1954 Montgomery Ward teardrop trailer video

[mezmo]

Just to aid the discussion:



All three: Pitch, Roll and Yaw, pivot around a 'point',
it just depends where you establish that point. To me,
it seems the main/only pivot point that was intended
was an up-and-down pivot [pitch] at the dual hitch points. I
don't think any yaw or roll was intended, the swivel wheel
suspension was supposed to take care of any tendencies
for them.

Cheers,
Norm/mezmo

[CarlLaFong]

^^^^^^^^Bingo^^^^^^^^
No need to overthink a simple idea that works well

[donaldraver]

Neat set up. Looks tough to hook up if you ate to many good meals. I will stick to my two inch ball hitch.

[Roly Nelson]

My 3x3 levitating trailer was intended to be a swivel single wheel, but no one would sell me just the wheel and swivel attachment. Therefore, I simply suspended it from the reciever and didn't use a wheel at all. However, I did have to make two forward facing sabilizer bars that connected to each side of the hidden hitch under the car to prevent any side to side tipping. It worked just fine, no license, lights or registration needed, since it was a modified luggage carrier. I liked the fact that I could drive in any lane I chose and zip along at the legal speed limit. Plus, backing up was simple, since where ever my back bumper went, so went the little 3x3. As a one nighter, it was just fine, but 3 or 4 days, became a bit of a problem for an octogenarian, since the old joints don't move as well as they used to.
Roly ~~

[mezmo]

This company will sell the swivel wheel suspension unit,
but you need to buy two hubs and the wheel and tire
to finish it out and the other steel ectc. to make your own
swivelwheel trailer.

http://www.doublehitch.com
http://www.doublehitch.com/dhbuy.html

P.S. They show their "double hitch" being used with
a single receiver on a pickup truck. [I'd guess that's a class III
at least.] I would go to the trouble and expense to have a couple
receivers added/welded to the hitch at the appropriate spacing
for dual connections - just me being extra cautious. You could
still use the center receiver for "normal" towing. I don't know if
a class I single receiver - often the only choice on a smaller vehicle -
would be strong enough to use as a single mount for the dual
hitch as they show in their pics/videos. I'd go for the extra margin
of safety that dual receivers would give. Don't forget, the early ones
used dual mounted hitches/connections that bolted to the steel
bumpers of those times. [ http://www.singlewheel.com/ ] Those do
not exist on cars anymore so you'd need to use the bolt-on/weld-on
hitches that are now available for your car [ try u-haul] and make
your safe modifications/additions there.

[Redneck Teepee]

^^^^^^^^Bingo^^^^^^^^
No need to overthink a simple idea that works well

Yes, they are simple, and work well. I built my own single wheel trailer mainly because I wanted one and the originals are either needing massive repair, or the have been restored and want to much money in my opinion. For those of you interested in building a teardrop or tiny trailer you can read up on the many manufactures and styles @ singlewheel.com I read as much as I possibly could before starting construction as to limit my mistakes and and foul language that usually runs parallel with high blood pressure. I purchased my 8" tire and wheel combo for a wood splitter from Northern Tool, it is rated for 55 mph, they have 1" bearings on each side, the dust cap can be removed and a grease seal put in it's place, the wheel is in other words ambidextrous, I was able to source some bronze sleeves and washers from Mc Master Carr that slipped over the axle shaft thru the seals and against the bearing inner race without any machine work required, to act as both a bearing load retainer and sealing surface for the grease seal. I have a lathe and milling machine so I made my own axle from 1" dia. 1045 precision ground round stock, the pivot shaft I also sourced from Northern Tool using a 4 bolt trailer 1-1/16" axle dia. idler hub, this was welded into a mounting plate with about 5 degrees negative caster, ( in the inverted position when installed, the bottom or dust cap leans towards the rear of the trailer ) this caster is very important as it will make the wheel assembly track true and straight without any wobble, low or high speed. I purchased two small leaf springs and attachment hardware from my local Tractor Supply Store and proceeded to cut them about 2" past the mounting plates in length as just slightly more than a half of a spring was needed on each side. I then fabbed 2 pcs of angle iron to mount to the spring eyes and capture the axle ends for securing them.Every section of the assembly can be unbolted removed and serviced on the bench or tailgate if need be. I can speak with authority on "Yaw" and that being said, should you decide to lets say construct a teardrop on one of these, my little low profile trailer with a cross wind acts just like an airplane rudder, it will push your tow vehicles nose towards the wind, I think with a teardrop being a bigger side profile this would be very pronounced. A two point hook up is a must in my book and would not even consider a single point hook up on a teardrop. Just my 2 cent's worth.

[tony.latham]

Pretty cool, and well thought out ... ...! Don't know how you found this, but I guess there's almost anything waiting to be found somewhere on the internet ... ...! I'd really like to find more info on the trailer itself!

Thanks for posting it, and as always ...

CHEERS!

I'm surprised they didn't get a hold of Grant back in '54 and buy the trim from him.

No sense monkeying with that corrugated stuff when you can get the real deal.

Tony

p.s. GW: I'm at LEAST as old as you are!