new trailer (to look like cdn 101)

[Tackleberry]

Getting excited to try this little wagon out hope to be done this weekend...

 

[JamesR]

Looks like a nice project. Tell me more about the hitch please.

 

[Tackleberry]

Up, down/left, right/and pivot.saw a pic of someone's hitch and made one similar. It articulates much farther than a ball, and is cheaper to make than to buy a pintle/lunette set that won't rattle around. Also it has a much slimmer profile than that of a pintle.
Made from ⅜ plate steel with 2" tele x.25 wall, and ⅝ bolts at the pivot <^> .the big one is a 1" bolt with all bolts having ®nylock nuts and the blue parts are a dense cutting board plastic that allows for friction free movement.

 

[Tackleberry]

Picture of it.

 

[JamesR]

Thanks for the specifics and the idea using the cutting board is really cool.

 

[ntsqd]

Good to see someone willing to have a go at something like this. Having engineered such a coupler I'd like to make some suggestions.

Shorten the tube between the two pivot bolts. This lowers the leverage on the vertical bolt and will allow that pivot to wear a lot longer.

Sleeve the holes in the tube for the bolts. Increases the bearing area. Right now the total bearing area is the thickness of the tube wall times ~1/3 of the circumference of the hole, which isn't much and will wear fairly fast. May be able to use some drilled out & cut-down pipe nipples or something like them for this. Could even add grease zerks at the middle of the sleeves if so inclined.

Get longer pivot bolts. The usual Rule of Thumb is at least one bolt diameter should stick out past the end of the nut. The other Rule of Thumb is that the un-threaded shoulder of the bolt needs to extend at least 1/2 thru the far side tab. Using up to 3 washers per side to space a long bolt so that the nut doesn't run out of threads before getting tight is an acceptable practice. This mostly is to give you a little time to catch a nut backing off before it disappears, but also to insure that bolt threads are not placed in Shear as the bolt is quite a bit weaker there than in the shoulder. the threads are also a little smaller than the shoulder, so placing some shoulder in both holes greatly reduces 'rocking' movement. Nylocks can and do back off. I prefer to use all metal locking nuts when the assembly isn't expected to need to come back apart (those nuts usually destroy the bolt threads on removal). With something critical I've been known to drill a hole thru the end of the bolt and twist some safety wire (high tech baling wire) or bend a cotter pin thru the hole so that there is no way for the nut to back all the way off and get lost. But this wouldn't be the first time that I've been accused of overkill....

Place a piece of 1/4" thick minimum strap with it's side up against one of the bolt head flats with the tiniest gap and weld the ends of the strap in place. This will keep the bolts from turning, which will reduce the possibility of the nuts backing off and will force the pivoting to happen between the bolt and the sleeves in the short piece of tube.

The 'articulation" pivot's 'U' bracket wants to be flush up to the vertical plate across the end of the tongue with the cutting board material directly sandwiched between them. Make the smallest of the two contact areas as big as you possibly can.
Cutting board material is brilliant, those are usually made from high density polyethylene. While there are better choices in materials for such a use, but not ones that are radically better and none that are so easily sourced.

 

[LAMBCRUSHER]

Good to see someone willing to have a go at something like this. Having engineered such a coupler I'd like to make some suggestions.

Shorten the tube between the two pivot bolts. This lowers the leverage on the vertical bolt and will allow that pivot to wear a lot longer.

Sleeve the holes in the tube for the bolts. Increases the bearing area. Right now the total bearing area is the thickness of the tube wall times ~1/3 of the circumference of the hole, which isn't much and will wear fairly fast. May be able to use some drilled out & cut-down pipe nipples or something like them for this. Could even add grease zerks at the middle of the sleeves if so inclined.

Get longer pivot bolts. The usual Rule of Thumb is at least one bolt diameter should stick out past the end of the nut. The other Rule of Thumb is that the un-threaded shoulder of the bolt needs to extend at least 1/2 thru the far side tab. Using up to 3 washers per side to space a long bolt so that the nut doesn't run out of threads before getting tight is an acceptable practice. This mostly is to give you a little time to catch a nut backing off before it disappears, but also to insure that bolt threads are not placed in Shear as the bolt is quite a bit weaker there than in the shoulder. the threads are also a little smaller than the shoulder, so placing some shoulder in both holes greatly reduces 'rocking' movement. Nylocks can and do back off. I prefer to use all metal locking nuts when the assembly isn't expected to need to come back apart (those nuts usually destroy the bolt threads on removal). With something critical I've been known to drill a hole thru the end of the bolt and twist some safety wire (high tech baling wire) or bend a cotter pin thru the hole so that there is no way for the nut to back all the way off and get lost. But this wouldn't be the first time that I've been accused of overkill....

Place a piece of 1/4" thick minimum strap with it's side up against one of the bolt head flats with the tiniest gap and weld the ends of the strap in place. This will keep the bolts from turning, which will reduce the possibility of the nuts backing off and will force the pivoting to happen between the bolt and the sleeves in the short piece of tube.

The 'articulation" pivot's 'U' bracket wants to be flush up to the vertical plate across the end of the tongue with the cutting board material directly sandwiched between them. Make the smallest of the two contact areas as big as you possibly can.
Cutting board material is brilliant, those are usually made from high density polyethylene. While there are better choices in materials for such a use, but not ones that are radically better and none that are so easily sourced.

nice, but,

 

[ntsqd]

Which point are you needing illustrations for?

 

[Tackleberry]

Thanks for the tip, this is sort of a rushed build. I'll be able to modify some things after next week.

 

[Tackleberry]

Headed to camp with the Jefferson state Cruisers this Friday, Mcgrew trail...woohoo!

 

[Tackleberry]

Basically just slapping the trailer together good enough to get there and back. I'll be polishing this turd for a year or so. Adding things, and modding all allong the way As the budget allows.

 

[Tackleberry]

Moving right allong ...

 

[NEWFISHER]

Now it just needs a roof top tent.