Re: Re: Where to place axels on a flat deck trailer ???

Posted by Deas Plant. on April 14, 2003 at 02:58:47 from (210.50.59.48):

In Reply to: Re: Where to place axels on a flat deck trailer ??? posted by kydavid on April 13, 2003 at 18:12:01:

Hi, KyDavid.
Sounds like it might be worth doing a re-engineering job on that 20' flat. If it's as heavy to pull and brake as you say, I think I'd be trying to do something about it.

Around 28 years ago, I built a mobile home trailer. It was 25' x 8' and designed to go off the beaten track. It sat on a six-wheel, independent suspension that I designed with a lot more vertical movement on the wheels than normal to cater for off road work. It had 8.25 x 16 x 8 ply light truck tyres, coil springs, shock absorbers, 1 leading and 2 trailing arms each side, full load sharing on all wheels, anti-sway bars, air over hydraulic brakes and a break-away emergency system.

The frame was made from steel and the unit weighed around 5.4 tons empty. Loaded and with a full tank of water it was just over 7 tons. I towed it with a British Bedford 5 ton 4 w.d.
truck with the Australian 308 cu. in. version of the 307 Chev V8 and a 5 x 2 transmission. The truck carried all the panels for a 30'x 10' hard annexe with shower, laundry and toilet plus framing and screw jacks for the raised floor of the annexe. Total weight of trcuk and trailer on the road was 14.5 tons. I NEVER got that rig into low range while towing that trailer.

If the trailer was loaded to give around 10% weight on the hitch, you could tow it at around 60 mph on most roads and not feel it behind you except that if you pushed it a little hard into a corner, you could sometimes feel the trailer just start to push the rear of the truck.

In hindsight, the only real mistake I made was putting the axles in the center of the trailer. If I had put them 12 - 18" behind center, it would definitely have been a better unit to tow.

The other thing that was unusual about that set-up was that the drawbar on the truck was sprung and dampened to allow up to 12" vertical movement.
The idea was to load the trailer so that the drawbar was in the center of that vertical range. It could then move up or down independently of the truck so that road shocks were not transferred
between truck and trailer. It worked a treat. Never shook a thing loose in the trailer on any of our journeys.

You have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.

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