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Old 05-06-2008, 06:45 AM   #21
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This is my 13' Scamp with a 22 1/2 degree down angle axle.
'
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Back lower bumper to ground 18 1/2"
Top of wheel Arch to ground 25"
Bottom of door to ground 17"
Hitch height 20"---------New Scamp is listed at 18"
Just a hair to high, will sag after a few years on the road. I would go with the 10 degree down angle if I did it over.
Before new axle.


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Old 05-06-2008, 08:27 AM   #22
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I think it looks good up high. Are there any disadvantages in having it up high other than increased wind drag and a higher center of gravity?
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Old 05-06-2008, 09:33 AM   #23
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danny m
No disadvantages as far as I can tell. These trailers pull like a dream. I have a 4 cyl S10 pickup with a stick. Also the height lines up with my truck ball hitch now.
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Old 05-06-2008, 11:17 AM   #24
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..clip..

The leading arm/trailing arm issue. It is a leading arm and Dexter only makes a trailing arm, so we called the Dexter dealer here in Phoenix and they called the Dexter installation guru's at the factory. It is fine to reverse the axle and according to them it won't cause any problems. They understand on the older Scamps it does need to be reversed to fit properly on replacement. However, that is not an officially supported installation and Dexter will use that as a way to void the warranty.

..clip..
Hi Greg,

Between the various FG trailer forums, I've read about 4 or 5 examples of axle swaps that KEPT the leading arm orientation. I haven't found anybody saying it caused problems due to alignment issues (contrary to the Dexter company line). One of the arguments for trailing arms is better compatibility with electric brakes. The small 13' trailers axles are often brakeless to begin with and repaired without adding brakes. That lends itself to keeping the leading arms.

A question for the group: Does anybody have brakes on a leading arms axle? If you do, can you describe their performance?

My '85 Perris Pacer 13' has brakeless leading arms on an old axle. If I could keep leading arms, my job would be three times easier... and if brakes work, too, I could think about relaxing a bit.

thanks!
Billy
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Old 05-06-2008, 03:38 PM   #25
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Quote:
I think it looks good up high. Are there any disadvantages in having it up high other than increased wind drag and a higher center of gravity?
Contrary to what appears obvious, raising a trailer may result in LESS total drag. This is because the underside drag may be greater that the aerodynamic topside drag. Those were the results I had doing a spring-over and wheel upsize on a Jayco trailer.

The alignment issue is not from leading or trailing, but from using an axle designed for trailing in a leading mount (I believe castor and toe-in will be affected). That's probably why Dexter said they won't warrant a "reversed" axle. Personally, I would do what it took to mount it as trailing (pulling the wheelbarrow over an brick rather than pulling it over the brick).

Your trailer and the Scamp on the lot may be 10* down right now because the axles are shot -- Would you measure the diameter of a flat tire on the vehicle? I have never run across anything but 22.5* down on Scamps.

If you want to know what the original angle was, get the serial number off the axle tag or stencil to
Dexter and they should be able to look it up (shop can do likewise for the Scamp on the lot).
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Old 05-06-2008, 04:38 PM   #26
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Your trailer and the Scamp on the lot may be 10* down right now because the axles are shot -- Would you measure the diameter of a flat tire on the vehicle? I have never run across anything but 22.5* down on Scamps.

If you want to know what the original angle was, get the serial number off the axle tag or stencil to
Dexter and they should be able to look it up (shop can do likewise for the Scamp on the lot).
All of the axle talk on the board here made me re-think changing the one on our 88-16'. When I finally found the original tag under all of the paint I was able to find out it was an AL-KO 2400 lb axle. The AL-KO distributor and plant that I talked to weren't able to help me with anything other than that. They said that there was numbers missing from the tag. The axle dealer that we deal with in the shop looked at a picture of the axle in an unloaded state and informed me that it was a 0 degree start angle that was probably sagged to around -5 degrees loaded. Seriously worn out rubber. As best as I could tell this was the original axle.
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Old 05-06-2008, 06:51 PM   #27
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You might call Scamp with your VIN and see what they can tell you. They pretty much have a standard order for their axles.
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Old 05-06-2008, 09:06 PM   #28
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You might call Scamp with your VIN and see what they can tell you. They pretty much have a standard order for their axles.


