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What is the hive-mind opinion on threading the steel axle and using some M6 bolts instead
M6 screws don't have any more holding power than a decent QR, and the compression applied by a skewer actually improves the fatigue strength of the axle by reducing the peak tensile load as it flexes.
Have you tried a 173mm Shimano skewer? Stock skewers for 135mm OLN are 168mm, but they do a long one for fat dropouts which would probably work with 140mm OLN and thinner steel dropouts.
gbj_tester-
I had found a bolt-on skewer for fat dropout (have bought a set to try), will look into the longer Shimano ones.
I'm also fed up of having to eyeball a straight wheel every time, but I don't have adjuster screws. The dropouts seem to have a thicker area where the threaded hole would normally be. Am I being stupid by considering drilling and tapping my own holes for adjusters to make the wheel position repeatable? -
So I tracked down a 173mm shimano skewer at SJS, works a treat. Fractionally shorter than the Hope skewer the wheels came with but plenty of thread engagement in the acorn nut and a much more positive clamping action. Thanks for the suggestion!
hamrack
So I got some new wheels for the tandem, some second hand DT-Hugi hubs on Mavic rims. 4 days in the Cotswolds taught me to carry spare star-ratchets, but they were otherwise great.
However, they're QR hubs and our Dawes has old-school semi-horizontal dropouts. It's a 140mm OLD so I can't find a decent (shimano) skewer that's long enough, and am not sure if Halo XL hex skewers will be long enough either. What is the hive-mind opinion on threading the steel axle and using some M6 bolts instead (as @mdcc_tester has demonstrated here)?