Please give me your thoughts of this concept frame...

[rdkng07]

Unless you are getting the channel for free it would be much easier and less expensive to use 2"x2"x1/8" angle. Less fabricating and more surface area for mounting to work with.

Hi Rich and thanks for posting. The angle is not quite free but pretty close. I am going to have to fabricate a good deal on this but it shouldn't be too bad for one trailer. Thanks for the help and I appreciate your knowledge.

Rodger

[Arne]

rdkng07... the braces you diagramed lack longitudinal strength in the area where you most want it, near the joint.

take a piece of paper and fold it over twice... first, make it like a simple flat plate and try to bend it gently the what it would bend under load on the trailer..... now put that double bend in you diagram.. you will find there is no strength to speak of in the middle portion (the 'jog' in the plate).. it will deform very easily...

I would go with a simple plate on the inside, or outside.

[rdkng07]

Arne, good point. I am going to use a simple plate as suggested. My goal was to transfer load from the end of the inner tongue channel to the side rails.

Thanks again everyone I now have a plan for the frame. It will be light and I'm going to trust the cabin box for strength. If it fails I'll fix it, but outside of the tongue I can't find where anyone has had a major frame failure. (I'm sure there has been but it seems to be rare.) As I research all the different materials, skills, knowledge and designs people use, I find that they all seem to work. This would not be the case if we were building utility trailers I’m sure. So IMHO, outside of the tongue and securing your running gear, everything else is tie down points. Or what Grant said...

But the bottom line is that a properly built teardrop body is a rigid torsional box ... you could build the under-body part of the chassis out of bed rails and you'd be O.K., as that part of the frame is only there to mount the axle and the frame tongue. The critical parts of the chassis are the tongue itself and how it's tied to the under-body framework.

Great forum and thanks for the interesting discussion. Now I have to figure out the floor / frame / curved body / and aluminum relationship at the front of the trailer.

Rodger