do trailer axles bend with more weight?

[The motor guy]

I see tons of landscape trailers hauling mulch filled to the top almost and you look at the trailer tires and they have some serious negative camber and are all bowed inwards from the weight. Does that mean they bent the axles or are they designed for that? I fill my trailer up to the gvwr almost and you can't tell a difference.

 

[PumpPusher]

See bunches of them down here in Victoria. They're over loaded. My trailer has axles that are bent empty (positive camber?) and straigten out when loaded. They're Dexters and are designed that way.

 

[Dupree]

many a trailer is bought with standard weight ratings and overused commercially as such.Around here you watch your used trailers many come with bent axles from constant overloading.
People just don't see options like heavy duty axles as worth the extra money I see it over and over, seems brainless to me if your going to buy a trailer for commercial use. Anticipate your maximum loads and purchase accordingly.

 

[dakota99]

I have a friend that does concrete work I subcontract on our bigger jobs and he takes the cake when it comes to fitting everything on a trailer. He has a tandem axle with shelves on the side to hold all of his forms along with the bobcat, maybe an auger or two and some buckets. Some of the forms are plastic and some are plain wood but those alone weigh quite a bit. There's usually something else like concrete scraps or extra gravel loaded on as well.

I have no idea what it all weighs but I did notice his tires tilt slightly in at the top. He hauls all of this around with his F350 and most of the time the dump bed is full to the top with pea gravel.

 

[The motor guy]

Originally Posted By: Dupree
many a trailer is bought with standard weight ratings and overused commercially as such.Around here you watch your used trailers many come with bent axles from constant overloading.
People just don't see options like heavy duty axles as worth the extra money I see it over and over, seems brainless to me if your going to buy a trailer for commercial use. Anticipate your maximum loads and purchase accordingly.


Yeah. I watch as he dumps a bucket of mulch in and it doesn't really do anything. I guess you won't notice until it's too late and they bend. I do think they're a little conservative on the weight rating cause my trailer has two 3500 pound axles and the trailer only weighs 1500 pounds unless they're factoring in the structural strength of the trailer.