Thread: how's my tongue look to you?

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Don,
I thought the "tongue" thing would engender some interest.

I am not sure I like the whole concept of using the front end as a trailer. Most of these trailers are made to look like ther rear of the car, but I had the extra front end and didn't want it to go to waste. Notice that I used small wheels ? I couldn't use the existing wheel openings because that would bring the axle too far forward. Well, I could have, but then I would have had to build a flat bed and slide the front end towards the back and have all of the flat space in front of the nose. I thought about it but decided it would look even more strange that doing it this way. Although, I am not adverse to chopping the whole thing up and startaing over.

John

Well there's sterngth and then there's deflection. If there is too much deflection it could get squirrely on you going down the road and have fatigue issues. What's the tongue weight going to be? Make sure it is pointing down to the ball and not up; that will also mke it tow squirrely.

You certainly have some cool stuff!

Kitz

Kitz,

You got a good point there.
Trailer and car are dead level in static position.
I did a little test and hung 250# on the hitch and measured < 1/4" deflection from the front frame beam. Tongue weight should be around 50-75# fully loaded. trailer empty wieghs 195#, which gives me 500#+ for load capacity. I am using .187 wall 1 3/4" MS tubing for the tongue and 2 x 2 x .120 for the main frame. tongue goes through the front frame member and welds to the rear frame member. It certainly couldn't hurt to add some lateral braces all the way to the hitch to make it a full "y".
John