Posted by David Sherman on Tuesday, December 27, 2005 at 0:48AM :
In Reply to: Re: How are they doing the rear axle ???? posted by Arthur (in NY) on Monday, December 26, 2005 at 11:10PM :
The M105 is rated at 3 tons GVW. That's 1-1/2 tons empty, 1-1/2 tons cargo capacity. Unlike the trucks, there is no "highway" rating given. That means the springs will carry 6,000 lbs. If we guess (probably not good enough for the DOT) that like the trucks it could carry twice the load on the highway as off-road, that gives a highway load rating of 9,000 lbs. I'm not sure that there's any basis for assuming that, though.
If the shortened deuce weighs 10,000 lbs empty, and you give it a 4 ton (18,000 GVWR) highway rating, and the front axle loading remains the same as an M35 at about 7000 lbs, that means the rear axle load is 11,000 lbs. Any way you slice it, this is considerably (2000 to 5000 lbs) more than the M105 springs were designed for.
It seems to me that the M105 springs would be quite inadequate for that kind of load rating. I know there are people who use M35 front springs to support a single rear axle for chopped-down 4x4 "play" trucks, but they don't expect the cargo to be much more than a beer cooler. The M105 springs are even lighter than the M35 front springs, so it seems to me that they wouldn't last long in this application.