Questions about trailer capacity and wheels

[Chuckles]

Hello,

Been lurking for quite a while. I've been planning a teardrop for months and just found a donor trailer for a great price. Its an older heavy duty boat trailer in excellent condition.



I'm planning a tear that is 64" wide and 12.5' long. The trailer is 10" too narrow but I plan on adding offsets to support the tear. As luck would have it the cross members fall just right for the dropped floor I plan. A few questions:

The tag says 1700 lb capacity and 2500 lb goss weight. The axle has plates for brakes and it has springs with 5 leaves so I'm assuming it is a 2500 to 3000 lb rated axle. However, it only has 10 inch rims (4 bolt) with fairly wide tires. The tires seem small for the trailer (lots of room under the fenders) so I'm wondering if they are stock or not. Any thoughts? I'm thinking of keeping the current wheels but building the wheel wells large enough to support 13" wheels. If needed I'll add new hubs with brakes also.

Any flaws in the plan? I'd appreciate any thoughts, suggestions, or things to look out for.

[KCStudly]

I am building 64 inches wide outside frame and walls because I want a full queen size mattress with 1-1/2 thick foam in my walls. If I had it to over again I would have just built the outside 60 inches overall and cut the mattress foam to suit. Either too much joining of smaller pieces of ply (with unsightly seams) or have to buy too many extra sheets of ply (with lots of waste) to do the 64 inch wide panels.

Not done building yet, but just saying...

There was a thread not too long ago on the subject and plenty of folks said that their cut down-just below queen size mattresses worked fine for both sleeping room and bed linen fit.

$.02.

[KCStudly]

What is the diameter of the axle tube? 3000# are usually 2-3/8" OD actual (2 inch nominal pipe size).

Nice looking trailer.

[Chuckles]

What is the diameter of the axle tube? 3000# are usually 2-3/8" OD actual (2 inch nominal pipe size).

Nice looking trailer.

The axle tube diameter is 2.25 inches.

I decided on 64 inches wide because I want a real queen size mattress (60") plus 1-1/8" each for the insulated wall plus a little extra to make fitting the sheets easier. I'll be using stock plywood (4x8) instead of ordering 5 foot wide sheets. As I see it having 3 feet of leftover plywood versus 2'-8" doesn't matter much. I do a lot of woodworking as a hobby so it won't go to waste.

I was looking at 1/4" tigerply available at Menards. It looks like a quality product and much cheaper than birch core.

Here is my plan. I will be making a few minor adjustments to fet the trailer. Such as raising the mattress on a platform to clear the wheel wells and making the galley/interior storage a little smaller.

At this point I'm starting to worry about trailer balance. As designed the axle is at exactly 40% of the tear body length but is the the galley and interior storage are back-to-back behind the axle too much? I'm thinking of adding a 2-foot long tounge box for batteries and heavy stuff. Mabey a cooler tray on the lid of the box as well?

[KCStudly]

Some people feel that it is far better to have the heavy items near the axle, rather than hanging heavy items off of the front and rear to set balance.

If the heavy stuff is near the axle then you do not have to move much weight around to get the appropriate tongue weight. On the other hand, having a bunch of weight at the very back can set up a pendulum effect and have "the tail wagging the dog" sway effect.

[Chuckles]

I think I'm going to invest some time in one of the trailer wheel placement spreadheets.

My other option is to move the axle behind the dropped floor directly in front of the galley/interior storage space. It;s easier to make changes on paper than after its on the road right?

Also, why are the pictures I post so small? What am I doing wrong?

[KCStudly]

Also, why are the pictures I post so small? What am I doing wrong?

When you use the image BBC code with the album brackets the pictures come in smaller but clickable. When you use the picture url with url brackets the picture comes in larger.