Re: Use Ford Twin I beams to build a trailer?

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Posted by mart on July 31, 2004 at 20:56:23 from (64.235.109.48):

In Reply to: Use Ford Twin I beams to build a trailer? posted by Boyd on July 21, 2004 at 00:04:41:

I don't know why you'd want to use a Ford twin I beam set up in anything. In a twin I beam, the wheels don't move up and down as in a regular independent front suspension, but travel in an arc. This causes uneven tire wear as the tires are often running either on the inside or outside edges and rarely on the center, flat section of the tread. Twin I beams can be aligned properly by a few shops, by heating and bending the I beams, to get a correct tire patch on the road, but even this only works for a given load and ride height. When the load is greater or less than what the I beams are aligned for, the tire contact patch changes. The twin I beam was mostly marketing hype, introduced in the early 60's when trucks started abandoning straight beam axles and leaf springs and going to i.f.s. Some of the old time truck people were erroneously skeptical of the strength of independent A-arm and ball joint front suspensions compared to their old familiar I beams. Ford threw engineering out the window and played up to this skepticism with the Twin I beam concept.
For your trailer, why don't you use just use a conventional rear axle unit and a pair of leaf springs or, better yet, fabricate an axle out of heavy wall tubing with either welded in or flange mounted, bolt on spindles? It 'd be a whole lot simpler than trying adapt an inherently inferior suspension design with no obvious benefits.

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