Torsion Axle

Our previous two campers the r-pod and Vibe had torsion axles so when we bought the Vista Cruiser with a leaf spring axle I was concerned it having a rough ride. But I can't tell the difference between the torsion axle and the leaf spring axle. We have a thirty year old aluminum utility trailer with a torsion axle and it has worked very well though when towing empty it bounces a little. When we had our r-pod we drove over a railroad crossing which was a bigger bump than I had expected and I think the r-pod went airborne for a few feet and it handled very well. So by my experience a torsion axle may have more of a bounce than a leaf spring axle.

It's not that either leaf springs or torsion axles are better or worse, it's just that the engineering considerations and objectives are different.

Torsion axles are light, compliant and are self dampening, but inherently create stress points that leaf springs don't.

So it depends on what the designers objectives and specs were. In the case of rpods the designers were looking for low cost, light weight, and a compliant suspension. They weren't looking for high clearance or to take high g forces from running rough roads at speed. So the design objectives favored the use of torsion axles. High ground clerances and better ability to handle g forces would favor selection of leaf springs.

It's not that torsion axles can't be designed to be more robust and have higher clearance, they can. Its just more costly to do those things than   thanif the designers chose to use leaf springs. You can even reinforce the frame and axle on your rpod to address those weak points if you want to.

My new camper, surveyor legend 19rble, has leaf springs. I assume thats a good thing? Is it better, worse, or equal to a torsion axle? Some roads I travel fairly often are pretty bumpy. 

We accidentally got on a road like that near Chaco Canyon. It was about 20 miles of the worst washboard I 've every driven, and I am used to dirt roads. I don't think it harmed our axle on the Rpod, and I was traveling without water or waste, but it shook a lot of stuff loose in the trailer. I would have done a u-turn but there's no room to do so on those roads. I was fortunate that some locals gave us some directions back to paved highway, because it wasn't apparent how to do that, and in that region the phone signal was too weak. Not that I would rely on google maps or apple maps again. I was following google maps directions. It turned out ok, but was a road I would not take my Rpod over again. C