Trailer tech

nice tech article.

here's my trailer long ago....it's a really flimsy piece of crap I got in exchange for putting a head gasket on a car for a guy. I put a heavy duty cast iron boat winch on it (you can see it if you squint), which is really nice compared to using a come-along, and the battery never dies like my friends who has an electric winch.

how about some tie-down and safety chain info? I know I've been doing it wrong for years, although it's never bit me....yet....

 

Thanks squirrel!

Here's a regurgitation of what I know about tie-downs.

I personally use 3" ratchet straps because they're easier on paint than chains, and because I don't load raging-hot cars and melting straps on mufflers isn't a concern.

A good friend with lots of heavier hauling experience swears by chains and binders, but also scratches the hell out of everything he ties.

I think they both have advantages, and are both proven to work safely. After 30 uses one of my straps is fraying and about to be replaced, chains definitely win the durability battle.

When you tie, tie in an X like the front of the ventura is in my last picture, and don't use a single strap across both corners and call it 2 tie points. On the back my ties go to a single D ring so they can't X, but it works anyway.

You're not supposed to mix holding the frame, versus holding the axle & A arms. But the unfortunate reality of strapping some cars down without an arsenal of attachments.......sometimes ya gotta do it. Check your strap tightness frequently.

Safety chain- really two sets. First set on the hitch, cross the chains under the hitch before they're hooked in, if they hang low twist em til they're acceptable, then hook em in. But they need to run under the tongue.

Second set is to hold the car on the trailer in the event of rapture. I use one from the comealong hook to the car, which isn't that great of a setup because of the range of motion it would allow, I'm really relying on the trailer to fence the car. The best setup would anchor somewhere under the car so the chain could go straight up/down and minimize the length. But then it's real hard to get to, and you're gonna forget it a couple times til backing the car and warming the pipes you gotta rub against to unchain it. Doh!

Oh and NEVER move the trailer with an unstrapped car. I've been stupid enough to do it twice and guess what, the second time the car miraculously moved 3 inches toward the front rail just like the first time. Whoda thunk it??? Both were just slowly jockeying the trailer around the driveway as it was loaded up, I think both had early morning condensate under the tires.

 

I've posted these before, but since you have a trailer thread and all.
This was built specifically to haul my digger. I have a very narrow drive so I had to keep it on the narrow side as well.

The wiring is modular. The winch drops into a socket built in to the trailer and then plugs into the trailer's battery via the plug on the front.

I also used a semi truck "curly" cord for wiring from the truck to trialer- it is a tad overkill, but it's also bullet proof as well.

The tongue collaspes for storage in my garage and it tilts for easier unloading of the digger. Virtually no ground clearance - so it's an issue mad emuch easier by tilting things.

 

Yeah, this is a good tech article.
Lots of good and new info, even to those of us who think we have it figured out.
Always a better way to do something.

Far as the nylon straps go, my straps have built in protectors, but I like to protect them with red rags.
A lot of cars have greasy rear ends and abrasive sand that I don't want in the tie downs.


Safety chain- really two sets. First set on the hitch, cross the chains under the hitch before they're hooked in, if they hang low twist em til they're acceptable, then hook em in. But they need to run under the tongue.

My trailer to pickup chains are somewhat long and hang down, but I don't want them any shorter.
One bungee cord across trailer tongue and the middle of both chains keep them from dragging on driveways & speed bumps.
Doesn't affect turning etc.

Fwiw, got the flat-bed trailer rear-ended by a flower truck.
The back of the trailer got bent, the nylon strap tie-downs stretched, but the roadster didn't get hurt.


My pal added tie down hooks all along his - similar to mine - flatbed trailer.
A nice addition for hauling other stuff.
His last trailer load coming out from SoCal wasn't too large and he had a bunch of plywood he wanted to bring.
He spread the plywood out over the stuff on the floor, used his Makita to screw the plywood together then strapped it down with the car tie-downs.
The plywood flexed downward at the outside edges so things were well retained.
Clever and he got to bring his welding steel and plywood along.

Another fwiw, I added four more HD car folding tie-down rings to the floor of my enclosed car trailer - complete with reinforcing plates and tied to the crossmembers - as well as added a bunch of medium duty folding tie downs in the floor and some 1/2" bolt on eyes in the fenderwells and a couple other places on the floor.
A big help when moving the 750# drill-mill.

The lathe proper was partially dis-assembled and screwed to the floor with lag screws to prevent it walking around.

