should I lower my trailer?

[inthewoods]

I'll admit I'm a newbie here and I just bought my first teardrop that is partially finished and was built for a fellow with a big truck who was into off-roading. They guy never finished it completely and only used it a couple times. I'm only going to use it on road and will pull behind a Honda Odyssey mini-van. Right now the floor is 20in. off the ground. The trailer has a torsion axle which has an adjustable start angle on the axle. Right now the axle arm is very close to 0deg maybe a slight up angle of a few degrees. Rims are 15in. Frame is 2x3" steel tubular. Axle is rated for 3500lbs. The trailer is a commercially made frame. Before I start working on rebuilding the kitchen and finishing other things I want to decide if i'm keeping the current height of the trailer or if I should lower it. I think I'd like to lower it so that it is easier to get in and out of and so that overall the trailer roof is closer to the height of my van at the back end. Here's a photo of the teardrop behind the tow vehicle:



Any suggestions on what I should do?

[KCStudly]

Welcome. You have come to the right place.

Your floor height looks good as is to me. Maybe just a touch nose up at the tongue, but that should be addressed by changing the draw bar drop.

If you don't need all of that clearance between the tire and fender, you may want to lower the fenders for a more street friendly appearance.

Good luck.

[CliffinGA]

My suggestion is to go set in the door! If your having to kind of lift your butt to get in its to high and you need to drop it, if not and you can set in the door and on the bed comfortably then don't mess with it. Just my 2 cents worth though.

Cliff

[les45]

I agree with KC and Cliff. It looks good the way it is. If your floor is 20" then you are about the same height as all the DIY trailers. Sit in the door and if it is comfortable for access, don't worry about it. Dropping the fenders will make it look better. It looks like it might be a little light on tongue weight unless you load your gear to the front of the cabin.

[working on it]

I agree with KC and Cliff. It looks good the way it is. If your floor is 20" then you are about the same height as all the DIY trailers. Sit in the door and if it is comfortable for access, don't worry about it. Dropping the fenders will make it look better. It looks like it might be a little light on tongue weight unless you load your gear to the front of the cabin.

As les45 said, if the tongue is light, load the front of the cabin; I designed my trailer with that in mind, to maximize the equipment under lock & key in the galley/storage area (A/C, generator, water jug, gas, white gas, Coleman lantern and stove). I installed an E-track and tie-down anchors in the nose of the cabin, to carry things to camp, and back to home. The trailer balance was calculated on this plan, but I ended up moving the battery to a tongue box to get more tongue weight (the result of my failure to accurately weigh items before installing them). Thus, the trailer is still a little nose-up, but quite manageable and I can make adjustments if needed. Yours looks like you'll need some slight adjustment ,too. Very doable. Mine is also 20" (at frame bottom though) and 23.75" at floor level (3" tubing height plus 3/4" floor thickness). I made the bottom of my doors a flush-fit (to floor) with no lip to have to lift my butt over, but instead, used an aluminum door threshold to make the seal, with a "door sweep" to deflect wind/water from blowing in under the door. The sweep also directs water flowing (by surface tension) on the door down and away from the bottom edge. Seals really tight. The reason for this is that I wanted to make entry in/out of the door the easiest for my short-legged wife (and old-guy me). Just open the door, put a knee on the threshold, insert body, and you're in. The height was a compromise between comfortable entry and the tire size chosen (14"). Sure better than with an 8" diameter tire! Another advantage to the 20"-23" height frame is the clearance at the rear of the trailer, when possibly climbing or descending a hill or crossing a depression. At the advisement of others, I even raised the up/locked position of my home-made pipe-clamp stabilizers, for more clearance during such crossings (even driveway entries).

[aggie79]

Our teardrop has 12" clearance. That works out to a bottom of door opening at around 18".

Try sitting in your door opening. If the opening cuts off the circulation in your legs (and if you can reposition your fender) I'd lower the teardrop. If everything is okay then don't change anything.

[inthewoods]

Thanks for the advice. Siting in the doorway is a little uncomfortable right now my wife and I. We're going to give it a little time to see how it grows on us before we make a decision. Yes the fenders will get lowered for sure... Totally agree with you all.

As for the tongue weight... It weighs in at 146lbs with a bathroom scale under the tongue jack as it is built right now and sitting level. I don't have a total trailer weight but is be surprised if it was more than 1000lbs. So I think the tongue weight is fine and I will keep an eye on it as we finish the build.

[KCStudly]

Is the frame level on level ground with the trailer hooked up to your TV? In the pic it looks just a tad high, maybe an inch or two(?).

Level or just slightly down is preferred. Draw bars don't cost that much and are much easier to change than axle location, so if it is a little nose high, dropping the draw bar down might give you the comfort in the doorway that you are looking for. An inch or two might make all the difference you need.

Another possible option, if it hasn't been mentioned, is to look at your spring shackles. If they are the longer variety, you may be able to swap them for shorter ones (so long as it does not create a binding situation with the springs). An inch shorter shackle will give you about 1/2 inch reduction in ride height. Another relatively easy change. Again, you may want to adjust your draw bar height for this, too.

Just some thoughts to ponder before "jumping into the deep end of the pool".

[inthewoods]

Well it took me a while to get to actually working on the axle but I did finally borrow some time in the machine shop at the college I work for. It took me an hour and a half to actually figure out how to make the adjusts and then a little longer to actually change the start angles on the flexride style axle. I took it as low as possible to the manufacturers maximum and I was able to lower it by about 1.5 inches. It's not. Lot but enough to make a difference. I've also pulled off the fenders and will mount them lower at a better height a little later on in my renovation and build process.

[inthewoods]

Oh and I started a build journal to document the additions and changes I'm making to this trailer. Here is the link: http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=59948