After reading about the weakness of
Trillium frames and my use of the egg would be on BLM and forest roads I decided to replace my frame as I needed new axles with
brakes (old one had none)
When I took the Shell of the frame I found it was attached not with the two front bolts through the front of the frame and the rest of the fasteners self tapping metal screws, or two bolts at the front and rear of the frame, and the rest of the fasteners self tapping metal screws, but six bolts through the frame, two at the rear, two to the real of the wheel well and two in the front which prompted the recall notice.
These are a custom manufactured bolt, a one inch square metal washer with a square hole punched in it and a carriage bolt pressed into the washer hole. This bolt was fastened to the eggshell with some kind of adhesive caulk.
The six bolts holding the eggshell to the frame is not something I have seen on this forum.
The frame thickness was a little less than an 1/8" measured with a standard tape measure (for us in the south).
Others in this forum have replaced their frames with a 12 gauge box tubing, so I decided bigger is better asked for 11 gauge which the steel provider said was 1/8". Also to add to the frame strength I ordered the tubing in 3x2x1/8 and 4x2x1/8. The 4x2 to be used ahead of the
axle and the 3' tube on the rear portion of the frame.
The thickness (guage) of the original frame seems thicker than what I have been reading on this forum.
When I got the tubing home and had it beside the old frame the thickness of the old frame seemed identical as the new tubing I had just purchased. Micrometer measurements of the old frame were the same as the new tubing I had just purchased. So I figured no sense of building a new frame out of the same material I had just taken off so back to the steel dealer returning the steel and purchasing 3/16" box tubing in the sizes above. Now this steel looked a lot thicker than the old frame. Well once the new frame was welded up, it was then I noticed the significant increase of
weight over the original frame. So now I have an egg shell on a frame which could support a tank. In fact the newer good sized tandem
axle hard side trailers don't have this thick of steed tubing.
If anyone has any comments or opinions on eggshell attachment or original frame thickness I would be happy to hear from them. I have heard enough comment on overbuilding the frame.
The
axle I ordered was a flexiride 3500# 15 degree down with 10" elect.
brakes for under 400 bucks from South West Wheel.
FRED..........................
Linear Mode
