Not A Tear . . The Shack

[mortsplace]

Well I have been lurking for a while now and just started my build. I wanted something I could stand up in and sleep 2 adults and one child. I call it "The Shack".



Got the 5x8 trailer from Norther Tool and made a few modifications.

Added stabilizer jacks to all 4 corners.



Had a 5' piece of 2x2 square tubing welded to the second crossmember where the hitch attaches for support and had the hitch welded to the frame.



Found a couple roll out windows from a Shasta that are in excellent shape.



The Air Conditioning simply slides out of the side.



Did I mention this is a great site with lots of information? Thanks for all your work in keeping it up.

[depatty]

Looking good!

What are the dimensions?

[jdarkoregon]

Mort,

I like what you have going on there, but the tongue looks really short. Will you have enough length to turn a corner when it is all done?

The shack is looking very sharp and very usable

John

[mortsplace]

I like what you have going on there, but the tongue looks really short. Will you have enough length to turn a corner when it is all done?

John

I did not think about that being a problem. I did some measuring and came up with just over 40 degrees turn angle in my tow vehicle and a bare minimum of 31 degrees no matter what vehicle.

Does anyone know what a good minimum angle would be for turning?

Here is a drawing of my dimensions with my vehicle outline in gray.

What are the dimensions?

The Dimensions of the camper are 6' tall, 5' Wide, 7.5' top length, 8' bottom length with 2' going up at a 45 degree angle. Total length of camper not including hitch is 9.5'.

Thanks for the help!

[alabubba]

Just for thought, the distance between the hitch ball and the bow of my boat is a little over 40", and one of my boys still turned so tight while backing the boat into the water (he was new to backing a trailer) he knocked the handle off the winch.

We've also got a 6' x 12' V-nose trailer for the flooring business, it's about 28" from the body "nose" to the hitch ball, but about 58" orthogonally from the ball to where the body reaches full width, so it can handle some fairly sharp angles while backing and turning.

I once had a short utility trailer with a short tongue, it was really hard to control its direction when backing up, because of the short tongue it acted like it had a mind of its own. Never was a problem turning when going forward, but I absolutely hated backing the thing up, it was too easy to jackknife.

I don't know if there is any one right or wrong way to size tongue length, and I haven't started my TD yet, but I will search for some wisdom before I weld up my trailer, and plan to err on the side of some extra length in the tongue department (if I can't find some wisdom) partly because of the utility trailer I once had but hated to use. (it did work ok behind my tractor for hauling firewood and such, though), and partly so I can have some extra platform available for items of interest.

[frazzyfuzz]

This site is way cool its like the old net where people were helping people. Its free just love it. Have my plans in my hot big hands Im so confused. Kind of like a Orfin at a fathers day convention. Every time I want to build that one next time Oh know I want o build that one. Im just going to have to slow down butt I can't so many faaaaaaaar out tears. I have all the stuff axel wood windows vents hands tools and my magnifying magick mind wheeeeyeewww. So clad Ive founed this site as ive been gathering stuff for over a year to build a trailer. Nuff said Jerry

[Miriam C.]

Mort. Great TTT you have going there. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Tongue looks close and if you can it won't hurt to stretch it some. I personally like the A type and would add to the existing.

Enjoy and you might consider posting your diagram in the "Trailer" forum for more comments.
http://tnttt.com/viewforum.php?f=35

[mortsplace]

Enjoy and you might consider posting your diagram in the "Trailer" forum for more comments.
http://tnttt.com/viewforum.php?f=35

Thanks,

I am planning on extending the tongue another 18" and adding A-Frame support. I will post in the trailer forum for comments.

[frazzyfuzz]

Me being a new person on the forem I would like to comment on your length of your tongue. Yours is a bit short butt an easy fix not to worry find a clean spot and cutt it off extend to a longer length say if you kink the trailer as far as you can before you touch your tow truck's bumper measure the length to the center of your ball and add the distance your welder can renforce the extention and make 2 times stronger than before I own a fab shop and do this all the time there are many diferent ways to do it this is my 2 cents worth. Or you will have to cutt it all and start over. Do not take it the wrong way as im just trying to save a crunched fender or broken back window or more. Wheeler Welding & Blacksmith Shop

[frazzyfuzz]

Me a gain I really like your design and will build one simeler so keep the pictures comming nice job and my kind of trailer. Wheeler Welding & Blacksmith Shop

[angib]

I would have to say that tongue looks a bit short in the photo, but like you I get about 40 degrees between the vehicles before there's contact.

Most guys here want to see that angle more like 90 degrees, though I bet if you went to your local trailer dealer with a tape measure, all the commercial trailers would only let you get to around the same 40 degrees.

As you've reinforced that weak second cross-member on your trailer, you should be able to extend your tongue a bit, if you wanted to. But to add more than, say, 6", you would need to look at either replacing the tongue with an A-frame, or at reinforcing the front cross-member if you stay with a single tongue.

Andrew

[b.bodemer]

Mort,

Looking good..........................thanks for the pictures!

Barb

[mortsplace]

Thanks for all the responses. I started a new post on my tongue extention in "Trailer and Chassis secrets" at the following link.

http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?t=20445

LJ

[Mike C.]

Hey mortsplace,


Welcome to the forum. Great build pics. Keep em coming.


See you around.