Trailer Articulation Minimum

[TomP]

Hello All,

I have a question that I would like to put to those of you with more experience than I in the area of off-road or overland trailers. For about a year I have been the owner of a Mo-par Livin Lite Jeep Extreme (have to get all the names in) popup tent trailer. I have been modifying this trailer to better fit it to my needs.

My question is what is the minimum degrees of vertical articulation that is recommended at the hitch coupler. I have 39 degrees of what I would term positive articulation. Limited by trailer contact with the spare tire of my Jeep. I have over 90 degrees of negative articulation which should be enough to back the trailer over a cliff!

I will not be rock crawling with this trailer but I enjoy Death Valley and will need to be able to negotiate a dry waterfall or two on occasion.

Thanks for the help,

Tom

 

[jeep-N-montero]

You will be just fine, at 39 degrees I would be more concerned with the vehicle than the trailer.

 

[CUoffroad]

You can get a little extra articulation if you buy a longer drawbar to bring the mounting hole out farther.
I would do this or move the spare to gain more room. Think about this, if you are going into a ditch, the tow vehicle starts to climb and the trailer is still dropping into the ditch, how easy would it be to be use up that 39 degrees?

 

[java]

You can get a little extra articulation if you buy a longer drawbar to bring the mounting hole out farther.
I would do this or move the spare to gain more room. Think about this, if you are going into a ditch, the tow vehicle starts to climb and the trailer is still dropping into the ditch, how easy would it be to be use up that 39 degrees?

This is exactly my worry, But it would have to be a big ditch. I did some this summer that would have been close to that degree. It really become a problem when the trailer is coming down and the truck is going up, effectively doubles the angle.

 

[TomP]

Thank you for the responses.

Jeep N, I tend to agree with your assessment for about 99% of the road conditions I will run up upon. It's the 1% that worries me.

CUoffroad, The drawbar I have now is the longest one I could find. I'm a little worried about going longer because of the leverage it may apply to the receiver and bumper . This may not be a legitimate worry I don't know. The spare tire move would require some reworking of the holder to raise it. So that is do able. You are right that a ditch with a 20 degree slope down and a 20 degree up the other side would put me 1 degree over.

Java, exactly! Do you have any idea what your articulation is on your trailer or do you not have a clearance problem like I have with my spare tire?

 

[java]

Thank you for the responses.

Jeep N, I tend to agree with your assessment for about 99% of the road conditions I will run up upon. It's the 1% that worries me.

CUoffroad, The drawbar I have now is the longest one I could find. I'm a little worried about going longer because of the leverage it may apply to the receiver and bumper . This may not be a legitimate worry I don't know. The spare tire move would require some reworking of the holder to raise it. So that is do able. You are right that a ditch with a 20 degree slope down and a 20 degree up the other side would put me 1 degree over.

Java, exactly! Do you have any idea what your articulation is on your trailer or do you not have a clearance problem like I have with my spare tire?

No spare clearance problem. I run a 1 7/8" ball, and this summer I had enough angle to bend the lip on the ball coupler a bit... It was pretty good and bound. If you have one handy that should give you an idea of the articulation.

 

[UnlimiDozer]

The drawbar I have now is the longest one I could find.

It's certainly not ideal, but if need be, you could use a hitch extension to place your drawbar farther back and gain that extra articulation.

 

[old_man]

I built a shock absorbing articulating hitch. Check it out on my trailer build.

 

[Waygoner]

Raising the spare a few inches would help too.

 

[dvsjw]

My 2c... Not enough room. To me it looks like you are holding the insert to the vehicle receiver. If so the photo would indicate you only would have 5 degrees of V travel before your bumper will hit the tire. Cuoffroad is right an extension, remove the tire or take a different picture to better show the connection. Show us what the trailer-tow vehicle look like connected for more informed recommendations. As is, it looks way too tight for anything other than parking lot driving.

 

[Umtaneum]

Years ago I had an old full-size Cherokee with a tailgate mounted spare. I had the same situation towing my dog trailer when chukar hunting. The good news is, spare tires are squishy, you actually have another degree or two of articulation than you think you have. The bad news is, I know from experience you can bend the front lip of the hitch, or break the little wedge that holds it on the ball.

 

[colorado matt]

The drawbar I have now is the longest one I could find. I'm a little worried about going longer because of the leverage it may apply to the receiver and bumper . This may not be a legitimate worry I don't know.

a quick search showed extenders starting at 6 inches and going up to longer than you would ever want ..... I am not smart enough to answer the question about "legitimate worry" but it seems that the extender would be the best solution to your problem for that one percent you speak of .... I would love to hear more about the downs of extending the hitch .... especially in your case when I believe that just a couple of inches more would put your mind at ease

and if you or someone in your group has OBA could you not let the air out of the spare ??? if time is a constraint for shipping in a longer extender

 

[TomP]

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and suggestions. Now that Christmas is over I had time to check out java's suggestion and measure the articulation of a normal trailer ball coupler. In doing so I guess I also answered my question about what the minimum amount of articulation is because a trailer ball coupler would be the minimum by default. I'm sure the overwhelming majority of trailers are being pulled with this coupler on or off road. These pictures show the articulation of the ball coupler. It measured in at 15-16 degrees up and down and side to side. I guess the max coupler, even when hitting the spare tire, has over twice the the degree of movement as the ball coupler.

Umtaneum and Colorado Matt, I have been thinking about the squishy-ness of the spare and was also thinking I could deflate it if I come to a section of trail that looked bad.

 

[TomP]

My 2c... Not enough room. To me it looks like you are holding the insert to the vehicle receiver. If so the photo would indicate you only would have 5 degrees of V travel before your bumper will hit the tire. Cuoffroad is right an extension, remove the tire or take a different picture to better show the connection. Show us what the trailer-tow vehicle look like connected for more informed recommendations. As is, it looks way too tight for anything other than parking lot driving.

Here is a better picture of the trailer and Jeep connected.

You can see that the tongue receiver section is unbolted and slid forward. This is the same piece that I showed in my first post detached from the trailer. I was measuring for a new longer receiver tube to replace the shorter one in the picture. The extra length of the tongue allows me to lock my jack up without hitting the spare tire when the carrier is closed and also gave me the tongue length to fully jackknife the trailer without hitting my cooler.

This is the new tongue receiver attached to the trailer.

 

[quickfarms]

I hate ball couplers.

They are designed for light duty use on the street.

Most commercial equipment and heavy trucks use pintle hooks or King pins.

The military uses pintle hooks.

I have always used pintle hooks off road.