tacking the spindle I used a precision level to make sure the spindle was true. Since the spindles are made of carbon steel and the pipe is stainless, 309 tig wire was used as a filler. After putting 4 tacks and assuring the spindle was perfectly true I welded it out completely. If you decide to build your own axle and are not confident in your ability to weld the spindle, I would have a competent welder do it for you, remember your safety is of great concern here. O.K. after completely welding the spindle I cooled it down with compressed air, to speed up the process (never used water to cool welds, as it can cause cracks in the weld).

Once on spindle was welded and cooled, the next step is to install the hub. These hubs from Northern Tool were a good value, at $31.00 each, they come with greased bearings, seals, studs with lug nuts and a dust cap. The measurement from the old axle was 80" from hub face to hub face, so once this hub was installed I simply measured form the face of the hub 80" down on the pipe, less 3" for my cut mark on the pipe. I then used a handy pipefitters tool to make a solid line around the pipe for my cut mark. Next I used a portaband to cut the pipe. Now you just repeat the process on this side as you did on the other spindle.

Once the spindles are welded and hubs installed all you have to do next is install the spring perches. I was going to make these out of stainless plate, but I got lazy and just bought some, these a carbon steel. So once they were welded, I coated them with galvanize spray can. Not 100% effective, but good enough. My perches measured 8-1/8" inward from the hub face.

Now you are ready to install your new axle onto your trailer frame. Also I use anti sieze on all hardware to prevent corrosion on the threads and thus will save yourself some headache the next time you need to remove them. Here are step by step pics.

 

[earl60446]

Wow, nice work, never learned to weld, always wanted to. Some guys really know what they are doing when it comes to fabricating / welding, nice pictures too.
Tim

 

[PSG-1]

Nice job! I've always built my own axles, rather than paying what the manufacturers charge. I've never made one out of stainless steel, but that's a good idea for longevity.

Typically, when I build one, I make it from 1/4" wall square tube. In addition to welding all the way around the joint of the spindle to the tube, I also drill a hole about an inch or so from the end of the tube, and I plug weld this to the spindle. This assures that if by some chance the weld on the outside were to rust/crack, etc...the plug weld acts as a backup to hold it together.

Also, after welding a spindle in one end, I pour about 8 ounces of motor oil into the tube, then I weld the spindle into the other end. The oil keeps the inside of the tube protected from corrosion....which, if properly welded, corrosion isn't supposed to get in there to begin with, but a pinhole or a small crater in a weld is all it takes for water to infiltrate the tubing.

And finally, unlike the manufacturers, I DO NOT drill a spring centering hole in the axle (that is a really stupid thing to do, as it lets water in, not to mention the drill hole is a stress riser) Instead, I weld a spring centering pad to the axle.

 

[user 7806]

Nice fab job on the axle, the welds are down right pretty. I would never attempt that without some help from some friends that are excellent fabricators. Nice write up too, makes a real nice How-to.

 

[overboard]

X2! nice job! nice writeup!

 

[Poormans Boatright]

Thanx guys, glad yall like the article.

 

[chubbytrucker01]

That! Is how you do an article. Awesome pictures with explanations. Well done!