Those thicker aluminium hollow axles are not bullet proof. My aircraft has never been on snow skies and it's been on wheels all its life . However during a recent 100hrly the wheels were removed for servicing it was noted the right hand a xle had slight bend in it .The axle was removed from the leg and to my horror the axle had cracked right at the flange where the it bolts to the leg. The crack had opened up to about 15 thou . It was a good save BUT the log books state solid axles had been fitted. The left side of the aircraft had a solid axle fitted.
No corrosion was found at all . For some reason this aircraft has had no corrosion issues at all.the only issues have been bird strikes and ham fisted pilots [except me. Eh eh eh LOL ]
All hollow aluminum axles are subject to cracks and failures. Even the thicker ones, due to the machine-marks inside. The solid aluminum "ski" axles are preferred, and the hollow steel axles are even better.
'53 B-model N146YS SN:25713
50th Anniversary of Flight Model. Winner-Best Original 170B, 100th Anniversary of Flight Convention. An originality nut (mostly) for the right reasons.