Morris Minor Owners Club

Hello, am looking for the AXLE RATING of a mid 1950's early 60's Morris Minor. Any ball park figures would help as I don't know the exact model the axle came off?

Thanks a lot

Dave.

More of a commercial vehicle term I think - why do you need the rating detail ?

I have an old morris minor axle on my boat trailer. I've been asking around the clubs to shed some light on this for me, as the Australian gov wants to know it's approximate rating before they will let me register the trailer.

So any help is much appreciated.

Thanks.

Sorry, in approximate rating I mean what load bearing capacity it has.

Not sure about the capacity (half the maximum gross weight of the LCV might be a reasonable estimate to start with), but bear in mind that you will need to retain the halfshafts and at least part of the diff to support the hub bearings properly.

The later LCV was described as " 8 cwt " - presumably the load it was designed to carry - so tell them that ! It used the same axle as all the others, however it did have the very nice 4.50 J wheels !

Bad advice, I'd say, given that the LCV had completely different suspension designed to carry the weight. I'd stick with the saloon rating

But there was no official saloon 'rating' - and yes of course different springs - but the very same axle - and that's what the Q is about!

8 CWT refers to around 900lbs - so do you guys think this is the approximate capacity for each axle?

Does that sound about right? What was the original weight of the LCV or Saloon?

bmcecosse wrote:But there was no official saloon 'rating' - and yes of course different springs - but the very same axle - and that's what the Q is about!

Different springs, different dampers, different attachment. Same axle, apart from the diff, but not the same application. I still say that saying that they are the same is foolish.
Can't help with the original saloon weight, I'm afraid - someone's borrowed that book

But the rating will depend on the 'weakest link' - so presumably all these other parts had to be beefed up - but the axle didn't! It was still good for an '8 cwt' rating without any additional reinforcing.
This whole thing is about a bit of mad 'red tape' - as long as they get an answer they are not going to come running out and loading the thing up with '8 cwt' to see if it bends of breaks. In any case - I 'm sure it won't!!

Meh. Whatever.
a

Awesome. Thanks for the help guys.. I'm going to put 550kg (around 1200lbs). It's a pain in the DONT SWEAR OR YOU WILL BE BANNED because I have to get this information stamped onto a plate! So I want to make sure it's at least 90% right.

Thanks again!

Do you need that load rating ? If they ask for justification - what will you say ? At least the '8 cwt' = 896 lbs can be justified !

1,200lb seems a very good figure to use, as the 8cwt was the payload, virtually all over the rear axle on an LCV. Add the unladen weight proportion on the rear axle, and the total will be more than 1,200lb.

A standard car weighs about 18cwt with a full full tank and around 60/40 front to rear, so around 7cwt on the rear axle. Add 4 passengers of at least 140lb each and this time around 70% on the rear axle, means about 3.5cwt. Total 10.5cwt or just under 1,200lb. Put some luggage in the boot and up to 1,300lb +.

Empirically, not many (any?) rear axles physically broke on Minors, so should be a sensible number to use.

QED?

QED !