Replacing the tongue

[TomS]

Well.....the weight of the trailer caused the tongue to twist!!!



New tongue material.....$40.00 for 8 ft!!!

I find that really hard to believe. The tounge weight on my tear can't be more than 70 or 80 pounds. Hell, I can lift the tounge with one handed without much effort. When we camp I put jack stands under the front of the frame. But, even if we didn't do that, I still don't see how we'd exert enough force to twist the tounge. There just isn't enough weight there. Am I missing something?

[Spadinator]

The jack is not centered on the tongue and the tongue is not boxed in. It is a thin walled U channel that twisted pretty easily. If the jack was in the center of the tongue it probably would not have twisted. The material I am going to replace it with is thicker and completely boxed. It should not twist.

[mikeschn]

Andrew came up with a wonderful design for me for the tongue... I don't expect it's going to give me too much trouble, no matter what kind of tongue jack I stick on it...



Mike...

[Gage]

The jack is not centered on the tongue and the tongue is not boxed in. It is a thin walled U channel that twisted pretty easily. If the jack was in the center of the tongue it probably would not have twisted. The material I am going to replace it with is thicker and completely boxed. It should not twist.

It better not twist. I think I would still weld a couple more braces on the tongue like I showed. Just me. And your right about the difference between boxed and non boxed tubing. Non boxed tubing?

Have a good day and good luck with your rebuild.

[Spadinator]

Non boxed tubing?

I had to think about that one for a minute

[Guy]

Dear Mike,

Is Andrew's design two channels, back to back, creating an I beam, with double thickness for tongue stiffening?

[angib]

Is Andrew's design two channels, back to back, creating an I beam, with double thickness for tongue stiffening?

Yep. I started out putting the open sides of the channels together to make a tube, which would be a better tongue. However just one of the channels is probably strong enough in this application (it's ultralight, remember?) but I am concerned that it wouldn't be stable over this length. It looked a lot easier to join the channels back to back, which also leaves access to the flanges for bolting, and the tongue remains massively overstrength for this trailer.

Andrew

[fornesto]

I know we all tend to over-engineer everything, but why not extend the tongue all the way back to the axle or beyond? This would better disperse the shock of stopping and starting and the torque from turning.

[Spadinator]

I am extending the tongue to the axle. The load of the trailer will then be transferred to three cross braces rather that two.