Thinking of lower 202 Springdale

[Johnny's Journey]

I'll start with this first. Is it just me but why are Travel Trailers so high off the ground these day's (off road type not included) ? Perhaps it's faster to not notch the floor and install another cost item like wheel wells. Any how I will be confirming my exact spring rate the unit came with before making any moves one way or another. But for now can any suspension expert's tell me off hand what the maximum amount of compression/travel a spring is designed to have. Example, a spring with a 3" height (loaded) would it use up all 3" of travel or possibly more and go over center ?

[JRTJH]

Think carefully about lowering your trailer. You may have some concern that it's too high, but with the length of trailers, the approach angles to the hitch and more so to the rear bumper are getting less and less. When slides became a "standard part" of most trailer floorplans, the desire to move from "in wall slides" to "flat floor slides" mandated that the industry raise the trailers, eliminate the wheel wells (that were used to conceal the wall slides) and create floorplans that offered flat floor slides over the axles. It's not impossible, but would be much more costly to engineer a flat floor slide that incorporated the wheels and axles. It would probably also make that assembly more complex, raising costs and maintenance requirements. Raising the floor so it is above the frame is sort of a "KISS" approach that has functional reasons as well as cosmetic reasons (flat floor) inside the coach.

We had a Holiday Rambler 34' travel trailer that sat about 12" off the ground. Trust me when I say we couldn't clear any gas station approach and wore out more sets of "skid wheels" than I can remember, not to mention grinding down the U bolts that held the spare tire to the rear bumper.

I guess what I'm saying is to consider that there's more than "just space under the trailer" to consider when modifying a trailer to lower the suspension.

[SummitPond]

As to trailer height off the ground, I like the fact there are no wheel wells impinging on interior space. There are still many trailers out there that are low to the ground and thus have wheel wells, but one of the features we like about our trailer is that it doesn't. I suspect there is a trade off with respect to increased wind resistance with the increased clearance, but as John says, there are other benefits too.

[sourdough]

I agree with the posts above. I wouldn't go back to a lower trailer. The benefits of a higher trailer are numerous and I can count the benefit of a lower trailer on one finger....access?

My trailer sits pretty high and I've encountered 2 situations where I was forced to use an exit with a pretty steep incline. Both times it caught my spare tire and bent it almost parallel to the ground. I suppose a lower trailer like I used to have would have just pulled it off.....or the bumper. I do not have "skid wheels" like John mentioned but may have to look into them

[Johnny's Journey]

Originally Posted by JRTJH

Think carefully about lowering your trailer. You may have some concern.....more so to the rear bumper are getting less and less. When slides became a "standard part" of most trailer.....I guess what I'm saying is to consider that there's more than "just space under the trailer" to consider when modifying a trailer to lower the suspension.

I wouldn't consider without looking at every possible issue. I have no slide and there is amble room under sink area of kitchen and room under the shower and fridge. As for as bumper concern's, the rear stabilizer's would get torn off first as they set 4 1/4" below it. I'm looking to go only 3".

Originally Posted by ShacterShack

I suspect there is a trade off with respect to increased wind resistance with the increased clearance, but as John says, there are other benefits too.

Yes, I can also drop my WTH 2 holes down lower center of gravity on the TV as well.

Originally Posted by sourdough

I agree with the posts above. I wouldn't go back to a lower trailer. The benefits of a higher trailer are numerous and I can count the benefit of a lower trailer on one finger....access?

Thank you for the concern's but I'm not wanting to put the trailer in the weeds as we often say in the custom car world.

[Johnny's Journey]

My over all concern is this set up is an under slung set up. I don't want to pour money into this drop. My unit has very long spring mounts placing the spring and shackle bolts @ 4 1/8" center line down from the bottom side of the frame rails. Now add the spring height and it's now pushing 6 1/2" of clearance as it sits. I can theoretically drill new hole's up 3" to get the drop I'm looking for then cut the excess off the spring mounts. My main concern is the axle coming into contact with the bottom of the frame if the leaf spring could indeed compress to that point. Doing an over slung is totally out of the question since that would make for a heavy 5" drop.

[chuckster57]

Do you plan on keeping this trailer until it falls apart, or you pass away? If not then consider resale value.