I've allready gone that route a few times. After hearing the story for the 3rd or 4th time (from Scamp) about how the fire destroyed everything and vin numbers from that far back won't do any good for researching construction and equipment options, we decided to go it on our own so to speak. We did pretty much the same thing that everyone else here has had to do. After working with our axle supplier who deals in Dexter, we ordered a dexter 10TF35-545E with the AP bracket A/P 166-00. I don't have the measurements handy but everyone should take their own measurements for their own specific trailer. We chose to go with the +10 degree down start angle. This should result in an aproximate 1-1.5 inches increase in ride height from current.


added: Thanks for the suggestion. I allways appreciate any suggestions from board members.
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Old 05-07-2008, 06:16 PM   #29
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Personally, I would do what it took to mount it as trailing (pulling the wheelbarrow over an brick rather than pulling it over the brick).
I typed the wrong word in the above; should be "Personally, I would do what it took to mount it as trailing (pulling the wheelbarrow over an brick rather than pushing it over the brick)."

Also, the reversal from trailing to leading should only affect the toe-in/out.

PS I have electric brakes on my leading arm axle and they work fine. They will have to be swapped from side to side if a trailing axle is mounted as a leading axle because of the magnet orientation.
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Old 05-20-2008, 03:39 PM   #30
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The leading arm/trailing arm issue. It is a leading arm and Dexter only makes a trailing arm, so we called the Dexter dealer here in Phoenix and they called the Dexter installation guru's at the factory.
I spoke with an Engineering Guru at Dexter. I've come up with slightly different specs because I'm putting brakes on and I have an American Boler rather than a Scamp.

Dexter makes a 3" rise bracket for snowmobile trailers that rarely gets shown in their specs. With the AP bracket kit for bolt on mounting that should give me a 3 1/4 inch rise to the frame. I'm crossing my fingers on this one but I should be able to mount this in the trailing arm configuration under the kitchen floor with little or no spacers. All that depends on how much of a bend gets put into the axle for camber.

I've opted to make the hub face 1/2 inch wider than my original, 1" wider than yours. The brake flange was looking a little too close for comfort to the inner fenders. My thought is if the tires stick out too much, I can modify the outside walls of the trailer a lot easier than the inside.
(Dexter specs had a 1-1/2" recommended spacing to the outer wheel well, I thought that should also apply to the inner wheel well for our trailers)

The other thing I've done is to ask for the brackets to be offset by 1/2 " from center towards curbside. This should compensate for the frame / body discrepancy of 1" that was built into the trailer and equalize the position of the tires in the wheel wells.

The dealer gets deliveries from Dexter every Tuesday normally they would expect it in next week. With the Memorial day holiday it might take 2 weeks for delivery. Retail pricing # 9 axle, EZ lube, e brakes with park, AP mounts, high profile brackets and taxes comes to $482.59 CDN. That may differ a bit on pick up because the dealer did not have a price for the 7" brake with park and used the 10' price for the estimate.

I'll let you know how it works out. I've got the name of a local to do the install. Hopefully it works out that I can take pictures during the install. If not I've got befores, I can always take the afters later.
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Old 05-22-2008, 09:58 PM   #31
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I spoke with an Engineering Guru at Dexter.
...
The other thing I've done is to ask for the brackets to be offset by 1/2 " from center towards curbside. This should compensate for the frame / body discrepancy of 1" that was built into the trailer and equalize the position of the tires in the wheel wells.
...
I'll let you know how it works out.
Update #1

The dealer called and said Dexter won't do the offest ... too difficult to set up on the assembly line + too $$$ to re-engineer / set up. Dealer suggested they can do it with Flexride axles using out of spec arm angles. I've contacted Flexride for more info.

Looks like it is back to the drawing board to consider some frame modifications to get this to work. I've got some ideas and will post my plans for discussion when they are ready.

My biggest question to the people here is:

If I shift the axle back so it is under the center of the body while leaving the frame in the 1" offest position will that affect the trailer tracking? If my math is right the relationship of the curbside wheel remains the same while streetside is off 0.27 degrees from center, which is 1/2 the toe in.
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