Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I built my Teardrop following the Kuffle Creek plans. The plans have been an excellent guide but I didn't like where the plans placed the axle. The HF trailer is composed of two sections and the axle assembly is used to support the two halves of the trailer. The plans call for moving the axle back which seems like it would weaken the joint between the two halves. On the other hand, leaving the axle in the stock position might make the tongue too light and lead to poor handling. Unfortunately, you don't get to find out how the trailer tows until you're finished. So how do you figure out where to place the axle?

Angib has published an axle placement spreadsheet which will calculate the tongue weight given weight distribution and axle location. I plugged my design in and it turns out that the stock location gave me a tongue weight of about 100# with one battery and 170# with two batteries on the tongue. I didn't want to exceed 180# because the HF manual calls for a maximum of 10% of the total trailer weight on the tongue. So I left the axle in the stock location because I didn't want to move the axle and possibly weaken the trailer. I haven't weighed the tongue and probably won't bother because the trailer tows wonderfully.

Jean and I were towing the trailer out of Buena Vista and a driver tried his best to make us t-bone him. He pulled directly across the road and stopped in our lane when I hit the horn ( I think he freaked out when he heard the horn and just stopped). There was no way I was going to be able to stop so I swerved into the opposing lane going about 45 to get around him. I cracked the whip and the trailer was at the end of the whip. There was a bunch of tire screaching as the trailer whipped back and forth but thats all that happened.

Thanks Angib. I think your spreadsheet works pretty good.
Bruce

Dear Bruce,

Great post. Glad your safe.

Thanks for posting your finds. I have been checking for trailers, and might end up going with the HF 4' and have it modified to the 5' width. I wondered about moving the axle like Kuffelcreek suggests, I'm going to stay under 1000# and will not have anything if very much on the tongue at this time.
julie

oklahomajewel wrote:Snip.. I'm going to stay under 1000# and will not have anything if very much on the tongue at this time.
julie

Nows the time to start figuring out your weight distribution because it might influence your trailer selection. I moved my water tank closer to the axle from where the KC plans show and I think that helps balance the trailer a lot.
Here's a link to Angibs spreadsheet.
http://www.angib.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/t ... tear81.htm

Bruce

Bruce,

Thanks for the coment and I'm glad your trailer, and your 'elk test' trip, turned out OK.

I do hope you'll measure the tongue weight of your trailer - it's light enough to use bathroom scales (are they called that in the US? - I can see Ira coming up with an obscene meaning for that phrase if not). Then it would be nice to know how accurate the estimate was - there are some assumptions in the spreadsheet and it would be good to know if they're reasonable ones!

Andrew

Bruce,
Not moving the axle back would make for a smaller ares to install the door. Did you have any problems with the door placement/size? Just wondering.

No problem with door size or placement. I went with a 30" wide door. You could probably squeeze out a couple more inches if you don't install a front cabinet.



Bruce