Axle Problem 2015 182G

axle reinforcement

I will defer to Toyanvil on whether or not you need to remove the axle to straighten it. Mine wasn't bent, I reinforced it preventatively knowing I have a heavy rpod and was taking it on some rough roads.

Since as you've described your axle it's bent pretty badly on one side and not at all on the other I would recommend taking it to a shop with experience doing this type if repair.

Here’s some pics.

Underneath


Driver side


Driver Tread wear


Passenger

Originally posted by StephenH When I had the problem with my axle, it was not covered. I had to purchase the replacement. That axle did have a problem in that the mounting plate for the bake shoes had not been properly welded. That axle was replaced under warranty. I reinforced my axle similar to what has been mentioned.  This is the link to where the axle reinforcement mod starts: StephenH's RP179 Axle Reinforcement Modification.

Awesome write up there StephenH ! I will see what Lippert says and then decide. Pretty annoying that they aren’t covering these. I have seen some that have been covered so we will see. Amazing seeing how many people that have had the same issue and Rpod themselves never issued any type of recall. Seems like a total design flaw/scam if you ask me.

What is sad is they are still building them this way.

The narrow body rpods are designed with thin wall inboard frame rails to allow the composite floor panels to span the width of the trailer and still take the loads if the side walls. That also requires the axle to act as a cantilever. All in the interest of keeping cost and weight as low as possible. In theory.

In practice it creates a marginal structure. The worst is really the floor as composite as plywood is not very elastic and is sensitive to water damage, when it fails you can have an irreparable trailer. At least the frame and axle are readily repairable.

The underlying problem is FRs design standards. It's not like they just started making heavier trailers with the same structural design without knowing what they were doing. It's not ticket science to determine the load capacity of an rpod. You can do it with basic beam loading formulas, you don't even need an FEA model.
None of the above components are designed to handle more than about a 2g bump load. That is insufficient. Everything I've read suggests that heavy trucks (which are subject to lower g forces) should be designed to 2.5-3 g's and passenger cars and trucks to more than 3 g's plus.

At 2gs you have to either keep the trailer really light or be really careful never to hit a serious bump, curb, or pot hole. Good luck with that.

I wouldn't count on the bigger rpods having higher design standards without analyzing the structure first either.