How should I brace this tongue?

[eagle24]

The tongue/spine and front piece of the frame are 2x2 (.250 wall). Everything else is 2x2 & 1x2 (.125 wall). I still have to weld on the rear hitch receiver (to spine and rear frame) and will add 1/8" gussets to the spine/crossbar connections. What/how should I brace the tongue? A design that would serve as a frame for a front basket for a battery box and some gear would be good too.

[working on it]

• My trailer is certainly not made in the normal fashion; it was built to transform (eventually, in stages) a spindly, decrepit trailer into a semi-offroad tank, as it's been called. Redundant attachment processes, steel hardware, nuts/bolts,etc., all joined together with 3/4" plywood and 10+ tubes of PL adhesive, to make it strong, But, the redundantly-braced frame improvements would've made even a lesser superstructure work as well.
• from an earlier thread

  • I was aiming for a "light", under 1000 lbs, trailer, to pull behind a HHR or Cobalt. But, I always had as a long-term goal, to make it durable, above all, for future usage in moderate off-road venues. But things got a bit out-of-hand, as more ideas came forward, along with increasing weight. I started out with a small, undersized frame (probably under 150 lbs), composed of 11 gauge tubing and c-channel. I added 1.5"x2.5" tubing (front 12", rear 24") to enlarge it to hold my 4'x8' floor, to start. I welded in a central spine running full-length front-to-rear, for floor support, longitudinal rigidity, and as a "sister" piece for the 3"x3"x.187" tubing welded in under it as a single drawbar.
  • With a beefed-up steel frame, and the 8" wheels converted to 14", just adding a 3/4" floor brought the weight to 400 lbs; without yet starting on the upper structure, I knew it would never end up a lightweight.
  • The trailer frame, with a "torsion box" structure above, and a central spine of tubing below ('not to mention the tongue is welded to three crossmembers), has survived an airborne incident without bending or cracking, so I am glad I added all the extra steel, instead of just building over the original frame, with just plywood. Made it a bit heavier, but definitely stronger.
  • The original trailer's axle and suspension were not up to the job, of handling the 1700+ lbs weight of the finished trailer (are they ever finished?), so those were replaced with a 3500 lb axle (w/brakes), and new springs. The trailer wouldn't have survived the flight over the massive pothole, unless I hadn't reinforced the undercarriage.

Since your trailer hasn't such a heavy tongue as mine (almost), you might consider running a "sister" spine underneath it, or if possible, as I did, under the floor, to stiffen it, And, because you are still working on it, now's the time to weld on an A-frame, bracing tongue to frame better, than with a single beam.

My tongue and frame have so much redundant bracing, that I saw no need for adding A-frame tongue bracing to it, until I needed to stabilize a tonguebox there. Instead, I made a width-expanding addition to the tongue, since the much heavier and wider aluminum tonguebox I used to replace my first one, needed "outriggers" to stabilize the load (the 3" sq, tube tongue beam was strong enough to bear the weight alone); since I had no welding capability at the time, I used perforated-steel angle, U-bolted to the tongue and bolted-thru the hollow-tube front cross-member, using 1/4" bolts. I later doubled-up those angles, after the left side "outrigger" was stepped-on (inadvertently, by me) and now it's quite strong. Since I have a tedious-to-construct sliding platform mounted on top of the perf-steel, I'll probably never replace them...but, if I do, then I'll use solid steel angle, welded in place (I have both 110vac and 220vac welders, now).

tubular steel for added length and strength.png (796.32 KiB) Viewed 1709 times

new, extended 3 inch square tube tongue with central spine.jpg (182.21 KiB) Viewed 1709 times

wood bolted to perforated steel outriggers

squaring up the wood prior to bolting it on

adding the slide mechanism to completed wood base

sliding tongue box completed

[tony.latham]

Have you looked at this link?

http://tnttt.com/Design_Library/tear84.htm

Tony

[eagle24]

Have you looked at this link?

http://tnttt.com/Design_Library/tear84.htm

Tony

I had not seen this. Thanks Tony! A lot of links I found didn't work, and a lot of the older threads no longer have active links to the pictures. One thing that has me baffled is the weight of some of the trailers. I really have a hard time seeing how my trailer will exceed 1200 lbs. I could be wrong, but I just can't see where the weight will come from. I braced my trailer this afternoon, before I saw your reply and this link. I'll post some pictures in a few days. I'm going out of town in the morning. I felt like my trailer was over built, but now I'm not sure.

Greg

[Socal Tom]

Have you looked at this link?

http://tnttt.com/Design_Library/tear84.htm

Tony

I had not seen this. Thanks Tony! A lot of links I found didn't work, and a lot of the older threads no longer have active links to the pictures. One thing that has me baffled is the weight of some of the trailers. I really have a hard time seeing how my trailer will exceed 1200 lbs. I could be wrong, but I just can't see where the weight will come from. I braced my trailer this afternoon, before I saw your reply and this link. I'll post some pictures in a few days. I'm going out of town in the morning. I felt like my trailer was over built, but now I'm not sure.

Greg

My 5x8 trailer "chassis" was weighed empty and it came out at 330 lbs, no wood. 3/4 in plywood is about 75lbs per sheet ( 2.2 lbs per sqft), I've got about 137 sq ft between the sides, the floor and the cabinets in back, that's another 300 lbs. Add in the battery, the mattress. a tongue box, the roof , the spare tire I end up just shy of 900 lbs.
Now I add my clothes, food, cooler Ice, chairs, table, awning..... and I end up estimating that loaded I'm at about 1130 lbs. 1200 lbs will come pretty easy.

[PJLangevin]

I built mine like this. Tongue braced by same material. It is 48" tongue to frame.

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