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Heretic Car Camper
The reviews on the Northern Tool site for Vol. 1 weren't too encouraging. I only have Vol. 2 so I've no idea what Vol. 1 might have to say. I wouldn't go so far as saying that Vol. 2 is the end-all, be-all book on trailers, but it sure has helped me on a couple projects.
My granddad's Rule of Thumb is that the unladen tongue length should be 1/3 of the total distance from the ball to the axle (or to 1/2 btwn the axles if a tandem). I now have the single axle trailer that he built years ago (pre- 1969) from G.I. 2.5t bed sideboards using this RoT and it tows beautifully!I think a 60/40 split of the cargo box is the standard, and it seems the tongue should be around half the box length at a minimum for small trailers.