What Would Cause a Trailer Axle to Be Too Far Back in Fender Well

Updated 04/17/2025 | Published 04/10/2025

Question:

My boat trailer had to have new adjustable fender/hangar assembly installed after a blowout mangled the old one replacement from OEM was cheaper than me repairing. I did not get a measurement of the old spring hangar distances before discarding. I noticed the other day that the axle looks very far back in the fender well. The shackle straps are a little under 5inch center to center. I am confident that the existing leaf packs are old enough I should replace either way. Would shortening the shackle straps move the axle forward in the fender well? Or should I start with new leaf packs and see if that helps?

asked by: Steven

Boat Trailer
(click to enlarge)

Expert Reply:

Hey Steven, changing the length of your shackle straps would not change the front to back orientation of your trailer axle. Most likely what happened is the new hangers got installed too far back and that threw everything off. Trying to fix this by changing the length of components will be challenging but it would come down to going with a shorter leaf spring by a couple inches looks like. That would then still require moving the rear hangers closer to the front.

With that said worth mentioning is that if the spring is super flat right now that would push the axle back a bit as well since when they stretch/flatten they move back since that is what the shackle allows.

expert reply by: Jameson C

Steven H.

4/17/2025

Thanks Jameson, The springs do look pretty darn flat so I’ll start with that and replacing the shackles in with the same length and see what things land at before going down the path of moving spring seats? Current measurements of the leaf springs (trailer unloaded) are 27.5” eye to eye left side 27.375” eye to eye right side Current springs are 5 leaf The hubs on the trailer are Dexter idler 5 on 4.5” looks like 2200lb hubs. Amy recommended alternative leaf springs?

Jameson C.

4/17/2025

@StevenH Are those measurements when the weight of the trailer is on the axle or with the trailer jacked up in the air? Ideally the measurements are taken without a load on the springs.