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Trailer building

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David Lee

07-15-2000 10:35:40

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I have a 50'-0 mobile home frame that I want to build a trailer out of. I'm going to keep the beams for building a barn and build a trailer frame out of 4 x 4 x 1/4 x 20'-0 angle, but use the tongue from the mobile home...with me so far?
So, the flatbed will be 20'-0 and the tongue is 3'-0 that makes 23'-0. Question is how do I know where to put the axles? I plan to use 2x6 treated boards for the bed and it's use will be to haul my Ford 2000 and bush hog on and double as a car and general utility trailer.
I would appreciate any tips or suggestions.
DR

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Bob Centracchio

03-14-2002 09:32:34

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Re: trailer building in reply to David Lee, 07-15-2000 10:35:40

I'm building a 25' Travel trailer and need to figure the placement of the tandem axles! The bed of the trailer would be apporx 23' and the total weight of the Travel Trailer would be around 3800 #'s. Where is the best placement for the axles?

Thanks,
Bob
my web site: Link

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Scott Green

07-22-2000 19:46:33

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Re: trailer building in reply to David Lee, 07-15-2000 10:35:40

I ment to put the word weight after the word tongue. I was trying to mention tongue weight.

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Scott Green

07-22-2000 19:41:49

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Re: trailer building in reply to David Lee, 07-15-2000 10:35:40

David Lee , I had bought two books on building trailers. They get into all kinds of detail. The author said that the placement of the axles is the number one question that all people building a trailer have. His responce to that was: There is no set distance for axle placement. The one thing he did say is that you do "NOT" want to put the axle at the center of the trailer. Doing that would make the trailer sway back and forth from side to side , causing lose of control. The most common axle placement is back from center , so that you have tongue. The other thing mentioned is never to use a mobile home frame to build a flatbed out of. He said bobile home frames are made to get the home from point A to point B. The structure is not built rugged enough for use as a flatbed trailer. Too much twisting in the fram.

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clickent

07-20-2000 19:14:41

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Re: trailer building in reply to David Lee, 07-15-2000 10:35:40

Dexter axle defines axle placement very well on their website. The following is an except.

The hitch weight for conventional, bumper
type hitches should be 10% to 14% of the gross
weight of the vehicle. The remaining 86 to 90%
of the load will be carried on the running gear. The hitch weight for fifth wheel and
gooseneck type hitches should be 15% to 20%
of the gross weight of the vehicle. The remaining
80% to 85% of the load will be carried on the
running gear.
1. Measure the distance from the center of
the hitch to the center of gravity.
2. Divide this value by the percentage of the
load to be carried by the running gear.
3. The result will be the distance from the
center of the hitch back to the center of
the axle set

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Merle

07-20-2000 02:26:46

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Re: trailer building in reply to David Lee, 07-15-2000 10:35:40

David Here is a good rule of thumb to use when placing axles. Place the center of the axles 1 inch back from the trailer center for every foot of deck length. Im asuming your trailer will have tandems so place the center hanger 20" back from trailer center. Good Luck and let us know how it turns out.
Merle

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David Lee

07-16-2000 20:11:37

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Re: trailer building in reply to David Lee, 07-15-2000 10:35:40

Well, Ya'll have definately given me some food for thought. The current frame is 8" I beams w/2-1/4" flanges and 1/8" web&flange thickness and some flimsy looking joist type things for crossmembers. I think I may just cut it up. I'd be able to make it a 20'-0 bed with a cross member (8" beam) every 2'-6 and rough cut 2x6 floor. Heck at the rate things seem to be moving it'll be another 50 year before I build a barn anyways :)

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bbott

07-16-2000 11:03:31

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Re: trailer building in reply to David Lee, 07-15-2000 10:35:40

I've got one too that I'm re-working.

1/4" Angle Iron is nowhere strong enough for a frame..

For hauling a tractor you're talking about (ballpark here) 6" channel as main frame stringers.

What are the "beams" you're taking out ?

I'm guessing 6" channel or so ?

Why not leave 'em in, chop the back end off the trailer, move the axles ahead (I'd center axles about 60% aft) and put your deck on it..

If you're going to do the trailer right,you'd have to buy some proper steel anyway. Buy the new steel for the barn and save the time and hassle of knocking the trailer apart.

Without seeing your trailer frame, the above are recommendations based on what mine looks like.