If you like, I have a few new pics of the enclosed car trailer and I can post those if you like.
Lots of small things you can do to make it more flexible so you can haul stuff other than cars.

Practical stuff and not just making it pretty inside.

 

I haul all kinds of parts, cars, trucks, whatever on mine. So I have plenty of tie-downs, I thought. But on my parts hunting trip this spring I really needed more on the back outside, so will be adding 2 more on each side. I have 2 front and center, 3 pair in the rear each pair at different distances from the front, 5 down each side and 4 down each side in the middle. This is a total of 26 with 4 more to be added. Some might consider that to be overkill but better to have a couple you don't need than not have enough. This past trip I didn't use any of the center ones but did need more on the outside.

 

Just to throw an Idea out there that I use..
I have an electric winch..but no battery on my trailer..(they always go dead)
so what i did is tap into the lighting plug harness for my 12 volts out of the reverse light or 12 volt running light or any 12 volt constant power source, and that runs my winch. Right off the tow vehicles electric system.

 

I will always use a safety chain from now on...at least in the front. I'm pretty good about checking my straps when I tow for long distances. Nearly fanatical, actually.
But I picked up my '54 Buick on the south side of Atlanta and hauled it home--only about 50 miles or so. Parked it on the hill in front of my house, and went to move it the next day. As I let the clutch out and moved the truck forward, the Buick rolled off the back of the trailer! The straps I had over the rear axle kept it from rolling away. The front straps shifted and wore through against the frame on the way home. They held until Newton's Law took effect, then the last few threads snapped.
I shudder to think what could have happened if they'd let loose on I-285 or I-85 in Atlanta during rush hour when I drove home the night before. I'm sure I'd have lost the Buick, my trailer and my Dakota.

So I'll always have it strapped, but now I also always run a safety chain over the front cross member.

As for tires, I never got around to taking pics of it, but when making a turn, the side walls on the tires looked like they were going to peel right off the rim, due to the side load. It's interesting too, because in a left-hand U-turn, the front trailer tire was pulled way out from the wheel, while the rear tire was pulled an equal amount inboard.

Trailer tires with their thicker sidewalls, skid across the ground in a tight turn like that.

-Brad

 

Randy, you're losing power that way, there's really not enough voltage coming through there to power your winch to it's fullest. A couple of other ways are, a heavy wire (#2 or so) off the truck battery back to a single pole connector and then a plug in to the winch or a battery on the trailer with a charging wire to it.

 

yeah..i know..
it was a quick and easy way to get it to work.
I did notice when i tried to load a full size chevy truck up on it, that the winch i had was at it limit.

I should do what you suggested. But i have since F-ed up my winch dropping it once toooo many times

when i get my hands on a new one i will take your advice.
It was not mounted on the trailer permently, so i could use it else where too.

 

Great post Shifty, and the contributions from others. Here is my additions to this subject.

I have a standard open 16 ft dual axle car trailer bought about 15 years ago. Had 2x8 wood deck on it. I also put 1 layer extra 2x8 planks so I could load my old drag car on like Shifty showed. With double width on back for the wider slicks. One problem I had is that the trailer wood eventually rotted out. So instead of just replacing it, I spent some more money and put steel on it. I had the 4x8 sheeets of 1/8 diamond plate sheared to 16 inches width at the steel supply. Purchased enough 1.5 inch 3/16 wall square tube to run three parallel lines under the diamond plate on each side about 6 inches apart, to bridge between the existing trailer crossmembers. Then just welded it all up, leaving an open center section. The steel will be there forever, and makes the whole trailer much stronger as well. Here are some pics of the trailer, not really the best as it has the old junk Stude carcass being hauled off to scrap, but you can see the basic design. Also one showing the open center loading my "good" Stude land speed race car project.







I used the bike bumper mounts to hold my old pit bike. My trailer did have one axle brakes, but now I recently upgraded to both axles, 10-inch brakes on both. You can also see my old full size Buick chrome wheels, they were cheap and look much better than just plain steel wheels. I now only run real made for trailer tires after having too many problems with car tires, my trailer fenders are all beat to shit from tread seperations.

The only real bad part of the trailer is storing it. The trailer takes a lot of space up and I do not have a ton of space at my house, my neighbors get the front side of the garage view opf my trailer. Fortunately they are cool with it. A trailer is a very handy tool for picking up projects or hauling a non-running car.

 

Thanks 38Chev

A lot of people have touched on twin spares, I personally don't believe in em for this weight/size of an open trailer after spending time with trailers that have no spares.

