Tandem Axle Set up Question

[whitecc]

Hi guys, I recently bought a 5' -6" x 14' flat bed trailer. It was stripped down to the frame and didn't have a ramp, sides, or floor. I am in the process of welding in some cross members out of heavy gauge angle and working on some angle sides. It is currently a single axle trailer and has excepts a 2 - 5/16" ball. I was always a fan of tandem setups just because 4 tires touching the ground is better then 2 regardless of weight. My guess is it is a 5000-7000 lbs jusging by its size. I found a set of tandem axles in good condition. They have a 5 lug x 5.5" bolt pattern and have brakes on both axles. All the bolts have castle nuts and have grease zerks to grease them. They are 2" x 2" solid steel and are heavy as hell! took three guys to load and unload them form the back of my truck. I plan on fixing this trailer up this winter and use it as a general purpose trailer. Anyway enough story telling, my question is they axles came with leaf springs that look to be extremly heavy duty, about 8-9 leafs on each pack. They also have with a "braket of some sorts that has three holes going through it. one on each end for the leaf springs and one in the middle for the hanger. Is this the proper way to set this up? I am gonna fab up new hangers for these axles and just want to make sure i am mounting these correctly. The guys I bought them from said they were from an old 24'-28' camper, my guess is they are rated at about 4-5000 lbs a piece. Any pics of tandem axles setups on leaf springs would be greatly appreciated! Thanks guys!

[diesail]

Here is a typical setup.



How many lug was the original axle? In my experience 5 lug axles are 3500#. So if that trailer is as heavy as you think you are only going to have a 2000# capacity.

[whitecc]

I figured that the tandem axles are prolly rated at a minimum of 3500lbs each, although they look very similar to my uncle's 5000lbs axles. That puts me at 7000lbs, if the trailer weighs at best 1500lbs, that gives me a 5500# capacity...right?

[diesail]

Yep that sounds right. Guess I miss understood you earlier. I thought you said the trailer alone was 5000-7000 pounds.

[whitecc]

oo no sorry....thanks again for the picture! also when welding the hangers in should i do it at droop or compression?