Brainstatic
New member
Hey All,
Long time lurker. Last November I finally got rid of our 42' 5th wheel and saved up a bit of money to purchase an M101a2 tub on a M116 frame. Purchased it locally here in Texas. Over the past month, I have been measuring and planning and measuring an planning. Right now as it stands, I have a CVT from Mt. Denali that will go on a telescoping platform. I want this trailer to fit in my garage for safe keeping but raise up high enough for us to fully use the annex (about 6'2") when deployed. The trailer is big enough to carry all of our mountain bikes, camping gear and other items needed for extended travel (4+ weeks at a time). SInce I've spent so much time on this site researching, I wanted to give back to the community. Hopefully, I can keep this thread updated as I go.
Here is the trailer the day I brought it home:
First thing is first.. set the ride height.
I picked up a cheap pair of steel rims off craigslist from a 2016 Ram 2500. Even though the ones on my 2016 Ram 3500 are a bit nicer, they match my bolt pattern 8 on 6.5" and offset. The only issue is that they have a different AT tire on them and they are 1" shorter overall than my current KO2s. I figure while I'm fabricating, I'll just add some wood under the tires to make the overall height equal to what it will be when I replace them with KO2s to ensure garage door clearance. Sorry, I don't have any pics of the rims but they do fit the stock hubs on the trailer which is awesome and allowed me to continue to take measurements.
When bolted on, I found I only had about an inch to an inch and a half clearance from the inside of the tires to the trailer's frame rail. The stock axle measured 63-1/8" hub face to hub face and 43.25" spring center to spring center. I went ahead and ordered a 5200 lbs axle in a 65" hub face to hub face and a 3' diameter tube. This will give me an additional inch of clearance on each side without the tires sticking out of the wheel wells. I didn't want to use spacers and I also wanted to keep the 8 on 6.5" bolt pattern. This should work nicely. I ordered the axle from Southwest Wheel out of Dallas. The spring perches will have to be welded up once the axle is delivered and is mocked up.
Here is a picture showing what I mean.
Even with the extra inch, the frame might rub in extreme cases. Since I'm not planning on loading this thing anywhere near it's limit and most driving won't be too extreme we should be fine. I'll still have another 1.5" before the tires stick out of the wheel wells if I need to add spacers, then so be it.
I'm planning on removing the ubolt plates and spring perches from the old axle and using them on the new one. I also ordered new hubs and electronic dexter brakes with the parking cable option from etrailer.com. They will work with the new axle since they are rated for a 6k axle. From everything I've read, all the hardware that works with a 6k axle will work on a 5k or 5200 lbs axle. They showed up yesterday, but I'm waiting on an axle still to assemble them. Once I've got some pics from that mini-project, I'll share them.
Here are some more pics of the axle area as it is now.
More to come for sure. And thanks to all of you who have posted your projects in the past that have given me the confidence to pull this build off! Sorry I'm not at my desktop right now; where I have all those threads saved.
Long time lurker. Last November I finally got rid of our 42' 5th wheel and saved up a bit of money to purchase an M101a2 tub on a M116 frame. Purchased it locally here in Texas. Over the past month, I have been measuring and planning and measuring an planning. Right now as it stands, I have a CVT from Mt. Denali that will go on a telescoping platform. I want this trailer to fit in my garage for safe keeping but raise up high enough for us to fully use the annex (about 6'2") when deployed. The trailer is big enough to carry all of our mountain bikes, camping gear and other items needed for extended travel (4+ weeks at a time). SInce I've spent so much time on this site researching, I wanted to give back to the community. Hopefully, I can keep this thread updated as I go.
Here is the trailer the day I brought it home:
First thing is first.. set the ride height.
I picked up a cheap pair of steel rims off craigslist from a 2016 Ram 2500. Even though the ones on my 2016 Ram 3500 are a bit nicer, they match my bolt pattern 8 on 6.5" and offset. The only issue is that they have a different AT tire on them and they are 1" shorter overall than my current KO2s. I figure while I'm fabricating, I'll just add some wood under the tires to make the overall height equal to what it will be when I replace them with KO2s to ensure garage door clearance. Sorry, I don't have any pics of the rims but they do fit the stock hubs on the trailer which is awesome and allowed me to continue to take measurements.
When bolted on, I found I only had about an inch to an inch and a half clearance from the inside of the tires to the trailer's frame rail. The stock axle measured 63-1/8" hub face to hub face and 43.25" spring center to spring center. I went ahead and ordered a 5200 lbs axle in a 65" hub face to hub face and a 3' diameter tube. This will give me an additional inch of clearance on each side without the tires sticking out of the wheel wells. I didn't want to use spacers and I also wanted to keep the 8 on 6.5" bolt pattern. This should work nicely. I ordered the axle from Southwest Wheel out of Dallas. The spring perches will have to be welded up once the axle is delivered and is mocked up.
Here is a picture showing what I mean.
Even with the extra inch, the frame might rub in extreme cases. Since I'm not planning on loading this thing anywhere near it's limit and most driving won't be too extreme we should be fine. I'll still have another 1.5" before the tires stick out of the wheel wells if I need to add spacers, then so be it.
I'm planning on removing the ubolt plates and spring perches from the old axle and using them on the new one. I also ordered new hubs and electronic dexter brakes with the parking cable option from etrailer.com. They will work with the new axle since they are rated for a 6k axle. From everything I've read, all the hardware that works with a 6k axle will work on a 5k or 5200 lbs axle. They showed up yesterday, but I'm waiting on an axle still to assemble them. Once I've got some pics from that mini-project, I'll share them.
Here are some more pics of the axle area as it is now.
More to come for sure. And thanks to all of you who have posted your projects in the past that have given me the confidence to pull this build off! Sorry I'm not at my desktop right now; where I have all those threads saved.
