The 15th International Portafold & Ansfold Gathering) (i.e. 2024)

Our annual gathering will be returning to the Newbury Retrofestival.

So put the dates 9th, 10th & 11th of August 2024 in your diary now and get those dates booked off work early.

Show Address: Newbury Showground, Priors Court, Hermitage, Thatcham, West Berkshire, RG18 9QZ

Don't book direct with the show organisers it will cost you more money, just contact me (07771544419) to get your pitch saved.

Bedtime Story/Something for the Winter?

Chat and Questions on Wheels, Tyres & Hubcaps.
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txfsealord
Posts: 178
Joined: Sat, 05 May 2007, 9:24 pm
Location: Pulborough, West Sussex

Bedtime Story/Something for the Winter?

Post by txfsealord » Wed, 21 Oct 2009, 9:43 pm

Many years ago, long before we bought our Ansfold, I was following a car towing an old caravan on a dual carriageway in the right-hand lane, approaching a roundabout. I'd just noticed the 'van's offside wheel wobbling, when the wheel came off altogether & the right side of the 'van hit the road! Its folded rear corner-stay made an excellent tarmac planer, digging in & bringing the remains to a shattering halt in the middle of the right-hand lane. I just managed to swerve in time to avoid a very close check of their internal decor!

Not much of a 'story' really, 'cos it actually happened. I was servicing a trailer at work today, & the hub design brought the above to mind.

Trailer & caravan hubs all use adjustable taper roller bearings these days. The adjusting nut cannot be tightened, as this overloads the bearings. The nut is locked with a split pin. When this construction is used on car hubs, there is always a keyed washer behind the nut, so bearing rotation can't be communicated to the hub nut. I don't know of any civilian trailer axles which have this keyed washer; certainly ours have not.

When I overhauled my axle, I drilled out the 9/64" splitpin holes to 11/64" & used a bigger pin. I also opened the pin in the 'aircraft' way, i.e. both legs bent round the nut & tucked in the adjacent castellations. This has a better shearing-resistance.

The accident described was caused by the nut either having been overtightened & the bearings failing through heat, or (more likely) normal rotation of the outer bearing on the stub-axle shearing a weak splitpin.

The 'van was a write-off, & it had taken root in the road in a very dangerous situation. Don't let it happen to you.

Steve Lord
Last edited by txfsealord on Fri, 23 Oct 2009, 7:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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bigbird
Posts: 172
Joined: Thu, 11 Sep 2008, 3:36 pm
Location: Ryde, Isle of Wight

Post by bigbird » Thu, 22 Oct 2009, 9:23 am

Good advice Steve, I'll show this to OH owner of the tool box in this house!
Harley Davidson 1340, Smartcar, 1969 MKIII Triumph Spitfire, Matilda the Portafold and Marvin the Combi Camp...

txfsealord
Posts: 178
Joined: Sat, 05 May 2007, 9:24 pm
Location: Pulborough, West Sussex

Re: Bedtime Story/Something for the Winter?

Post by txfsealord » Wed, 02 Jun 2010, 7:08 pm

Ansfoldsplitpin.jpg
Hi all,

I was servicing my van & I took a pic of the "aircraft" type of splitpin fitting, which I use on my hub nuts. It gives improved shearing resistance, & a further bonus is reduced protrusion into the grease cap. So if (like me) you use non-standard wheels & hub caps, this allows you to flatten the grease caps by peening them closer to the axle ends. And doing this made just enough room in my case for the Mini hub-cap fitting, when allied to the cap-deepening process referred to elsewhere on here.

Steve

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