If catastrophe stikes, ie 2 blowouts and you're alongside the highway without 4 good tires, you put the good wheels on one axle and remove the wheels from the other axle.

Usually you can shift the load front to back and make one axle the clear choice to use the tires on. If you're lucky and the bare axle has no brakes, it'll tow to a tire store at 45mph as is. Or you might have to spend 15 minutes removing hubs and drums along the road to prevent dragging. Or you might be able to use a tie strap and hold the axle in a higher position. The choice between disassemble and strap might come down to if you love your fenders or not. If you have a drop insert, and the ability to remove the hitch ball & flip it over, you can add/reduce trailer rake to relieve the bad axle. Several work-a-rounds are possible.

Hasn't been thrown out yet but it does work. The twin blowout does happen, but nowhere near the frequency of the single failure.

So in summary, don't leave the driveway without a good single spare, but 2 may be overkill for a smallish trailer like mine

 

I always take two spares, I have had too much bad luck with tires, although some of that could have been attributed to using car type tires and not real trailer tires. Have not had two trailer tires go bad on one trip so far. I did have a trailer tire develop a broken belt inside, so it had a bump in the tread, but I caught it before it blew out. Caused a vibration that I went to check and fortunately it was just the broken internal belt and replace that wheel with one of the spares.

In my opinion, it is the scrubbing motion when turning sharp that seems to kill the belts in the tires, especially the car tires which are not designed for that type loading. It is not the weight.

 

If I were to build a new trailer or extend an existing one, what is the formula for the axle placement?

 

Center of axle or axles one inch behind center of bed for every one foot of bed lenght. A bit more than that won't hurt. Mine is 4" more than that. When I extended mine it worked out that I was able to use the former front axle mounts as the new rear axle mounts. That way I only had to weld two new backets on.

 

I've done a lot of trailering, on shithouse Aussie roads no less. Something most people get really wrong is tying the load down. I like to use a chain with a turn buckle in each corner, pulling the car to the 4 corners of the trailer. Also, I always attach the chains to an UNSPRUNG part of the car. I have seen lots of people tie off to the body, and then have to deal with the resultant damage when the car moves.

If anyone is putting a new floor in their rig, expanded mesh is great. Loads of grip under the tyres and even more tie down points.

 

Dammit, don't call that Ventura on the trailer a "junker", I drive one of those as my daily, 6cyl, powerglide, GREAT car!

 

Some advice to you guys on trailers---Never put the braking axle on the front position of a dual axle setup, & yes the expense of adding a second braking axle is well worth it for safety. In the first pix, just because the end of spindle was ruined don't mean you have to replace the entire axle, just cut off the damaged spindle end & weld on a new one! Ramps can fit 2 ways under a trailer, fore & aft if there is clearance from rear axle to end of trailer, sideways if trailer is max. width. For perfect towing down the road, regardless of length of trailer, install center of axle 60% from front of structure, tandem axles 60% to center of BOTH AXLES, triple axles 60% to center of middle axle---etc. Tongue should always be 42 inches from ball to front of trailer for not only good towing---But in backing up, trailer will respond best. Tires are kind of a personal touch, just get the rating to correspond with axle rating---Remember, subtract weight of trailer from axle rating to determine actual load carrying capacity, then you won't be inverting the axle bow, that camber is built in at factory for a good reason, if axle is OVERLOADED, axle will bow downward, resulting in reverse camber & worn out tires on the inside tread. I retired from mfg. & repairing
trailers for over 20 years, so I am just giving you guys a little "tech" heads up-----Don

 

Thanks for the input Don, interesting addition to this thread.

What's the logic behind your statement that the brakes never go on the front axle? Not saying you're wrong, you certainly have more experience building trailers than me. But when doing this one, everything I saw, including new trailers sold with brakes on only one axle, put the brakes on the front position.

I considered changing only the destroyed spindles like you mention, then I found out a new axle tube was around $70. It didn't seem to justify the time or risk of welding the new spindle with 3 accidental degrees of toe out.

 

For what it's worth, most towing companies in the states hook your car onto the rollback using T-hook/slots in the frame, and restrain the car's sprung mass. I've actually seen more movement when only the unsprung is restrained, because the mass of the car's body can jump around and act as a slide hammer. When restraining the sprung mass, you eliminate most of the slide hammer effect. X-ing the straps works especially well to prevent rocking.

 

When it comes to strapping down, I do both. Axles and frame.

