Leaf sprung axles onto a trailer??

I am building me an expedition trailer tent, I already have the trailer tent (pictured below) which weighs in at a lightweight 400KG loaded. I have got this one as its smaller than most and more importantly the width fits inside the track of LR axles. I will be building a new chassis as the standard one is a bit lightweight, the trailer unit itself is flat bottomed so will swap over with no real issues, I will be adding tree sliders as well for a bit of protection to it and beefing up the towing point, this will prob take me up to near 500KG by the time I am finished with it which although is quite heavy it should be fine for a bit of laning e.t.c. (this isn't going to be crossing the alps, well, not yet anyway)

Anyway, I am thinking how to do the axle. I have got a 200TDi defender axle sitting spare however this is a coil spring axle so would mena fabricating an A-frame and trailing arm mounts as well as spring/shock mounts. What im wondering is about using an earlier series style axle but I have never dealt with a series so im after a bit of advice as far as what ones to use.

Are the hubs either the same or transferable (would like to use the same bearings as the truck as I carry spares e.t.c.)?

Are there other supports other than the 4 leaf mounts on a series?

A slightly different idea but would a sanky trailer suspension be easy enough to swap across? Again never seen one properly so nut sure wht they consist of.

Any help/guidance/experience would be appreciated, some pics oif series set ups would be helpful if anyone has any.

The trailer:

you could just weld spring ,mounts on def axle after grinding coil brackets of it ,axle parts are different though after 1980 wheel bearings are the same

Overland trailer - Tools and Fabrication - LR4x4 - The Land Rover Forum

It doesn't answer your question but this thread is a very detailed build of an overland trailer, it may of some help throughout the process

get a late series III flat bottomed axle earlier ones used 2 different size bearings whereas later ones after 1980's had the same as yours.

as said get a late series axle as the bearings are universal from 1980 onwards, its easy enough to mount all the bits and bobs and do you have to have a whole axle, cant you just use the hubs and make a solid bar with the taper and threads for the hub job done then get yourself some suzuki leaf springs as they are not as heavy duty and will mount up just the same and if your going to this length why not get yourself a 3/4 ton sankey wide track and dump your current sharabang on the chassis all done and you can pick up a decent sankey for a few hundred quid and save the hasstle of making up a new frame

CJ2a said:

as said get a late series axle as the bearings are universal from 1980 onwards, its easy enough to mount all the bits and bobs and do you have to have a whole axle, cant you just use the hubs and make a solid bar with the taper and threads for the hub job done then get yourself some suzuki leaf springs as they are not as heavy duty and will mount up just the same and if your going to this length why not get yourself a 3/4 ton sankey wide track and dump your current sharabang on the chassis all done and you can pick up a decent sankey for a few hundred quid and save the hasstle of making up a new frame

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I was thinking about just using the hubs off my axle and putting onto a nice thickish tube, this would save alot of weight. I also realised I have got an old trailer out back someone gave us with an axle and leaf springs on it. The trailer chassis is rotten but the springs and mounts are salvagable. I was thinking of utalising the springs and mounts from that one, using some angle and making up a sub chassis with the mounts on to bolt to the current chassis on the trailer, this should give me the strength of the current chassis combineds with the new one and hopefully make it stand up off roading.

Jongould said:

I was thinking about just using the hubs off my axle and putting onto a nice thickish tube, this would save alot of weight. I also realised I have got an old trailer out back someone gave us with an axle and leaf springs on it. The trailer chassis is rotten but the springs and mounts are salvagable. I was thinking of utalising the springs and mounts from that one, using some angle and making up a sub chassis with the mounts on to bolt to the current chassis on the trailer, this should give me the strength of the current chassis combineds with the new one and hopefully make it stand up off roading.

Click to expand...

Should work just give yourself ground clearance..... remember trailer axles have a crown in them ...