Randal R1 Spindal question

[Andy Wright]

Hi ya all,
does anyone know whether the spindal on the Randal ri downhill 150 trucks goes all the way through or whether it just sits in a couple of inches cause i'm gonna have them extended but need to know how there put together to take them apart?

[tom w]

Hi andy!

I've never split a 150 before, but I think it'd be safe to assume it is just like the 180. The axle goes all the way through the hangar, and can be removed by holding the hanger in a vice, and beathing the axle through with a big hammer. Like this -



When len changes axles he knurls the new axle in the middle and presses it back into the hanger.

Have you just knackered the thread, or are you doing a performance upgrade? If you are just replacing a knackered thread, then just re-thread the ends of some 5/16" bar, and bash it back in. If you are interested in doing an 8mm performance upgrade, then read on. (Not sure if a performance upgrade would be worth it on a 150 though, if you are just riding it park / street?). Anyway - here goes :


Randal axles are actually 5/16" Dia., not 8mm. Having a properly toleranced 8mm axle makes a massive difference to the ride, especially for downhill / slalom competition. (I'll look up the tolerance you need to have your 8mm axle made to if you want to do the upgrade will post it here later).

Remember to use the correct grade material for the replacement - You need 4140 CrMo steel.

Also, while you have the axle out - stick the hanger up on the lathe and turn the ends of the hanger square to the axle, so that it sits nicely against the back of the bearing when you put the wheels back on. (You could also turn a 'speed ring' into the hangar at the same time). See piccy:


(Photo lifted from GeezerX!)

Any probs - let me know and I'll try to help out....

Ride hard, stay safe.


Tom W.

[Andy Wright]

Hi Tom,
Its a performance upgrade to make the trucks 200mm wide to make the back of my board look like a ferrari ;D, once i get the extended new 8mm bar in position i will butt my ally extensions to the existing end and weld them up.
Cheers for the info Tom, just out of curiosity does Len do this?
And more importantly hows his wrist after Dalby 2?
P.S.are you going to Cadwell-will be a blast if the snow stays away!
Now wheres my big hammer?

[tom w]

Aaah I see!

I've seen some French guy riding extended hangers like that. His extensions were turned from stainless, and I think he actually threaded them into the end of the hanger. Come to think of it, he was using a Randal DH hanger to start with - they have a lot more meat to machine into. (Also, prob had to thread one side with a left hand thread so they didn't unwind on the move?).

Anyway - I hope the heat from the weld does'nt pull your axle out of line...

Remember to post us some piccies of the finished beast!

See you at Cadwell!


Ride hard, stay safe.


Tom W

[Joel]

Yes, Len does do this. There will be some good examples at Cadwell, keep your eyes open and ask around.

[will]

Andy Kent does them too!

[Andy Wright]

Would love to post the pics of the extensions- but not sure how to?

[tom w]

Hi Andy,

To post a pic, you need to store it elsewhere on the net, then all you do is cut & paste the web address into your post on this board.

To store photos for free, I recommend www.photobucket.com. Follow the instructions on the site to sign up, then get uploading those pics. Once you have uploaded your pics to Photobucket, each photo in your album will have three boxes next to it "URL link", "HTML Tag", and "Img Code".

To post a photo in a message here, choose which photo you want from your photobucket album, then cut & paste all the info in the "IMG Code" box next to it, and copy it into your message here. It will appear as a line of text code until you hit "preview" or "post".

Sounds a bit of a hassle, but its dead simple really. Its also handy for pasting photos into eBay auction descriptions, its cheaper (free!) than paying ebay for photo hosting...


Ride hard, stay safe.

Tom W.

[Andy Wright]

Ok nice one Tom,
Heres the pics


P.S. MK-2 is coming!!

[windy]

On the subject of hangers,I'm having a play withthe hangers on my Holey trucks, theres less meat on the axel part so the Randal mod wont work without a very long sleeve, and the axels appear to be well cast into the hanger,so beating them out is proving more than difficult, i have made a patternto give me a 230mm truck and will try and cast it this weekend, but i'm thinking i would be as well to make it a rolling axel, as per luge truck, thats assuming i can get my hands on enough decent grade alloy, does anyone know offhand the width of the replacement axel's for a randal luge truck, i will prob use 8mm moly bar but it would be good to match them then it makes it easier to use a spare if one of mine gets bent..

[Joel]

I wouldn't bother with the rolling axle. It probably helps a little under very high stresses, but not much, and certainly isn't worth the hassle it takes to make them and time to change the wheels over.

To be honest the main reason for getting Luge trucks is that they are wide.

[TomW]

I think floating axles were initially developed as some kind of performance advantage. The crude theory being that if the axle is on bearings as well as the wheels, then the overall bearing speed & friction could be halved. Like I said, a crude theory.

However, in practice there is no proven speed advantage. Thus the only percievable benefit of a floating axle is safety - If you happen to bind up a wheel bearing, then theoretically the axle will continue to rotate instead.

As for the axles themselves - They are hardened steel centreless ground to an h6 fit (Tolerance chart : www.roymech.co.uk/Useful_Tables/ISO_Tolerances/ISO_LIMITS.htm). So windy, just plain moly bar probably wont do. I've used a variety of "alternative" axles for randal luge trucks, and anything that has not been hardened tends to bend rapidly.

hope this helps!


Ride hard, stay safe.


Tom W.

[windy]

Thanks for that chaps, i'll be using 4140 steel for the axels , i have some silver steel but its too hard to mess with trying to cut a thread onto it, so i,ll try out the theory using an old but good axel with an extention tig welded into the middle to give me the correct length of axel, as it will be all embedded in alloy the joined part will not be stressed at all, not sure about the straightness staying put when i pour the alloy around it though!!!!!

[windy]

Well theres good news and theres bad news......
the first cast came out of the mould but hadn't filled well


but the second was not bad, a bit rough around the edges but it does look like it may have possibilities, here it is next to the stock Holey truck