5x8 vs 4x8 design

[booyah]

Munoz357

Where you out of?

[dwieland]

Thanks, booyah and TimC! It's great to determine that I just need to include brakes to be able to tow a queen-sized trailer. The Benroy looks like a good style too. I wonder though if it wouldn't work about as well (and be somewhat lighter) to use inset wheels and a 4x8 trailer. Does having the wheels outboard of the body give much extra stability? Would using a torsion suspension instead of leaf springs maybe do as much in that regard? So much to consider!

[friz]

You can have your cake and eat it too. If you build a super light design like the Chesapeake Light Craft teardrop, you can have a queen sized bed in a trailer that doesn't need brakes.

Sent from my Altair 8800 using Tapatalk

[booyah]

Thanks, booyah and TimC! It's great to determine that I just need to include brakes to be able to tow a queen-sized trailer. The Benroy looks like a good style too. I wonder though if it wouldn't work about as well (and be somewhat lighter) to use inset wheels and a 4x8 trailer. Does having the wheels outboard of the body give much extra stability? Would using a torsion suspension instead of leaf springs maybe do as much in that regard? So much to consider!

So when I was prototyping, I found that to build the trailer on a 4x8 frame, I would either have to elevate the level of the bed to be above the wheels and their travel, or i had to live with wheel wells in side the trailer. That wasnt worth the cost difference to me, because you are either raising the center of balance, or dealing with part of the bed being dead space.

I pull behind a small hatchback (scion xd 5 speed manual) so low profile is very important to me.

Really it came down to the idea that I was probably only going to build one of these in the next 10 years, so I better build it the way I WANT it rather than what I thought I could get away with at the time.

[booyah]

One thing I wanted to add, when I was prototyping, I found I needed to cut a few inches from the inside length (to actually be just shy of a real queen size bed) to fit even a basic cooler in the galley on the standard benroy.

Keep that in mind as that is a concern. My 48qt Coleman is a decent enough cooler with sufficient capacity for my uses (about 3 days of ice retention for normal uses) but I wouldn't have minded a little more room to go to one of the rotomolded coolers, or a 5-6 day coleman (extreme family) option.
a 4x9 or 5x9 would be worth the added cost/time to have more kitchen options in my mind.

[dmdc411]

I built a 5 X 10, has one door with a queen mattress. Has a counter top with normal storeage. No builtins other than a small flat screen TV. Weighs in at 1060lbs. My inverter is a desk top computer power supply, and all led lighting, and a Fantastic fan.

[dwieland]

OK, I've now pretty much decided to build a 5x8 frame. I'm in Ottawa, Canada, so a custom build is probably my most practical approach. I can get a folding 4x8 from a Canadian source for a reasonable price, but that's the only size they offer. At this point, it's just an open utility trailer I need for hauling building materials for the renovation projects my wife insists have to be done first. Acquiring or building one of the size needed for the TD and with torsion suspension seems like the way to start off. (I'll check with the trailer fabricator in my area, but I suspect his price will be rich for me.)

If the "box" can be a foot or two longer than the frame, I may ultimately go with a 5x9 or 5x10 TD design if 8' seems cramped.

Thanks for the advice.

[booyah]

If the "box" can be a foot or two longer than the frame, I may ultimately go with a 5x9 or 5x10 TD design if 8' seems cramped..

Owning the 8ft one, that would be my recommendation.

Mind you my build has space inside to accomedate a "kid bunk" but I do pine for more space in the hatch....