Trailer building question

[73fj]

I am building a 12'L X 8'W trailer for hauling quad's or sled's or whatever I want. My question is on a 12' deck, how far back should I mount the axle? I was eyeballing it at around 7' . Is there a formula for this? The axle is a 3500#. All the trailer's on the lot's are 14' x 8' with the axle at 100". Any help appreciated.

 

[REZARF]

Well, the further back the better the trailer will track and back up. However, too far forward and you will put too much weight on the hitch... too far back and everything gets squirly.

A good rule of thumb is to put 60% of the weigth of the trailer in front of the axle, 40% behind.

What will you be towing this with? A super duty dually... won't really matter if you even put an axle on at all

Hope it helps.

Rezarf <><

 

[73fj]

Gonna tow it with my Duramax, and my old Chevy 3/4t, and my 28' motorhome. Should be able to put 4 quad's on it and head to the bush. I will have to do some ciphering and figure out the relation of the axle to the deck on the factory 14' everyone is selling around here. Thanks

 

[Degnol]

Whatever you tow, you want 10% of the total towed weight on the hitch. So, a 4,000 load needs 400lbs on the tongue. You can adjust that by adjusting the load of course. If the trailer will barely accomodate 4 quads and you can't move them around much, the placement of the axle becomes more critical. You could always mount the springs to a piece of heavy angle that bolts to the frame so you can move it back and forth to achieve the desired tongue weight for your "normal" load.

GL

Ed

 

[KY854RUN]

Try this trailer web site, it gives you where to measure for the proper weight distribution.

http://www.championtrailers.com/UTILITY_TRAILER_KITS.HTM

 

[73fj]

Try this trailer web site, it gives you where to measure for the proper weight distribution.

http://www.championtrailers.com/UTILITY_TRAILER_KITS.HTM

That is exactly what I was looking for! I talked to 2 manufacturer's today, one told me to fxxx off if I wasn't buying, the other told me the 60/40 rule which was within 2 inches of where I had calculated.

Ed, the trailer should easily hold 4 quad's. I may also add a rack for gas can's and other thing's. I'm gonna see how it tow's first. Thanks for the help guy's.

 

[73fj]

One more question. I am using a drop spindle axle. When I mount the springs it will cause the axle to rotate slightly to the front due to the shackle mount. Does anyone see a problem with this? The way I see it if the spindle was straight up and down it would lean slightly to the rear when the deck is loaded due to spring compression. So if it can lean back can it also lean forward when there is no weight on it and still have strength? Clear as mud?

 

[73fj]

After talking to the manufacturer today I discovered that I was using the axle I had the wrong way . I took it back and got a different one. Please disregard previous post, I'm a dumbass.

 

[KY854RUN]

If we didn't make mistakes, then we all would be nobody because nobody is perfect.

 

[73fj]

I should have looked closer at the tag on the axle. " 4" DROP axle ". Key word being DROP.