Coil-over trailer suspension chassis

[cokebottle10]

First class work and design.

Thanks for sharing your ideas.

David

[wattsworth]

I built another coil-over suspension trailer for a small cargo teardrop trailer. Here are some frame details & pictures. The total weight is 170# with a 32# tongue weight. I used 3/16ths inch wall square tube through-out the frame, making it unbelievably stout! The axle is from schedule 40 seamless pipe about 1/8th inch wall. Coil-over shocks were intended for a VW Baja bug, and give much more travel than my previous trailer build.


The business end of the trailer showing detail of the coil-over shocks, panhard rod, fender & tail light mounting.


Another view of the completed trailer frame.


Side view of the completed trailer frame.


How the tongue holes are lined & closed to prevent any water entry into the inside of the frame where is could rust away unseen.


Tongue mounting for the coupler, finish welded.


Tapering square tube while retaining the rounded edge and a nice finish.


One of the shock towers ready for welding to the frame.


That critical joint of the tongue to the frame. It may not look like it, but all edges were chamfered for full-penetration welds. Extra gussets for strength as well as mounting the box to the frame.


Detail of the frame panhard rod anchor and shock upright welding.


Completed frame on sawhorses.


The axle assembly. Look close for the axle panhard rod anchor and the lower shock mounts.


Details of the coupler.


Axle polymer bump-stop and frame panhard rod anchor.


Axle apex stainless steel tie-rod end & connection to frame.

[Aaron Coffee]

Just curious, how much travel does the front mount allow?

[Mike_La]

wattsworth,

Thanks for the detailed photos. The chassis looks great.


Mike

[wattsworth]

Vertical travel of the axle before it hits the bump-stops was about 3" on the first trailer using motorcycle shocks. On the second editon, the travel is about 5.5". There is no reason why you couldn't use longer travel coil-over shocks for an off-road build. But for my use, 5.5" should be fine even for rough dirt roads behind my car.

[Aaron Coffee]

Just looked like the front heim mount was pretty close to the frame. I had thought of making a TD with a 4 link suspension, using parts for modified race cars, my older brother gave me a set of coil over springs sliders(kind of like a coil over shock without the any valving), and using race car coil over coils. Building #2 on a frame I already had, so that idea might wait for #3.

[hanniver]

Very impressed by design, great idea of using coilovers, what I can imagine is a more heavy duty version that uses larger coilovers say from Nissan D40, having larger wheels & supporting a truck bed (pickup bed) these are not so heavy and can easily be converted into camping trailer, I am currently building up one using Mazda B50 bed and trying to keep chassis weight to a minimun, most bed trailers are built with overkill chassis. Wheras as if it were possible to achieve reliable lighter chassis & suspension finished trailer would be more reliable & desirable. Even though the Truck Beds (Pickup beds) may be rated to carry 1 ton when on Mazda B50 chassis, I will downrate mine to much lower carrying capacity so that it finishes near weight of some teardrops, because it will now be a trailer-camper.

[hanniver]

Hi' the coilover pics are located in my gallery, please checkout: hanniver

http://tnttt.com/album_ ... er_id=9538

Hopefully the pics will display ok.

[afreegreek]

wow!really nice. where do I send the cheque and for how much??

[hanniver]

Hi' if you visit places where springs & shockers are upgraded the genuine Nissan Coilovers like these are often discarded as scrap or they may exchange a pair of them for a few bottles of duff beer. I offered a guy $20 and he accepted, I know that these items can be expensive, many 4WD owners also place unwanted items on ebay, check out ebay for spring shocker bargains.