To tie down a typical vehicle, I use 6 straps. 4 from the axles to the corners of the trailer; and one front, and one back, to suck the suspension down to keep it from dancing around so much on the trailer. If I'm carrying a narrow vehicle, I'll "X" the straps to keep it from shifting from one side to another, but my rock crawler is squeezed between the rails, so it can't shift.

Growing up, we always just threw a chan and boom around the axles and went on. When I got into rock crawling, squishy supensions and huge tires made for a very bouncy load, so I started looking for better ways to tie down, and keep the trailer tracking straight.

Now I keep about 12-16 straps in my box on the trailer. I'd rather have too many straps on a load, than not enough, and I haul some weird stuff sometimes: either of my Broncos, a tractor, implements for the tractor, scaffolding, pipe, fencing material, quads, corn, hunting gear, and whatever else needs moving.

I keep a stock of red rags, and thick paperboard to put under the straps when something could abrade them due to dirt or wiggling

 

herse my 2 cents

1: always use trailer tires they do last longer and hold up better

2: at least once a year losen and tighten bolts rusty bolts are harder on the side of the road

4 electric brakes on all wheels no matter how big your truck or driven skills

5 a hand held remote activator for the electric brakes way better then reaching down to use manuel control especally in mountins these hand held controls are hard to find but kelesy makes one

6 carry a spare

7 make sure your lug wrench fits the trailer it kinda helps

8 for car haulers i use some fiberglass snow plow guides bolt to the rear of the trailer 1) i can see the end of the trailer in rearview mirror 2) truckers can better see the trailer when empty

9 a electric winch come alongs just are alot of work hand crank winches the same
you got power everthing else in fancy pickups go all the way

10 take your trailer with you all the time then you can bring home all the good stuff you should not have bought

 

Don,
So if I have an 18ft trailer, the axle centerline should be 10'-8" from the front of the trailer? I want to build a front engine dragster trailer, and back it on.

How does the center of gravity play into this? For theory, lets say the dragster weighs 1000# and has an 80/20 weight bias. I think I should pull the wheels to the front around a foot, to take weight off the tounge. I hauled My '57 Chevy on a 16' tailer and had move it back about a foot, to get it halfway level. Loading ratio should have a lot to do with the design.

 

Good points on protecting the straps from sharp edges.
My pal is forever laying his straps across things and wonders why they don't last.

One additional one I meant to point out about boat trailer winches on open trailers is; you don't have to mount the winch on center.
Little brother mounted his winch with the reel horizontally oriented on the right front corner up on the trailer rail.
The cable ran across the front rail to a bolted on block for the 90 degree turn down the center.
Worked well.
I think it was actually easier to crank that way than it was/is for the two vertically oriented manual winches I've been involved with.

He did a smart one with his power winch inside his 24' box trailer.
The winch is stored in a cupboard most times.
It has a slip-in mounting pipe in the floor that's braced to the trailer frame and all you have to do is slip the pipe on the winch mount into the floor mount, plug it in and winch away.
Since the winch is free to spin in its mounts, it's self aligning.

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Noting Deuce Daddy Don's comment about 42" hitch to front of trailer, I got curious and measured my 20' box trailer.
About 30" to front of trailer, but measuring from ball hitch to the front crossmember of the trailer frame it's 42".

Not trying to prove him wrong here, but it does lead to a question.

I've been thinking of extending the trailer hitch about 18" or so with a bolt-on gizmo.
That to clear an overly long camper (9' 6" or 11' depending on which one we bought if we do buy one).

There is an extension device that will bring the truck slide-in part of the hitch to the rear by quite a bit, but it requires a Class 4 hitch.

Right now I'm liking the 9'6" camper, but Sweetie likes the 11' model.

With the 9'6" camper it looks like the 18" trailer extension would be the way to go and if anyone has experience here I'd like to hear about it.

 

I bought a trailer many years ago. It was orginally setup to haul a 280Z road racer. On about the third trip with a GTO on it, it started to whip back and forth. Lost it, trialer still on the wheels, truck on it side. Got it home, did some checking, and ripped all of the tool boxes, tire racks, and fuel racks off of it. Haven't had a bit of trouble with it since. I am a firm believer in having tounge weight, also invested in a spring bar hitch, slows the speed a little, but the control on the trailer is excellent.

Not an expert here by any means, just found what works for me. I also have many miles on this trailer with no problems after the fixes.


Also yes, I have had it overloaded from time to time.

 

During the more than a few 400 miles one way drives back and forth between California and Arizona I saw a lot of no-spare trailers with flats out in the middle of nowhere.
The usual cause looked to be underinflation and overloading.
Mostly small tire trailers runnin' at fairly high speeds in 100*+ temps.

