Building replacement Max IV axles

[hornellfirefighter61]

I am considering cheaper options for replacing all six (6) hollow tube axles on my early 1980's Max IV w/ solid stock axles. The cheapest price I've found for complete axles so far is $165 plus $20 shipping. With that being said I've considered buying solid round stock and hubs and building my own. I am having a hard time trying to locate hubs to weld on the round stock. The old axles appear to just have plate steel as a hub, I want something that would be beefier. If anyone has built their own axles could you please tell me what you used for the hubs.

Thanks,
Mike

[racerone3]

I often just cut the hubs off the old axles. you can also contact member Whipperag. He has built hubs and axles for several members. I'm not going to quote a price cause its been a while, but the last hubs I got from him weren't terribly expensive

[garrett1308]

Throwing out ideas, feel free to tell me I'm wrong. But, if your axles are all straight, you could hammer some 3/4" OD round stock in them, just long enough to span from the hub to the sheer bolt hole. Any longer and you'd have to drill the sheer bolt hole out. I do this on my max, (makes repairing cut axles way easier, they always end up straight). You could also weld some tabs on the back of your current hubs and tie them to the axles for added geometry, again, assuming they're not bent.

For new hubs, you could modify some trailer hubs to fit and weld them on, though they'd be bulky. You could do what racerone said and cut your old hubs off and put them on your new shaft. You could also find some one local with a plasma table and pay them to cut you some new plate steel hubs out.

If you do opt for new axles, you can get 1.5" Id bearings that'll fit your current flanges if you want to go ahead and step up your current axle OD.

[TheSilverBuick]

I'm new to 6x6's, but this is on the MAX II I picked up, which I think is an early 80's model.

[monkstr6100]

I am planning to build some new axles for my max II here soon. Plan to use 1-1/4" solid bar, 3/8" plate for the hub/flange and then make gussets to help attack the flange to the axle itself. My question is does anyone have any issue with using just regular bronze bushings instead of oilite? What was factory?

[miller_time]

I made some 4 my max iv. I used 3 bolt to 5 bolt argo adapters i got cheap off ebay and added the gussets.