Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I was given a 4' x 9' trailer that appears to be home-made. The axle is welded to the frame, the trailer is very sturdy. The question that I have is, is it essential to have leaf springs or will the current design of this trailer work without bouncing the potential cabin apart?

A trailer with out suspension will probably shake apart in a short time plus everything inside (plates-cookware- electronics-etc) will be subjected to every bump or pot hole in the road....

No springs may be ok for trash haul trailer, but in my opinion not for a tear drop on anything I value that I can load in/on a trailer....

Dale

Hit a pothole at 70MPH the trailer might go airborn. I think it jerk the daylights out of the tow vehicle.

xr2

See if you can cut the axle loose and put a set of slipper springs on it. Should not be that dificult or expensive to do. Cheaper than buying a new trailer.

What do you mean when you say "very sturdy?"

no springs is ok for little cement mixers being towed short distances at slow speeds, but not for a tear drop, no matter how robust it is.....

put on springs or get a torsion axle.

Arne wrote:no springs is ok for little cement mixers being towed short distances at slow speeds, but not for a tear drop, no matter how robust it is.....

put on springs or get a torsion axle.

yeah -- all that

sorry i disagree to some extent to all of the above. while i agree some sort of suspension is always going to be better than none, if your tires are big enough and the tear isnt overly light, a lot can be handled in tire pressures

Wimperdink wrote:sorry i disagree to some extent to all of the above. while i agree some sort of suspension is always going to be better than none, if your tires are big enough and the tear isnt overly light, a lot can be handled in tire pressures

Well... if you got some big balloon tires, and then you let half the air out of them, it would provide some shock absorption, but little damping. Why risk tearing up your tear that you spent such a long time building. Being from TX, it seems... uhh.. a little too redneck.

Plus, when I hear the word sturdy, it means heavy. Since I've shown that when a trailer is designed 'right' it doesn't need a frame at all, when you put an overly robust frame under it, it's really overkill. How much does the fram actually weigh? Why don't you post a pic to give us an idea what you are talking bout?

Hi tsallee,

Welcome to the fun.

I was given a 4' x 9' trailer that appears to be home-made. The axle is welded to the frame, the trailer is very sturdy. The question that I have is, is it essential to have leaf springs or will the current design of this trailer work without bouncing the potential cabin apart?

Spring kits are relitively inexpencive. Now is the time to install a spring kit before starting your build. You'll save yourself lots of headaches by doing it now.

Trailer Suspension Defined

My plan was to cut the axle loose and then add leaf springs. I thought that I would check for other opinions before I started to dismantel.

Thanks for all of the input.

Tsallee , are you sure its not s torsion axle??? they are welded to the trailer ,just a thought!

I've a 4x8 utility trailer which has a welded axle to the frame. When it is empty I have seen it bounce 2 or 3 feet in the air when I hit a good bump.

Do you kinda get the drift that people think you should get some sort of suspension

John

I just returned from a trip that included 125 miles of driving on truly awful gravel roads. I have a torsion axle and it is sprung for the weight I carry. The tear rode along just fine.

In the galley, I store basic food items in wide mouth pint jars. The vibration of the road unwound those lids (even when I had them on tight) and spilled food. No long term damage, but it got me thinking.

A tear, it seems to me, should employ every trick available to make it ride smooth. A savings of a couple hundred in the building stage could easily make a miserable trailer for life.

dave

I have a double axle car trailer without suspension, with it loaded it doesn't pull too bad, but with it empty it will bounce the fillings out of my teeth, the bounce transmits into the pull vehicle and is really annoying. So I would definietly say to put springs on your trailer before building your TD.