yes, that is what I envisioned. Rather odd design. And if that is a torsion axle, the axle could well serve as the only cross-member itself. But that tongue is a very long cantilevered unit. (Which could contribute to swaying too, maybe?) Probably why it's fairly large in cross section. And, really, with the original design if the tongue were to bend a bit it would not hurt much, except possibly if there is an unforgiving anchor point between body and tongue in the front. But the situation becomes fundamentally different if you attach the body to those front arms via the jack points. Now if the tongue bends, even within the elastic range and recovers, you are putting stress on the new body attachments. And this may be exacerbated because the attachment point of your side arms is far forward of the axle, so more leverage wrt the axle.
But you are probably right that that won't hurt anything and the tongue may not bend significantly, in which case you are fine. Or if there is play in the jack point mounts, that might be fine too.
I'm probably overanalyzing this, but am bringing this up because damaging the integrity of a fiberglass shell like this seems problematic. And the designers probably thought this thing over very carefully. Personally, I would not be too keen on modifying their design without checking all this very carefully. And if I were to plan on doing some offroading with this trailer, I would make very sure that the attachments between tub and frame will be able to withstand it. There may be a lot of flexing and stresses going on that was probably not anticipated for an asphalt-designed unit, and I don't think fiberglass shells are very forgiving.
But you are doing nice work, it's nice to learn from it, I hope you keep on telling us what you are doing and finding out.
But you are probably right that that won't hurt anything and the tongue may not bend significantly, in which case you are fine. Or if there is play in the jack point mounts, that might be fine too.
I'm probably overanalyzing this, but am bringing this up because damaging the integrity of a fiberglass shell like this seems problematic. And the designers probably thought this thing over very carefully. Personally, I would not be too keen on modifying their design without checking all this very carefully. And if I were to plan on doing some offroading with this trailer, I would make very sure that the attachments between tub and frame will be able to withstand it. There may be a lot of flexing and stresses going on that was probably not anticipated for an asphalt-designed unit, and I don't think fiberglass shells are very forgiving.
But you are doing nice work, it's nice to learn from it, I hope you keep on telling us what you are doing and finding out.