[Johnny's Journey]

Originally Posted by chuckster57

Do you plan on keeping this trailer until it falls apart, or you pass away? If not then consider resale value.

I plan on keeping it. Is there a spring manufacturer that you can suggest to talk to. I'm really looking for an answer on spring travel.

[chuckster57]

Sorry I don't.

[ctbruce]

Originally Posted by Johnny's Journey

I plan on keeping it. Is there a spring manufacturer that you can suggest to talk to. I'm really looking for an answer on spring travel.

I'd Google fir a suspension shop for help. For me, I'd want someone who's done this before to talk to.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

[Ken / Claudia]

Just do it and let us know how it works out.

[sourdough]

I think I'm with Ken/Claudia - just do it and let us know. If you're trying to lower the trailer for whatever reason I would just have new springs made - proper arch and weight taken into consideration. The springs on an RV are made just like a car, truck, Jeep or anything else. They are sprung to carry the given weight at a certain height with a certain rate of collapse at a certain weight. Trying to shorten them by inches (if I understand your questions) will almost certainly let the trailer hit the axle - but then again.....why?

[Johnny's Journey]

Originally Posted by Ken / Claudia

Just do it and let us know how it works out.

Will do. For now I'll glue styrofoam blocks of different thicknesses (a different one for each spring) between each leaf and frame and drive down a bumpy road. The witness mark's left behind will tell me all I need to know. Thanks for all the replies everyone.

[Johnny's Journey]

I'm going to end this thread here based on another thread I had interactions with. It led me to understand why the participation here was absent in talking this modification out. I assure everyone this was only indented to be educational. This is why I was so specific with details and measurements. But I see now that this is to complex of a modification and shouldn't be tried unless one is an experienced designer/fabricator. You see I'm accustom to dealing with this type of topic on another forum I'm on. We really get into serious stuff there. But this place is different and that's OK. Peace

[JRTJH]

I just did a quick search for your model trailer and there are 4 members who have the same trailer. One was last on the forum in 2014, one in 2015 and one was last online here in Feb of this year, but he has never posted to the forum. You're the fourth with that trailer, so pretty much, You're a population of one.

I'd suspect that the "other forum" you speak of has a much larger population of people that own the items you discuss there. Here, there are 636 members who own Springdale trailers, only about 25 have posted to the forum in 2017 and over half have never posted to any thread, so the population of people who might have any experience with your trailer model is 1 (you) and people who have the same brand and are active on the forum is less than 25.

Speaking strictly from memory, I can only recall one or two threads that discussed lowering a trailer and they were not "how to" but rather "what if" kinds of topics. There are a handful of threads concerning raising a trailer, mostly fifth wheels and the owner was looking for information on how to improve the bed rail clearance on his truck/trailer and/or how to achieve towing with the trailer level.

I'm on several truck and tractor forums, a number of fishing, hunting and archery forums, all of them have several hundred to several thousand people with the same equipment as me, so there is a "common base" of people who might have some experience with the question I have.

Pretty much, it looks like nobody here has any experience lowering a new Springdale 202 and I'd make a guess that nobody who is active on the forum feels they have the expertise to give you any guidance. It's not that people aren't interested in discussing the project, rather, speaking at least for me, I can't give you any information other than "the tail is going to drag if you go too low".

[Johnny's Journey]

Originally Posted by JRTJH

I can't give you any information other than "the tail is going to drag if you go too low".

An offering. A link to an individual that figured out how the Space Shuttle exploded using only a glass of ice water and a C-clamp which totally went against NASA logic. A most enjoyable read. https://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Find.../dp/0140290346

[Frank G]

I might suggest a field trip to White Pigeon, Michigan. There are at least 2 stores there with every conceivable axle configuration. Can't find what you want, Elkhart, IN is a few miles down the road, more shops. If all else fails LCI and Dexter are right around the corner. Oh, since you are in the area you might as well visit Keystone and visit the facility where your unit was born. (unless it was made in the west coast facility) Enter Michigan from the northern route, you will not be disappointed.

[Johnny's Journey]

^^^^^ Thanks for the 411. Drop axles are a consideration I've been thinking about lately. But that will be last on the punch list of mod's.