Running Gear

’65 Caravel – Axle Damage

A Bump in the Road… Breaking an axle and skin panel damage Coming back from the Mendocino Coast in April of 2003, we decided to go down the Bohemian Highway from Rio Monte to Santa Rosa via Occidental. This scenic trip was ended with a loud bang and the sound of tearing and scraping metal. read more »

Brakes

Hydraulic to Electric Brake Conversion From this: To this: Electric brakes have been on travel trailers since the 1940’s. For some reason in the mid 1950’s to early 1960’s, hydraulically actuated brakes where offered as an option on Airstreams and other trailers of the era as a “safety feature”. We now spend our time and read more »

Axle Alternatives

If electric. leave as is For comparison, here is an example of the electric brake Kelsey-Hayes axles of the 1950’s. Notice how low slung the leaf spring is, necessitating a drop axle. Shows that there is no standard one size fits all axle solution. This brings up a good point, Kelsey-Hayes is still in business read more »

Rebuilding a Leaf Spring Axle

Axle When I started restoring the Flying Cloud I planned on keeping the original axle, converting the old hydraulic brake system to electric.  I documented the conversion of those brakes on this site. Fast  forward to 2007, and with the thought of 50 year old steel, along with the desire to raise the trailer up read more »