tonymactoyrv Posted April 25, 2007 Share Posted April 25, 2007 Hello, I just got a 1978 Sunrader. read some things about the rear axel. I have the 5 lug with no raised center lug. Do I need to upgrade to the 6 lug floating? Is it really necessary? The camper already has around 100K miles and it runs fine. Just wanted to know if it was recessary to upgrade? Any suggestions? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motoyhomme Posted April 25, 2007 Share Posted April 25, 2007 Only you can make the decision whether to upgrade to a floater or not. If your Sunrader is an 18 footer you may be OK especially with the mileage it has. The problem was so serious, it put the majority of Toyota motorhome manufacturers out of business and prompted Toyota to spend vast quantities of money for floating upgrades because they were scared of the liability issue. The 5 lug axle has the weight of the motorhome resting on the axel shaft which flexes up and down (think of a piece of copper wire between your fingers that you flex back and forth, eventually the wire will break and it will happen sooner if you flex it in a wider arc such as happens to the axel shaft as more weight is forced upon it causing it to bend further). The 6 lug floater has the weight resting on 4 sets of beefy bearings. The previous owner(s) of your rig may have always traveled light keeping your axle flex arc small. The times that the axles did break usually resulted in serious damage to the rig and sometimes the occupants were badly injured or killed. I have a 21 foot Sunrader that lost one of it's set of wheels at around 30K miles. According to the previous owner, the wheels shot out to the side (driver side) and dropped the body down to the ground which cracked and smashed parts of the bottom portion of the fiberglass. It was professionally repaired and you can't tell it ever happened. It also had the Toyota provided axle upgrade made at that point (This upgrade is no longer available). The previous owner was going about 35 mph when it happened and luckily the runaway wheels caused no damage to anyone else. He was heading out on a trip and had overloaded it. It's a tough call, but if you keep it as it is, try not to overlaod it too much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonymactoyrv Posted April 27, 2007 Author Share Posted April 27, 2007 Thank you for your information about my axel. It is the 18 ft model. I was thinking the same thing, that since it has almost 100,000 miles that it may be OK. I don't plan to really load it aot anyways. I just plan to take it to local beaches, tailgating, and using it to stay in while my girlfriend spends the day in the outlets. Thanks again for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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