First time posting, long time lurker. Love this place!!!!
I am getting my ducks in line to start an off road motorcycle trailer build. Something that can haul two adventure bikes, plus gear. Dont need water or power at this point, as the camper hass all that. The other use I need is that the deck has to fit a 5' X 10' sheet of steel, as I am a metal fabricator and need that configuration. I won't bore you with the details as I am still formulating, but I do have one general question? My Outfitter camper hangs off the back of my truck something close to 18". That leaves the power jacks for raising and lowering the camper on the outside corners. The jacks are hardwired to the battery at this point and are not fun or practical to remove. I have drawn up the thing on CAD, so I know where things need to be in order for the trailer to rotate 90 degrees without hitting the jacks or the camper. What I am concerned about is that my trailer deck is drawn at 61 X 125" or so and my tongue is about 60" long. The tongue will have a tongue box on it and that all clears, math wise. Trailer will be pulled by my Chevy 2500, have 18" wheels with 275 goodyear duratrac tires.
So should I be worried about the tongue being 50% as long as the deck length? I have the axle of the trailer drawn in, generally, by the 60/40 rule of deck length, but am going to approach this in the real world when I get to it. Meaning that I will probably put an 8 inch piece of pipe under the frame and roll it forward and back until I get the actual tongue weight at that 10% figure that every bit of research I have found on the subject suggests. This will get further modified by my loading scheme. Actual tongue weight will be accurate is the short version of all that blather. I am just giving that as background info. For now, does anyone see a problem with a 180" long trailer (hitch to tail) having a 60" tongue? I could take off the tongue box and shrink the tongue accordingly, but I'd lose a lot of valuable storage. Custom tongue box, full width, 16" deep.
Thanks!!!
I am getting my ducks in line to start an off road motorcycle trailer build. Something that can haul two adventure bikes, plus gear. Dont need water or power at this point, as the camper hass all that. The other use I need is that the deck has to fit a 5' X 10' sheet of steel, as I am a metal fabricator and need that configuration. I won't bore you with the details as I am still formulating, but I do have one general question? My Outfitter camper hangs off the back of my truck something close to 18". That leaves the power jacks for raising and lowering the camper on the outside corners. The jacks are hardwired to the battery at this point and are not fun or practical to remove. I have drawn up the thing on CAD, so I know where things need to be in order for the trailer to rotate 90 degrees without hitting the jacks or the camper. What I am concerned about is that my trailer deck is drawn at 61 X 125" or so and my tongue is about 60" long. The tongue will have a tongue box on it and that all clears, math wise. Trailer will be pulled by my Chevy 2500, have 18" wheels with 275 goodyear duratrac tires.
So should I be worried about the tongue being 50% as long as the deck length? I have the axle of the trailer drawn in, generally, by the 60/40 rule of deck length, but am going to approach this in the real world when I get to it. Meaning that I will probably put an 8 inch piece of pipe under the frame and roll it forward and back until I get the actual tongue weight at that 10% figure that every bit of research I have found on the subject suggests. This will get further modified by my loading scheme. Actual tongue weight will be accurate is the short version of all that blather. I am just giving that as background info. For now, does anyone see a problem with a 180" long trailer (hitch to tail) having a 60" tongue? I could take off the tongue box and shrink the tongue accordingly, but I'd lose a lot of valuable storage. Custom tongue box, full width, 16" deep.
Thanks!!!