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8:49 pm
February 28, 2011
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bradster
| | Tennessee | |
| Member | posts 7 |
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I bought my 2011 Sportsmen Classic 14 FKTH earlier this month and have enjoyed two weekends of camping. This is my first post to the forum. I've experienced some minor scrapes on the jack plate due to ground clearance issues. Other posts on this forum discuss the possibility of flipping the axle to increase ground clearance.
I emailed KZ-RV to inquire whether this would invalidate the warranty.
Here is the response:
"KZ does not encourage or discourage the flipping of axles; it is a common practice to gain clearance with units that have straight axles. I believe that your unit has a drop axle on it, to my knowledge this practice does not apply to this type of axles. When you are pulling this unit are you pulling it level or does there need to be an adjustment made at the "A" frame to assist with this situation."
Upon further examination, I can confirm (see photo) that the axle is not a straight axle. However, does this fact rule out flipping the axle? I have flipped my hitch from a 3.5 drop to a 2.0 rise so I can gain some additional clearance up front.
Thanks,
Bradster
 
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2011 Sportsmen Classic 14 FKTH
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10:06 pm
February 28, 2011
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smilinjohn
| | Minnesota Prairie | |
| Moderator
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Hi, Brad!
With your fully loaded TT, does tonge weight cause the rear TV suspension to compress, causing unlevel TV, front to rear? If so, rather than using weight distribution hitch, check out http://www.huskyspring.com for their $111 shorty add-on leaf that supports up to 1,000 lb. additional weight over and above the regular rear suspension support.
 John
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2010 Sportsmen Classic 14RK; 2005 Ford F-150, 5.4L V8; "…..it is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance." Charles Darwin
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9:40 am
March 1, 2011
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sandersmr
| | Texas | |
| Member | posts 338 |
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That's interesting about KZ's response. The factory rep was at the dealer when we picked up our trailer and we discussed the axle flip with him at the time. He told us it did invalidate the warranty, so we've been waiting to do the flip. Since the Sportsmen Classic have a 6 month warranty, it hasn't been that long of a wait.
We also have jack plate drag occasionally, sometimes just getting out of the driveway. And last camping trip, we had a pretty good drop off from the road into the site that caused some dragging issues. I'm about ready for that flip. I just hope it doesn't cause any instability both in towing and in set up.
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2010 16BH towed by 2002 F-150 Super Crew 4.6L V8
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8:08 pm
March 1, 2011
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bergie52
| | Erin Tn. | |
| Member | posts 3 |
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After the first trip with 2 dirt bikes about 600 lbs in my 14 FKTH I had rubs on the sides and top of wheel wells. It has enough spring just no room. I got the spring plates from tractor supply for 3500 lbs axle. With the wheels off the axle sets level on shop floor on the bottom plates just level the plates on top and weld them on. It took only a couple hours. It handles the same as before and have had no rubs.
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6:35 pm
March 2, 2011
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bradster
| | Tennessee | |
| Member | posts 7 |
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smilinjohn said:
Hi, Brad!
With your fully loaded TT, does tonge weight cause the rear TV suspension to compress, causing unlevel TV, front to rear? If so, rather than using weight distribution hitch, check out http://www.huskyspring.com for their $111 shorty add-on leaf that supports up to 1,000 lb. additional weight over and above the regular rear suspension support.
 John
John – I'm thinking of either a WD hitch or a spring upgrade. Will research to see which is best. Certainly the spring upgrade is less expensive.
bradster
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2011 Sportsmen Classic 14 FKTH
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6:37 pm
March 2, 2011
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bradster
| | Tennessee | |
| Member | posts 7 |
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Post edited 3:45 am – March 3, 2011 by bradster
Thanks for the responses regarding flipping the axle on a 14FKTH.
For the sake of clarity, when we refer to flipping an axle, a more accurate term would be to change the setup from spring under axle (SUA) to spring over axle (SOA). SOA in this case would provide additional clearance (the diameter of axle + radius of axle = amount of increased clearance). Literally flipping the axle would probably be a bad idea. My reasoning is that if the axle has a preset alignment geometry, flipping the axle would upset the geometery by inverting the toe and camber of the wheel. This would cause rapid wear on the tires.
A couple of things I've learned:
- The 14 FKTH has an under-slung drop-axle and not a straight axle. (see attached photo)
- KZ stated that the flipping the axle "does not apply to this type of axle".
I don't understand why changing from SUA to SOA would not apply.
Thoughts anyone?
bergie52 – do you have a photo of your conversion?
sandersmr – I'm with you on the warranty issue. I'd wait until the warranty expires. Why take chances.
Regards,
bradster
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2011 Sportsmen Classic 14 FKTH
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6:40 pm
March 3, 2011
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bergie52
| | Erin Tn. | |
| Member | posts 3 |
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Post edited 1:46 am – March 4, 2011 by bergie52
  Axle Photo
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4:05 pm
March 12, 2011
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Sportsman Matt
| | Central MA | |
| Moderator
| posts 95 |
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What you are referring to is a spring swap, locating the spring over the axle instead of underneath.
Reference back to my thread about the axle spring swap (back when this board was in it's infancy) and you will see several things.
1) never change the geometry of the axle..this is a bad thing to do.
2) I added new spring seats to the axles, retaining the old ones (mainly due to being too lazy to cut them off and re-use them)
3) The trailer was at the edge of the warranty period and needless to say, I wasn't concerned about anything other than the refrigerator, which was covered by Norcold, so that was a moot point.
4) When raising the Center Of Gravity, you may be in for different handling afterwards. So far it hasn't had any adverse effect for my situation, but may be problemsome depending on layout, wheelbase, driving style.
I did mine because the tires would rub when running off pavement. Prior to the axle relocation, I was scraping the tongue jack time to time, and actually crushed the end one day leaving a gas station on my way home, and unable to unload the trailer until I cut the crushed 1″ off the jack end.
Good luck
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