telescoping tongue

[TPMcGinty]

Deleted extra post

[Rolly]

Many concession trailers have removable tongues. Go to the county fair and check them out.

Rolly

[alaska teardrop]

Studying Andrew's tongue data. I need to rebuild mine.

The original tears had a very short tongue, 26" comes to mind. I know from experience that the best economy pulling the trailer (with a smallish car) is with that very short tongue. But when it comes to parking and backing one of the little sweeties, 26 inches is really short (I know that one too, by experience).

How about a simple telescoping tongue?

I intend to use the single tongue design as my trailer weighs less than 600 pounds it should be more than adequate no matter where I pull it. The telescoping idea does not sound too complex, but what do I know?

dave

Dave, I think Andrew has given you good advice & hope it works for you. But just for grins, how about steerable trailer wheels?

http://www.google.com/patents/US8360457

[Wolffarmer]

Studying Andrew's tongue data. I need to rebuild mine.

The original tears had a very short tongue, 26" comes to mind. I know from experience that the best economy pulling the trailer (with a smallish car) is with that very short tongue. But when it comes to parking and backing one of the little sweeties, 26 inches is really short (I know that one too, by experience).

How about a simple telescoping tongue?

I intend to use the single tongue design as my trailer weighs less than 600 pounds it should be more than adequate no matter where I pull it. The telescoping idea does not sound too complex, but what do I know?

dave

Dave, I think Andrew has given you good advice & hope it works for you. But just for grins, how about steerable trailer wheels?

http://www.google.com/patents/US8360457

Talk about making the simple the complicated. Few would have need for this. Maybe commercial, emergency kind of trailers. Military, Fire. They will buy most anything.

Now that we are on stupid ideas for axles. How about when building with split axles. Like the flexride and other type of axles. No reason they have to be in the same plane. One could be forward/back from the other. Why? Because it is there. Also why have the tongue in the center. Put it off side to an equally offside hitch on the TV. They make side cars work on motorcycles so why not? Okay Andrew don't pop a blood vessel. This last one I probably will not try. At least on public roads. And I do have a reason for it. A front galley with a big door that opens up and latches to the off side tongue.

Randy

[Corwin C]

The steerable trailer concept is not new ... most logging trailers have trailer steering (of a sort) to make them follow in the truck tracks more closely. Many haycutters, bailers, rakes, and other towed farm equipment have adjustable tongues that allow the work to be done to the side of the tractor instead of straight behind. Recently Utah has begun using towable snowplows which have steering. Needless to say there is significant training for using one of these and only the most skilled drivers are allowed to use them. This video is from Missouri, but we have several tow plows that are very similar.



The important thing, however, is that whatever capability you have on your trailer, make sure that it is adequately designed and built for the task at hand. We really don't want to see any failures/accidents happen.

[kludge]

I have a gut feel aversion to telescoping tongues as it's so easy to make one that isn't structurally sound. I think all this use of receivers (where both the receiver and the stinger are thick wall but short tubes) gives people bad ideas!

So if you're going to have a telescoping tongue, I would like to see:
- a long, long 'receiver' section - like a couple of feet long minimum;
- no holes in the tongue at the front end of the 'receiver' - so any holes for pins well behind the front end (yes, that will make it awkward to put the pins in and out and, yes, you will have to lie in the dirt to do so);

The problem with pin holes in a telescoping tongue is that you may want some extra holes in the tongue for the 'retracted' position. No problem, as long as these are in the front half of the exposed tongue length where the tongue strength isn't too critical.

The receiver will need to be supported at least as well as a single tongue would be - so for example, welding it just to the front cross-member won't be sufficient.

Here's a sketch:

telescopic-tongue.JPG

I would also add a second hitch pin on the frame end sliding "receiver" for redundancy. The hitch pin/ball mount on the tow hitch and the coupler have a backup in case of failure - the chains, so I would add another hitch pin for safety at the other end for the same reason.

Here's another way... an extension on the TV...

[dwgriff1]

I don't need a longer tongue for pulling down the road. The shorter the better there.

However, with a real short tongue it is really easy to do damage to the trailer when backing and I am an experienced trailer guy. I travel alone and don't have a co-pilot. The idea of a hitch extender for backing the trailer sounds wonderful.

dave

[Wolffarmer]

I think a hitch extender would make matters worse. It is sort of the opposite of why a 5th wheel is easier to back up ( in most cases of course )

Randy

[Bogo]

I'd put the extension and contraction on the trailer tongue rather than the hitch on the car.

[Wolffarmer]

Yup

Randy

[cuyeda]

FWIW!

I took these photos of an Oliver trailer a few years ago. The tongue can be adjusted if needed. Not easily, but can be adjusted. I liked the aluminum framing.