Trailer Axles: What Causes Overloading & How To Avoid It

Overloading your trailer axles can cause several issues when towing, and it is important to ensure that both you and those using trailers in your fleet are aware of the issues and how to avoid them.  

What causes my trailer axles to be overloaded? 

One of the main causes of axles being overloaded is incorrect load positioning. It is important to make sure that your trailer is loaded correctly, and you can read about how to do this in our other blog, Loading A Trailer: A Guide. 

Other causes include unevenly distributing your load on the trailer and exceeding the weight limit. You can learn more about GVW and the weight limit of your trailer in our blog here or on the government website.

What can happen if I overload my trailer axles? 

Overloading your axles can damage the trailer’s suspension system and can cause the tyres to overheat and wear out faster.  It can cause the axles to bend and in worse cases, the axle can break, which during transit would be exceedingly dangerous to both the trailer, driver and other road users. It can also cause poor handling of the trailer and may make the trailer less stable and harder to control.

How can I avoid it? 

There are several ways to avoid overloading your axles, the first and simplest one being to always ensure that your load is properly and evenly distributed and does not exceed the weight limit for the trailer.  Too much weight on the front can lead to excess nose load, and potentially overloading your towing vehicle’s towbar capacity and axle rating.  Too much on the rear can result in an unstable trailer and snaking can occur. 

It might be worth investing in some training for those loading trailers in your fleet to ensure that it is always done correctly. 

You could also look at upgrading the twin-axle trailers in your fleet with pivot axles. 

What is a pivot axle and what does it do? 

Pivot axles on a trailer allow each axle to move independently of each other and also the chassis.  This enables the wheels to roll over kerbs, speed humps and potholes rather than into them.   Pivot axles ensure that all four wheels always maintain contact with the road surface. Because the pivot axle system connects to the main chassis via one central fulcrum point, it enables the load to be spread equally across both axles and all wheels, however, the load is placed on the bed of the trailer.  This reduces the risk of uneven tyre wear and reduces damage to wheel rims, axles and bearings caused by kerbs, speed bumps and other humps and lumps in the road.  

Pivot axles have been shown to increase the time between servicing and significantly reduce bearing replacement, to as an when needed rather than a program of automatically replacing them every 3-9 months.  In turn, this reduces maintenance and repair costs and increases the utilisation of the trailer. 

Pivot axles also help to solve issues with towing heights because the load is always balanced correctly. This in turn takes away nose load issues and prevents overloading of either axle.   

Pivot axles have been shown to reduce maintenance costs by 95% and provide a smoother towing experience.