An axle assembly (10) for a wheeled vehicle includes a cylindrical housing (12a) defining a pair of spindle mounting flanges (30). A pair of spindles (16) is secured to the flanges. A plurality of tension rods (60) extend between the spindles at the bottom side of the cylindrical housing and apply clamping forces to the spindles urging the spindles into mounting contact with the spindle mounting flanges and also concurrently couple the flanges to each other. The coupling of the flanges to each other generates a tension force in each tension rod, whereby bending loads exerted by the spindles are shared between the housing and the tension rods.