Trailer Pads

R&R lives parked beside the house.  A recent patio project offered an opportunity for concrete wheel pads.  Not wanted was anything permanent and as the concrete truck needed to back where the pads would be located, six two foot square pads were poured into forms and later placed into position.  I made mine 5.5 inches thick but they were very heavy to deal with and would do 3.5 if doing again.  Pads are available from a home supply but there was a minimum yardage order so chose to pour my own.  Two foot is also a large size for a commercial pad but was wanted because it provides adequate size for the wheel, a block and jack side by side.  Sixteen inch pads will work well.

Axle Blocks

With the pads in place, it is a very easy task to provide axle supports for longer storage periods.  I used some scrap 4x10" cedar beam sections cut seven inches long.  These were counter bored with four 1" holes about 1.5 inches deep to provide relief so that the supports could sit directly under the U bolts that attach the axle to the springs.  I simply took a piece of cardboard and pressed it to the bolts and used it as a pattern to do all four blocks and bored with a common spade bit.

It is a very simple task to place a small bottle jack on the axle and raise the wheel about 2" before inserting support, which yields about 1/2" clearance for the tire.