Cord
Veteran Member
I picked up an aluminum flat bed trailer for a song a few weeks ago. This trailer was suffering from galvanic corrosion where the torsion axle was bolted to the trailer frame. The frame was totally rotted out to the point where it had failed, was then reinforced, the axle was now the most corroded part and it failed next. Included in the sale was a second trailer that would donate it's axle to the project. The donor trailer has a traditional leaf spring axle so I'll need to mount some perches to the new frame tubes. The trailer frame will be 1/8x2x3 tube and the mounting brackets are steel. Typically, I'd weld the brackets to the frame, but you can't weld steel to aluminum so I'll need to bolt them on. I can't blind bolt the flanges on because the bolts would be too far down the tube. You'd never succeed in getting them in the hole. I think I'll need to through bolt the brackets, but now I risk crushing the tube. At this point, I'm sure how to proceed. I'm thinking of machining a T sleeve that I could then weld in, but I'm concerned about having to drill the oversized holes. Also, I can only weld the top of the T, there's no place for a weld at the bottom. Looking for some input from others as to how they'd approach this. Hoping the responses are better than the ones in this thread: mounting axels onto an aluminum trailer
