new boler with custom frame, axle mount issue

[r0yal]

hey everyone, picked myself up a 72 boler, which appears the previous owner built a new frame for it.

All looks good on it, except this issue I noticed last night. I tried searching around for pictures on the forum of frames with axles, but nothing showed up showing this specific area.

I'm no engineer, but having the tubing on edge like that seems a little sketchy to me.
Should I be pulling the shell off the frame and addressing this issue, or is this normal?

thanks

[Keaner]

Bolers of that age came with a leading arm axle, yours has been changed to a trailing arm. Many do this when they put on new axles, to do it you need to put in the spacer you are seeing.
The commercial spacers - usually 2in tube steel - are generally 8-10in long which yours seems to be. If anything, yours looks to be off to the side of the original frame. I wonder about the length of your axle. How much clearance between the outer sidewall or the tire and the body?

[Keaner]

I am also wondering if tere is any spring left in that torsion axle. What happens when you jack it up? Does the arm come down or stay where it is? If it's shot, you can order a new one with the proper conversion kit from Dexter axle or for from a fellow on this forum named Paul Neumeister ( he sold me mine, great source of info on all things Boler).
If you go that route, add brakes while you're at it.

[Andrew Gibbens]

The basic principles of that frame look fine. The problem is that it looks like an axle of the wrong length (width over mounting brackets) was purchased and then the mount was butchered to connect the axle to the frame.

Not having the spacer tube line up with the main frame rail is bad enough (putting a load in the face of a tube is bad), but the way the spacer tubes aren't even vertical worries me a bit.

I don't think that axle can be connected to that frame in a satisfactory way without a very complex spacer/mounting bracket. The best solution would be a new axle with the same 'hubface' (width between wheels) but with less width over mounting brackets. That way, the spacer tube would be vertical and in line with the frame rails.

[Ian G.]

I am curious what the curb side looks like. The offset of the axle may be an attempt to center the axle under the body, since on the original Boler the body is offset to the street side by 1". I would make sure any spacer used fully contacted the entire bottom of the frame rail, and is also long enough to distribute the load over a longer area (although hard to tell the length of the spacers in the pictures.

I would also say the axle is worn out, the up angle appears to be around 20+deg, the original axle used a 10 deg up angle, Dexter engineers say anything over a 10 deg change from original requires replacement.

[Rick Mooyman]

From what I can see in the second pic it does not look right and it looks like the axle is over-due for replacement. I would take it to Metro Trailers on Nairn Ave. here in Winnipeg and get John to have a look and repair it properly.

Rick

Originally Posted by r0yal

hey everyone, picked myself up a 72 boler, which appears the previous owner built a new frame for it.

All looks good on it, except this issue I noticed last night. I tried searching around for pictures on the forum of frames with axles, but nothing showed up showing this specific area.

I'm no engineer, but having the tubing on edge like that seems a little sketchy to me.
Should I be pulling the shell off the frame and addressing this issue, or is this normal?

thanks

[Raff]

I'm no expert but that looks dodgy at best. I'd bite the bullet, pull the axle cut off those cobbled mounts and buy a new axle with the mounts properly spaced.


Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV

[r0yal]

ok, thanks everyone for your input, I'll try and squeeze some time in this weekend to go out and measure up the axle and dimensions, and report back with my findings.

[r0yal]

Ok. So upon quick measurements, my axle is 49 1/4" from outside edges of mounting brackets, roughly 64 1/4" hubface to hubface.

Top of axle, to top of mount is roughly 1 1/4".

do these axle measurements seem proper? I wouldn't be surprised if this guy messed up on building the proper frame size.

On the curb side they mounted the axle/frame spacer properly over the frame rail.

From street side tire to edge of wheelwell I have 4 3/8"

From curb side tire to edge of wheelwell I have 4 3/16"