Trailer update (axle and frame drawing)

If you can't calculate it, you won't be able to build something save. Easy, isn't it?

Nick

I'm going to try to never own a trailer with electric brakes again. I think surge brakes are the way to go. The problem is you always want to pull the thing with someone else's rig, and they don't have a controller. Surge brakes are 100% transportable as long as the the trailer isn't backed up, and with a clip-in wire (into a reverse light lead) that's easily gotten around too.

GWE

I've never run into the need to tow my trailer with someone else's rig (mine is the biggest), even then all the friends I have that have anything tow capable have brake controllers on them.

What you could do, that I saw one time is put the brake controller on the trailer itself so you only need the light connections. It even had a key fob remote to let you activate it manually and adjust the braking level up / down.

Pete C.

Iggy, just my experience, but I would suggest that you extend A frame arms further toward the hitch. The way you have it drawn looks kind of like a half A frame and half boom tongue. Unless the straight part of your tongue is extra beefy, bad things can happen to it when you back up and hit a pot hole, or something worse. A full A frame is much more forgiving in this respect. Don't ask me how I know this. Bill

Grant, I thought that the controller goes on the trailer, no?

My friends are very different, none has ever heard of a brake cotroller, but I want to put that stuff on the trailer. I have a very nice electrical box with a door etc that i wil weld on to the trailer. It will have an electrical compartment and a general purpose compartment.

Bill, I am going to use a 3x4 steel tubing for the tongue, I think that I will be fine (looking at my boat trailer).

Dont forget one of these...

and maybe a landing wheel.

Sometimes you can get em in a combined unit. But then you need chocks.

Gunner

"Deep in her heart, every moslem woman yearns to show us her t*ts" John Griffin

Every brake controller I've ever owned (about 5) were mounted in the cab, under the dashboard. Most had a lever on the side which you could push to manually activate the trailer brakes if you needed to.

GWE

Yes, that is very much the norm.

I have seen one case with the remote electric brake controller. Not sure who made it or if it was customized. Of course putting the brake controller on the trailer means that you have to put a full sized battery on the trailer as well, not just a small one for the breakaway control. This of course has the benefit of providing a battery to run a trailer mounted winch off of as well. It does mean you need to keep the battery charged though, but you need to do that for the breakaway one as well.

Pete C.

Good concept, but do yourself a favour and use 2X6 for the longitudinals and "A" frame The extra depth will give more strength and stiffness.Partucularly where the "A" frame joins the longitudinals. use minimum 4X4 for the tongue.

Why not make a adjustable tonge. That day will come when you need to take a lot of long timber with you. As I can see out of your drawing, the tonge will be only 55". My experience of a multiuse trailer, is that a adjustable tonge is worth gold. I can see the damage in the back of the car when you have to make a sharp turn, and even to try to balance the stuff you should carry safetly. The tonge slides in the A frame, and secured with lock pins. Easy to shorten and easy to make it as long as you need. I can send you a sketch to show what I mean. Good luck with the project.

Tor Norway (I visit this site often, its great, but some day I hope even you over there will go for the metric system like almost rest of the world)

skrev i melding news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

The bed already has sheet metal bottom and crosswise ribbing underneath, which the 2x4s will be welded to, that should offer plenty of rigidity. It is not a typical plywood bed.

Looks great, though I wish that it had a wheel (I can surely add a caster). My boat has that. I also will look for a manual winch.

I like this one

Nope. Not generally anyways. It connects to the battery, the brake switch and ground on the vehicle, and supplies modulated power to the trailer through the 7 pin plug. Could you put it on the trailer? I guess, but adjusting it would be a royal pain, and it would not then fit ANY standard, so ONLY your vehicle could tow it.

Tor, I think that I understand, I will think about it. The tongue, plus the eye, plus the hitch should be a little over 4 feet 1.25m or so, that's not bad.

Hi Grant :)

And therein IMHO is another advantage of electric control. . . when (not if) the trailer starts to sway, (usually from not enough tongue weight) manually activating the trailer brakes will 'stretch' the rig out and help stop/control the sway. Never figured a way to do that with surge brakes ; ) . Couldn't do that as easy with the controller mounted on the trailer either. Regards Bob rgentry at oz dot net

He's referring to the stiffness of the tongue / A frame in front of the trailer box, the part that will be subject to the most severe loads.

With a good solid 4X4 tongue (tube, not solid stock!!) you may be OK, but if the a-frame is taking any load at all, I'm not convinced 4 inch is adequate. As for the crossbars on the box, and welding them to the longitudinals, you still do not have a "truss" so it can still bend. If you can cross-brace in such a way that the whole thing cannot buckle, perhaps you will get away with it, but you'l get away with ligher wall thickness on 6 inch than on 4 inch, so the overall amount of steel used will be about the same, with the 6 inch frame being SIGNIFICANTLY stronger for the same weight.