Welding receiver to tongue?

[GregB]

Since the Minibago has grown to maybe the Midibago, I would like to be able to remove my drawbar if at all possible in order to save some room. In the picture below, I want to weld a hitch receiver to the top of the triangular plate at the bottom of the picture. Does anyone know if it will be strong enough for general towing purposes?



The trailer should be about 1400 lbs., the triangular plate is about 7" from front to back and is 4" wide at the narrowest point. The drawbar will be 34" long and is 2" square .25 wall (which just barely meets the Aussie requirements). Trailer is a welded, lengthened, and painted HF #1740.

Thanks,

GB

[Alphacarina]

Should be

You have an unusually long tongue, for some reason - Planning on a humongous tongue box or something?

Don

[GregB]

Nahh, not really. The triangular tongue that you see in the picture will be covered up by trailer, all the way to the hitch receiver. And that is how you put a 13'x5' trailer on a 8'x4' frame!

GB

[angib]

I can't see any problem, as long as you don't then put a long tongue in that receiver.

Two long tongues, one on the end of the other, is asking for trouble!

Andrew

[asianflava]

Should be

You have an unusually long tongue, for some reason - Planning on a humongous tongue box or something?

Don

I was thinking the same thing, I think the angle of the pic might make it look longer than it is.

[GregB]

You're right Rocky. The wide angle foreshortens the front and exaggerates the length.

Andrew, how long is long? The triangular "tongue" that you see is the HF frame with an additional 2x2x.25 middle bar, all welded. It is approximately 36" from frame front to the front edge of the triangular plate. I will weld a receiver to the top of this plate and then put the aforementioned 34" - 2x2x.25 drawbar in the receiver for my tongue. I figured that the three legs of the existing tongue were more than strong enough to act as part of the frame.

GB

[angib]

OK, this tongue needs to be checked twice - once at the back end of the single tongue and once more at the back end of the composite (3-piece) tongue.

Front, solo tongue: 2"x2"x1/4" gives 25,300 lb-in capacity, so with a 34" tongue that gives an Aussie GVWR rating of 1,490 lb - I reckon it's safe to double this for a well-balanced trailer, so that's around 3,000 lb. No strength problem there, as long as the receiver mount is equally strong.

Main, 3-piece tongue: Are all three pieces made of 2"x2"x1/4"? If so, that would give a 75,900 lb-in capacity. Total tongue length is 36"+34"=70" so you get an Aussie GVWR rating of 2,170 lb - which is probably safe up to 4,000 lb.

Andrew

[GregB]

Andrew,

Thank you for checking my math. The main, 3-piece tongue is actually two lengths of HF channel (12,500lb. vertical) around the 2x2x.25 so the total is actually 50,300 lb.-in. capacity which yields a 1437 lb. rating.

I'm curious, though, why do you reckon it's safe to double the 1,490lb. GVWR? I should have about a 14.7% tongue weight which makes it fairly well balanced. Is it because they have built in a factor of 6x the expected load value for safety?

GB

[angib]

Late reply- I've just got back from holiday.

I reckon the Aussie rules require at least twice the strength that teardrops seem to need - probably because a teardrop is never abused or overloaded in the same way a utility trailer is.

Cary Winch from Camp-Inn has built a good few trailers without any apparent problem and yet his frames seem to be less than half as strong as the Aussie rules require, so that was a valuable reference point for me on this subject.

Andrew