Frame

[greg55]

I have a 5x8 frame made of 2x2x1/8 angle.The three cross braces inside the frame are 1.5 x1.5 x1/8.The tounge is 2x2 sq tubing 6'2"long with 4' extended past the frame.The tounge braces are 44" long and attach 20" from the frame.The floor will be framed with1.5 x1.5 covered with 1/2" plywood.My empty weight should come in at about 550 lbs.Is this frame strong enough? Theres a picture in my album.I can't seem to get it into my posting.[/img]

[goldcoop]

Greg-

Looks plenty robust enough for a TD!

What's the thickness of the 2" x 2" Tongue Tube?

Most tend to go with 3/16"...

Cheers,

Coop

[Chuck Craven]

Looks like it may need a v brace under the tongue 2” sq tube. Take a 1” by ¼” bar stock and weld it at the back end and the front near the hitch cuppers tongue tube. Weld a short piece of the angle iron between the tube and the v brace bar stock, under where the front crosses the body angle iron piece. That should make the tongue a lot stronger in the vertical load direction. Other than that as long as you don’t go too much over 2000 lbs should work grate. Nice job on the frame!
Chuck

[asianflava]

Here ya go:


Yup I agree, you may need to brace it up. I have a single tongue made from 2X2X1/8 square tubing. It is pretty long because I was gonna install a tongue box, an idea which I later ditched.

After I found out the true weight of the trailer, I don't think it's strong enough. I will cut about 20in off of it to shorten the moment. Maybe that in combination with the brace Chuck mentioned will make it OK.

[angib]

That looks like a very nice lightweight trailer frame. Congratulations on not over-building!

In view of the comments about your tongue, I've run it through my tongue strength check - after I'd added the 1.5"x1.5" angle that I hadn't previously listed. I've assumed your 2"x2" tongue is 1/8" thick.

The single tongue tube is OK up to a total trailer weight of 1,000lb and the whole tongue is OK up to 760lb, so that lower figure is your limit. Remember that this is total, laden trailer weight (ie, GVWR), not its unladen weight, so your 550lb unladen weight is about the maximum this tongue can carry.

Every comparison of this tongue strength check, which is just the Australian small trailer rules, suggests that it gives a stronger tongue than is usually provided on most trailers - for example, the tongue of the Harbor Freight 1,800lb trailer is only OK up to 1,250lb by this check!

So I reckon you're doing fine, though you should check that you really achieve the (optimistic) light weight you are targetting.

Andrew

[Nitetimes]

The floor will be framed with1.5 x1.5 covered with 1/2" plywood.

If you want to dump a little excess weight lose the floor framing, there's no reason you can't just screw the ply to the frame and build from there. Deck screws work quite well for that.

[madjack]

Rich, we used those type of deck screws to attach the floor and walls directly to the trailer frame...they work wonderfully well...we also used painters caulk (siliconized acrylic) between the wood and steel to help seal out road grime.........
madjack

[twdarty]

That looks like the same frame I built to pull with our new beetle. I think it'll do good.

[homeroast]

Just yesterday I was thinking how the 3/8" bolts I've often seen to secure the floor to the trailer frame was overkill. I think I'll adopt this for my build. It also eliminates drilling a clearance hole for the head of the bolts so they are not sticking up above the surface of the floor.

[Melvin]

The floor will be framed with1.5 x1.5 covered with 1/2" plywood.

If you want to dump a little excess weight lose the floor framing, there's no reason you can't just screw the ply to the frame and build from there. Deck screws work quite well for that.

Wafer Teks (or plyteks) are a bit cheaper than that and are designed to attach plywood to steel. You can get them in all sorts of lengths to match with your needs.

[greg55]

Thanks for all the replys. Andrew,my tounge is 2x2x3/16.Does the extra thickness make it much stronger?The reason the tounge braces don't come farther up is to have room for my trailer jack to swing up when towing.

[angib]

my tounge is 2x2x3/16.Does the extra thickness make it much stronger?

It does, though not by as much as you might expect. The tongue strength is enough for a 970lb total trailer weight. So you'd have to overshoot your target weight by a lot for tongue strength to be a problem.

Andrew

[Nitetimes]

The floor will be framed with1.5 x1.5 covered with 1/2" plywood.

If you want to dump a little excess weight lose the floor framing, there's no reason you can't just screw the ply to the frame and build from there. Deck screws work quite well for that.

Wafer Teks (or plyteks) are a bit cheaper than that and are designed to attach plywood to steel. You can get them in all sorts of lengths to match with your needs.

They look like ones I've used in he past, still have some out in the garage I believe. Don't care for them tho, most have a phillips head and they strip out easily, they didn't drill very well either, the others have a head like a tech screw that doesn't counter sink itself which sort of defeats the purpose. The do work good in AL tho.

[BigDaddyCool]

i'm building a frame juste like that 2x2x1/8 angle everywhere whit 2x2x1/8 tube....

looking good

[madjack]

...I don't care much for the self-drilling screws...they don't drill well and have a tendency to pull the ply apart and away from the metal and the phillips heads tend to strip out befor the drilling is done...the trailer deck screws that Rich linked to have to be predrilled and with a torqx head they work a lot better...we drilled the ply first, 1 size larger before drilling the holes in the steel to help with the pulling problem...
madjack [/url]