Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

OK...I come from the school of, "The only dumb question is the question not asked."...

In reference to tight turns, especially backing into a tight spot where I can't back straight in, like in an alley for example...
Should the tounge length (from the hitch to the farthest most portion of the trailer body) be just a bit more than half the width of the tow vehicle, to assure that the body of the trailer never comes in contact with the body of the tow vehicle? (Not including jack-knifing it, but I won't do that)

That's what I have always used as a general rule.

Dean,

Your formula should be for the minimum tongue length, however you can go longer. The longer the tongue, the easier it will be to back the trailer. However, a 10 ft trailer with a 14 ft tongue would look a little silly!

Two observations on long tongues - neither of them a reason why you shouldn't have one:

- A longer tongue increases the bending moment on the tongue, so a longer tongue also needs to be a stronger tongue.

- Just about every commercial trailer has a very short tongue - is this because they are maximising the accommodation within a fixed trailer length (ie, shorter tongue = longer body), or are they just cheapskates?

Andrew