framing and suspension for a new lightweight teardrop

[gene so]

Hello,

Since I am new to teardrops I have to start somewhere and that to me would be the frame and suspension. Before I went to college I was a Structural Ironworker and certified welder. So this background means I can build a very lightweight and strong tube frame. I am thinking of a 2" tube with 1`/8" walls to meet the challenge. I have seen enough small tired trailers on the side of the road with tire problems that I will like to have a very light weight suspension with larger tires. I am thinking along the lines of a motorcycle style tire. Is there something out there along these lines which will carry the full weight of a loaded teardrop trailer?

Thanks, in advance,

Gene

[CarlLaFong]

2X2X.125 tube will not yield a very light weight chassis. Pretty heavy stuff. Why motorcycle tires? You'll have to find wheels to fit them, etc. There are thousands of trailers running around on some sort of car tire/wheel combo. If you want to run M/C stuff, stick with the bigger bikes. HD stuff is expensive, but there are plenty of big, Japanese bikes in the wrecking yards. Grab a couple of front wheel assemblies from some Goldwings or something similar

[aggie79]

Welcome Gene!

Many of the custom frames you'll see are built out of 2"x2"x1/8" square tubing. I've read that this is probably due to 1/8" steel being easier to (soundly) weld than 14 gauge. The teardrop shell provides substantial structure, too.

If you haven't already, you may want to take a look at the "Design Library" at the top to see some teardrop and tiny travel trailer (and frame) designs.

Take care,
Tom

[CarlLaFong]

I suspect that some will use 1/8 wall tube because it is easier to weld for the casual, backyard welder. Many just have a buzz box machine and it can be tough to weld the thinner stuff with a stick welder. It seems to me that it is way overkill for a small trailer. I built an entire frame for a T bucket hot rod from 2X3X.125 tube and it was hell for stout. It supported a 350 Chevy, 350 turbo trans, etc. I would imagine that 2X2X14ga would be strong enough for the perimeter and crossmembers with the .125 stuff for the tongue. When I worked at a trailer plant, years ago, I recall the frames being pretty flimsy, maybe 10ga C channel. Once everything was assembled it became quite stiff.

[Roly Nelson]

Gene, welcome to the board. I wonder what weight range you consider "light weight". Some weigh less than 300 lbs, some are in excess of 1000 lbs. Just curious.
Roly, also an enthusiast of light weight trailers :-)

[angib]

Assorted thoughts:

- 2x2x1/8 is fairly light, but you can use 2x1x1/8 for really light.

- To make it lightweight, the important thing is to leave out entire pieces of the frame that are only included because people can't stop thinking about building a house floor when designing trailer frames. All you really need are the one or two tongue members and possibly a cross-member - though with a full axle, you don't even need that.

- Most problems with small wheels on trailers are because they are overloaded or under-inflated. Motorcycle tires won't have any more load capacity - generally they will have less capacity - so any benefits are entirely psychological.