Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hey all,

We are planning on building with a trailer kit from a box, 4x8. we are planning on putting two 5 gallon gas cans on the tongue just in front of the tear body. How will this affect the position of the axel? Should i even be worrying about it? im concerned because the extra 62 or so pounds of weight that close to the tongue seems like a lot for our little car with a towing capacity of 1000 pounds.

any thoughts?

You might use Andrews balance calculation sheet Here to see where you might get then also the Tongue Calculationsto see if the tongue is stout enough. Also maybe Andrew will help out here. He is usually up and around this time of the day.

I hope that the information will help.




Pat

Your 62 lb of gas tanks will increase the hitch weight by about 40 lb. That might be enough that you wouldn't need to move the trailer axle back to get sufficient hitch weight on a teardrop, as long as you're not planning a really heavy galley.

If you're got a fairly light tow vehicle, it would make sense not to get too high a hitch weight - while hitch weights over 10% are great for trailer stability, they will have the back end of a light tow vehicle scraping the ground.

The only glitch is that, if they're gas tanks, aren't you planning to empty them at some time? You need to make sure that the trailer still has an acceptable hitch weight (say, at least 8% of its weight) with the tanks empty, or missing, as you are sure to end up towing the trailer like that some day.

Andrew

...how about side mounts for the cans...one each side, centered between door and axle................................

I'm not sure what your plans are but if you are not putting them on the axel just to add weight and you are going to have fenders, I would mount them on the fenders. You could even make an enclosure for them that blends in with the tear drop. That wouldn't add weight to the front or back.

Tom

That calculation spreadsheet is great. Im going to design for one gas can on the tongue. Ill position the axle so that if the can is empty i have 8% tongue weight, and if its full ill have 11%. It will be full most of the time, at least i hope there wont be too many cases where i have to use the extra gas.

worst case scenario when i put the extra gas in the car, i can take some things out of the galley and toss them in the front of the tear to make up for the difference. a couple of bungee cords and its close enough.

mounting the cans over the axles is a great idea, but i think its a bit involved for my design. im trying to keep this as simple and as light as possible, for many reasons.