axle placement

[Myke]

I'm finalizing my design and need help. How do you determine where to place the axles? Do I need to know the weight of what is going to be in front of the axles and what will be behind the axles or do I need a weight for the whole trailer?
What I am planning is a tiny house on wheels. A friend is giving me some I-beams and mobile home axles. I plan on making a rectangle out of the I-beams about 5x20 feet. Then I will build a 2x6 wood frame floor 8x20 with the wheels framed around, so outside to outside of tires will be 8 feet. The tongue side will have a raised queen bed with storage underneath. The back will have twin bunks. Drivers side between the beds,front to back will have apartment size propane fridge and stove, sink and framed shower that we can put a porta potty in. Passenger side will have closet next to the queen bed and the furnace next to the twin bunks. Should have room for a regular size dining room table and chairs between the closet and furnace. This will be a pretty permanent trailer at a mountain property, so it will likely be moved only one or 2 times.

[Steve_Cox]

Some trailer builders use what they call the 60/40 rule, with 60% of the trailer bed in front of the axle 40% behind. But, consider the load placement and try to get the tongue weight to be 12 to 16% of the total weight, if you have a light tongue weight, the trailer will wander or fishtail back and forth. It isn't a sin to make an educated guess on the placement, since you are the builder incorporate ways to fine tune your weight fore and aft with items like batteries, or water tanks etc.

[caseydog]

Andrew (Angib), our resident genius engineer, has a great formula for that, I believe. If I can't find it, someone here can refer you to it.

He probably has a formula for cold fusion, too, if you need it.

CD

[Steve_Cox]

Andrew (Angib), our resident genius engineer, has a great formula for that, I believe. If I can't find it, someone here can refer you to it.

He probably has a formula for cold fusion, too, if you need it.

CD

Cold fusion, that's an easy one compared to axle placement.

[sdtripper2]

Myke:

Go here to read the full top section that talks about your questions.

Here is Andrews formula for speed sake.

[Myke]

Thanks guys, now I have to move stuff around. The wheel well on passenger side is right where the door was going to be. Luckily I'm not as smart as I was when I was younger. I used to know everything and just start building, now I'm not so smart and ask questions so I have less to fix as I go

[Alphacarina]

As they say, "Hire a Teenager . . . . while they still know everything"

Don