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BFO

07-16-2000 08:05:07

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Re: trailer building in reply to David Lee, 07-15-2000 10:35:40

A few things to consider. I would not suggest using 4x4 1/4 angle on a 20 ft. trailer. With the (cringe) mobile home axles (eye twitching), you'll get a GVWR of 10400 lbs, assuming you mean tandem. It'll fold up like a cracker-box. If you make a truss frame, with 16" sides, you might be okay. I used to make a tilt-deck model out to 16 ft, with 6X4X 5/16 angle. The tongue mounted in front of the first axle so the frame didn't have to do much. I would strongly recommend at least a 5 ft. tongue, it gives better handling characteristics, driving forward and reverse.
As far as axle spacing, without taking the moments about the centre of mass loaded and empty, start by putting the centre spring hanger 1 1/2 ft. back of centre on the deck (not including the tongue). With a 20 ft. deck, you'll be able to move the load to suit. Make sure you have brakes on both your (cringe) mobile home axles (eye twitching), and that they work.

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MarkB

07-16-2000 06:04:08

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Re: trailer building in reply to David Lee, 07-15-2000 10:35:40

You should probably mount the axles in such a way that you can move them a few inches one way or another, unless the trailer will be long enough that you can shift the load to get enough tongue weight.

Believe me, you don't want to go down the road without enough tongue weight.

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lawrence

07-14-2002 16:16:34

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Re: Re: trailer building in reply to MarkB, 07-16-2000 06:04:08

Think; what makes a boat trailer work so well
With the bulk of the weight on the back, it is the
lingth or the toung. This gives controll.
toung weight does not have much to do with controll leverage does.

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chief613

07-16-2000 07:40:34

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Re: Re: trailer building in reply to MarkB, 07-16-2000 06:04:08

A little story to go along with Marks suggestion: I borrowed a friends tractor, a compact JD. I was haulin it with my F-150. He delivered it, and left the trailer. when i was finished i loaded it on to what looked center (not having hauled a trailer with that much of a load before) then backed it up a bit so i dint have so much weight on the truck. A way i went, well it didnt take much more than a few hundred feet to see that this was a bit scarey, felt like the rear of the truck was about to come off the ground. So i unchained it and moved it ahead and whatched the truck squat down a bit, away i went again, to find it was little odd steering. So once again i repositioned the tractor. to bout dead center over the axle. Away i went, this was beautiful, except on rough road, the truck would jump and buck. I figured maybe i was just not used to the load. Well as i turned of the main road onto a side road i looked in my mirror to see the tractor/and trailer go straight as i rounded the curve, luckily it was balanced well and made a percet landing all in one piece. My theory now is not to balance a trailer, i think being balanced, with little preasure on the hitch allowed the ball hitch to loosen up. I always move the weight forward till i see the tow vehicle start to settle down. This makes for a much smoother ride also. Another situation u can learn alot from a dummy.

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MarkB

07-16-2000 17:25:02

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Re: Re: Re: trailer building in reply to chief613, 07-16-2000 07:40:34

As I recall, the general rule of thumb is to have 5 to 10 percent of the trailer weight on the tongue.

I became a believer when I was a passenger in a vehicle pulling a trailer that an "expert" had loaded. Scared the beejeezus out of us when we hit the first curve and the trailer tried to pass the car.

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Chances R

07-16-2000 05:55:42

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Re: trailer building in reply to David Lee, 07-15-2000 10:35:40

I use to build trailers for a company called Indiana Trailer. Anyway on the car haulers 16 to 18 feet long, we placed the front axle dead center of the load area of the trailer (do not figure tounge in). I would probally suggest moving the axles twords the back 6" on a 20' trailer. Also I would want at least 5" tall metal for the sides, this wold help to keep the rear of the trailer from bending. Take a good look around at other trailers if possible.

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Steve Hansen

07-15-2000 18:56:05

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Re: trailer building in reply to David Lee, 07-15-2000 10:35:40

David,

Suggest you get a tape measure and look for some trailers to size up. You want to end up with something like 10% of your gross loaded trailer weight on the tongue. Think that most tractor and bush hog combinations exceed this when loaded on a common tandem axle utility trailer. Too much tongue weight takes weight off the tow vehicle's front wheels and make steering "hairy." Goose neck hitches do not have this problem and, given the size of your proposed trailer and the weight of the anticipated load, should be considered. Another possibility is to mount your axles to a sub-chassis that can be moved to accomodate the load. Mobile home axles can carry a lot of weight. What ever you do, make sure you have adequate brakes.

Steve

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fernie

02-16-2002 19:58:20

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Re: Re: trailer building in reply to Steve Hansen, 07-15-2000 18:56:05

i need to build 8x10 utility trailer.where do the axels go on the chassi . thank you

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