welshsurferdude Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 Hi there I was wondering if I bought a double axle 14 or 16' ifor williams trailer with a 3500kg gross if it was possible to add a extra axle to make it a tri-axle? Regards Kenny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirtydiesel Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 You can actually just bolt the third axle on you just have to drill a few holes. The only problem is you will reduce the trailers capacity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muddy Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 You will probably also find that the axles will no longer be central over the trailers length. Will. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirtyninety Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 There has been a couple on ebay with extra axle's bolted on. For what reason Im unsure, as DirtyD says, it will actually reduce the trailers capacity. Why do you want an extra axle? You can't legally tow more weight anyway! Should have bid on the 14ft indespension i bought shouldnt you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zim Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 I'm not to keen on the ifor tri axles. They end up being quite far apart due to the leaf springs. I like the smaller wheel variety so the 3 wheels are all pretty close. G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshsurferdude Posted November 18, 2012 Author Share Posted November 18, 2012 No im not after more weight! just more rubber on the road as Ill be towing 1000miles each way couple times a year and my train of thought was that a extra axle would make it more stable and tow straight and be less suspectible to snaking so to speak? its only few extra kilos, the van I will be using to tow will ideally be a 413cdi or 515cdi lwb sprinter camper van so i will be allowed 6-7 ton train weight, i cant remember exactly. dirty, i did think so but I wanted a ifor ideally as a mate works for local ifor dealer so cheap parts and i use them all the time at work too :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirtydiesel Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 I don't think adding a extra axle to an ifor will automatically make it stable It'll have far more to do with how you load it and what you tow it with. My "best"towing trailer is a bateson 7'6" wide 16' long bed, it is a twin axle on knott indispension axles, it tows unbelivably well due mostly i believe because the axles are a mounted a long way back, it likes a lot of nose weight, which most tow motors don't. A friend of mine fitted an extra axle to his 6'6" x 16' ifor, and whilst he did say it towed better and tracked a lot straighter on fast roads, he did say the front and rear tyres scrubbed off quickly, because they aren't close enough to each other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zim Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 No im not after more weight! just more rubber on the road as Ill be towing 1000miles each way couple times a year and my train of thought was that a extra axle would make it more stable and tow straight and be less suspectible to snaking so to speak? its only few extra kilos, the van I will be using to tow will ideally be a 413cdi or 515cdi lwb sprinter camper van so i will be allowed 6-7 ton train weight, i cant remember exactly. dirty, i did think so but I wanted a ifor ideally as a mate works for local ifor dealer so cheap parts and i use them all the time at work too :-) With my twin axle (BJ) i regularly towed to German, Austria, France etc... All fully loaded. Tyres were never a problem. Going to tri axle was a good move though as it's a lot more stable I found at a cost of fuel economy. Then moving to a wider / bigger tow vehicle (pretty much the same width as trailer wheels) was another improvement for tram lines. G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshsurferdude Posted November 19, 2012 Author Share Posted November 19, 2012 Yes thats my reason for going to tri-axle to be more stable towing at 60mph especially with the tramlining you find in the UK, and also for going along A roads with twists and camber, more rubber on the road the better? not too concerned about the scrub of tyres when manoevering as it will only do 4-5k a year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickeyw Posted November 20, 2012 Share Posted November 20, 2012 The reason it reduces the payload is because you are adding to the unladen weight of the trailer. If the MAM of the trailer cannot exceed 3.5 tonnes, you lose one axle's weight of payload. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C18RCH Posted November 20, 2012 Share Posted November 20, 2012 My dad does about 15K a year with an Ifor Williams box trailer that fully loaded most of the time. He's never had a problem with it snaking or with tyre wear. I think he usually gets about 20-25k out of a set of trailer tyres. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muddy Posted November 20, 2012 Share Posted November 20, 2012 You could or can spec the ifor with livestock box axle config which on a tandem axle will move the axles further apart to try and distribute uneven loads better, however if I were you and maximum payload is not an issue (the extra axle adds 150kg IIRC) then I'd just buy a tri-axle from the outsett. Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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