Very Cheap - Portal axle on trailer
If you are anything like me, I like cheap but good stuff. GM makes decent equipment (OK, I love Chevy and GM stuff) that can be put onto Jeeps and Jeep accessories easily (and cheaply from the auto-wreckers).
More pictures will be taken when possible
Quick rundown on what I did:
- Find Pontiac 6000 sedan at the wreckers, cut the rear axle out taking everything including brakes and wheels
- Take axle home and use gas-axe (Oxy-Acetelyne torch) to remove everything that I could remove
- Continue my cleaning by removing the axle-hubs and brake drums (torx headed bolts - stripped a few)
- While everything was apart, a can of Tremclad black paint was coated over everything
- Some 2" square pipe was cut 6" long and a hole was drilled on one side to accept the spring locater pin on the leaf springs
- Some quick measurements found the proper position for my springs was within the region of the portal assm. Gas axe comes out again and trims a section so that my extra-long U-bolts will fit properly
- The 2" pipe was placed between the axle and the springs and burned in good with my little 110vac Lincoln mig welder
- Got out the can of Tremclad again, and painted everything one more time
- Found that my tires rubbed on my springs and U-bolt plates (took from the rear of my YJ's stock axle which is no longer required on my SOA Jeep). Trimmed the corners off the spring plate (outside the strength zone) and made spacers for the hubs to move away from the axle assm (spacers made on the laser cutting table at work)
- Painted the spacers (1/4" steel plate stacked 5 deep between hub and axle, 2 deep between hub and wheel)
- Installed tires for the last time and drove away.
Good - bad - what it does.
After all this, my axle is now 14.5" above the ground with the stock Pontiac 6000 tires on it. The tires measure out to be approx. 25" tall. While this isn't a very large tire, it is much bigger than the original 12" tires that were on there set in spring-under configuration. I did a SOA on the trailer which made it ride a little closer to level behind my Jeep - but not level enough to not catch air and attempt to leave the ground at highway speeds. I did attempt to run a 6" drop hitch - but it still didn't work well enough for me.
I will continue my testing of this setup, possibly fitting larger tires onto the trailer using my spare stock Jeep rims. The Pontiac 6000 hubs use the same 5-bolt on 4.5" diameter pattern as used on XJ, YJ, TJ, MJ, ZJ, and WJ units. I believe it is also used on the KJ's as well. This hub is rated for a car, so it more than strong enough for my little 1,000lb trailer.
As time goes on, I think I might remove my Pontaic axle, and make my own portal assembly on the laser-table at work to take advantage of 15" and 16" rims, instead of the little 14" rims from the 6000. If I have enough interest in my setup, I could even do a production run. Contact me for more info about it.
I would recommend this mod to anyone that pulls a trailer that will not ride level behind their modified Jeep.