You may be doing ok with a flat-bed tandem axle trailer and I'm guessing you can see the tires from the drivers seat, but the right side tires are virtually invisible on a box trailer.

Along with that, you seldom hear or feel the tire go out.

With the 7000# rated trailer running near gross the remaining tire will go out in a very short time due to it's severely overloaded.
3500# on an 1820# rated tire does the trick fairly quick.

I was running 60 per on a smooth desert two-laner, 6000# total, about 40* ambient, no radio, , truck runs quiet and was pulling easy on the level road and daughter asleep when this happened.


I didn't hear the flap beating on the trailer and it was just a coincidence that I pulled over to process some coffee and check the back door.




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I ain't all that impressed with "real" trailer tires either.

In view of my past experience with using properly rated for weight pickup tires I'm probably gonna go that way with the trailer and use the two "new" trailer tires for spares.

 

a few things I have on some of my trailers

Boat winch , loads much easier than a come-a-long, good back-up if your 12v one dies and its 110 degrees outside.....

Electric winch , I use one of those portable jumper batteries to power it ,
I have the winch mounted on a plate , plate has hole size of towball
I can remove winch and plate , put a chain thru the plate and pull something out with the chain around a tree etc

Big HOOK , look at the hook a tow truck uses , mine is about 18 inches long so I do not need to get under the car as far, works great for dragging shit out of backyards etc

ratchet straps , I must have 15 of the 3 inch wide ones ,
the cheesy ones from Walmart are good for the kids bikes....

chains , I always chain the car to the trailer , front and back , and I put bolts thru the chains as I really do not trust the small hooks the chain comes with,

plus I use too many ratchet straps.....

safetey chain - ALWAYS , its the first thing the CHP looks at when they pass you,

balance - on my single axle trailer I watch the trailer as I load and make sure I have a good amount of tongue weight ,
if you know your truck you will know how it sits with weight on it,

E-Brake , German trailers must have an E-brake , not a bad idea

hope some of this helps.....

Beaulieu

 

What is the tongue of your trailer, angle or tubing? Years ago when I was raising horses I had a 4 horse bumper pull trailer and an 11 1/2 ft camper. The factory built me an extension for the tongue, it was 40" between the two hitch balls, that worked great. I hauled it all over this way for 8 years without one problem. With the two hitch balls and the piece going over the tongue the weight kept it there and only used two 3/8" bolts to hold it in place when unhitched. It's a hurry up drawing but does this make clear what I'm discribing?

 

I've got one better than that:
Last year while Boy Wonder and I were west-bound through Kansas, heading to Bonneville, I see a black extended-cab dually in the eastbound lanes, pulling a long tandem axle trailer.
I noticed it because the guy was honkin' along at about 75 or 80mph, with a shower of sparks coming off the driver's side axles: he'd lost BOTH tires, and the rims were down to the centers--the hoops were gone or nearly gone. With no tires and now much shorter wheels, the trailer frame torqued enough that the back barn doors sprung, and the one on the driver's side was flapping in the wind, swinging open and closed.
From the time I saw him coming at me until the time he was out of my rear view mirror was at least two miles, but judging by the bare rims he was surely driving a long time before I saw him. He never lifted off the gas, either.

To say I've always been paranoid while pulling a trailer isn't exactly correct, but even when I made a couple 1,100 miles hauls with cars from Ohio to Florida, I checked my mirrors ever minute or so. It just gets to be a habit. I can't imagine driving far enough that the tires peeled off the rims, showered sparks and the door was swinging, and not realize it. With a big diesel pick-up and the radio going, I can understand not hearing or feeling anything wrong, but jeez, check the mirrors every now and again!

-Brad

ps: This is a GREAT tech week post! Lots of really good info on here--some of it I'll be printing off and putting in my reference binder.

 

Thanks again for all the interest here, wow.

I do understand what C9 is saying about huge trailers and dual spares. But I'm deliberately trying to avoid too much comment on huge enclosed trailers. They're great and awesome and super. But totally not traditional, and I fear this thread already pushes those limits.

So let's try to keep it to open trailers, they're present in a lot of B&W photos, and something attainable to the average HAMBr on a beer budget.

Hopefully at this point we've encouraged one of you readers to come off the fence and dive into a trailer project you wouldn't have before.

 

A twenty footer ain't all that large, but I'll agree that sticking with the flatbeds as subject material is probably a good idea.

I do miss mine, then again, when the big white box is parked it makes a great shed as well as shade for the veggie garden tomatoes....