just learned that a minivan has a drop rear axle!

[Pete M]

a 98 Nissian Quest to be exact.  this is an interesting turn of events for offroad trailer axles... 

 

5 on 4.5 pattern

disks

a freakin' drop spindle! 

 

 

[Torq_Shep]

See told you Minivans are the best!

[Dzimm]

Why the heck would they put a drop spindle in a minivan??  Gotta have all the ground clearance to clear those... speed bumps? 

 

Also was curious how a beam axle under an MJ rear end was gonna work until I reread your post.  definitely pretty slick for a trailer, a lot of ground clearance and removing the weight of an inoperable diff.

[eaglescout526]

The Promasters have a rear solid axle. But man isnt that a weird thing to see. 

[Pete M]

1 minute ago, eaglescout526 said:

The Promasters have a rear solid axle. But man isnt that a weird thing to see. 

 

spindle drop or just a beam?  I suddenly have the need to hit the junkyards and poke my head under all the vans...

[eaglescout526]

Just a beam as far as I know.

[eaglescout526]

Why this is interesting. If I am looking at this right, its got a drop but it goes upward.

[Pete M]

so the axle has been flipped in the trailer pic I posted?  that might be why I never gave a second thought to them.  extra kudos to the guy that thought: "hey, I can just flip that over!"  

[eaglescout526]

Pretty much. Ill have to take a look at our two parts Promasters. 

[dasbulliwagen]

Promasters are as wide as a full size truck. They probably wouldnt be appropriate for an MJ Bed trailer.

[Pete M]

just learned that the Quest is about 67" wide.  that's a bit wider than I thought it'd be.    but I guess they do have super offset rims so it makes sense

[eaglescout526]

12 minutes ago, dasbulliwagen said:

Promasters are as wide as a full size truck. They probably wouldnt be appropriate for an MJ Bed trailer.

While that is true, they could still be useful for making a full size trailer or replacing an axle. 

[Pete M]

I thought about it for a second and realized the Quest axle is just a round tube.  shouldn't be that hard to cut out the middle and sleeve it to the WMS dimension needed.  you'd still be way ahead of the game in both weight and ground clearance.  

[Dzimm]

3 hours ago, Pete M said:

I thought about it for a second and realized the Quest axle is just a round tube.  shouldn't be that hard to cut out the middle and sleeve it to the WMS dimension needed.  you'd still be way ahead of the game in both weight and ground clearance.  

Also probably not a bad idea to sleeve that tube for an off-road trailer.  I'm sure they aren't too thick for use in a minivan.

[TheDude]

Hmm, That does look super easy to put under an MJ trailer..


Founding Member of the Comanche Preservation Society

[FrankTheDog]

Are they a cross tube or does it have some sort of beam. If’n it’s a tube it can be narrowed and thrown under a narrower trailer.

[89 MJ]

This is good to know. I wonder how much a JY would charge for one vs the price of a regular trailer axle (factor in the time to clean it up, pull it out of the vehicle, make it fit the trailer). But it would be easy to get parts for it because its a minivan.