[stillsearching]

I remain someone with needs to drive alot and tow fairly heavy if I end up involved with farm/ranch land. Part of a side business involves parting out cars/pickups and at other times moving heavy stuff for side income. So i'm trying to design up the best system to do this job.

My problem is that even if I have the land (solo or with a group) I still have to live in the city between the (still have yet to start) college and (existing) dayjob issues. The trailer has to be with me in town (because that's where I will always leave from, and return to - no time to run 300 miles to the weekend farm retreat twice) and fit within a standard double garage. (which i'm currently planning to be stored on it's side, lifted up with the help of a winch then secured somehow, because I can only use "my half" of the garage for tow vehicle plus the trailer)

The tow vehicle will mostly tow - it won't come out much when not towing. (separate daily driver to keep miles off it) I've become less obsessed with truck aerodynamics and more concerned about trailer aerodynamics since that's going to be the bigger drag problem. Because I wont have any one fixed load i'm trying to think of more of a 'system' to aero-ize whatever load I pick up before I hit the road. Perhaps heavy tarps (too heavy for buffeting and ripping) combined with some kind of light framing system to shape the aero of the load?

What i'd like to use for the all-uses trailer is a car hauler. Not because it will only haul cars, but because I also have to haul cars and everything else (equipment trailers) puts the weight higher up or aren't wide enough. But car haulers seem to be able to double duty as generic trailers just fine.

Safety is coming before MPG - after past explorations, i've decided the tow vehicle will be a 3/4 ton or 1 ton truck, and anything north of 12k load will have to be handled by a different vehicle than mine. (possibly obtained later and parked on the farm as that's a much rarer load)

Pretty sure it's going to be a diesel - the constantly loaded state and the way diesel seems to get better SFC under load convince me.


SOOOOOOOOOOO.... what is there to brainstorm? :)

Biggest first problem is coming up with a trailer that fits inside the garage (on it's side!) yet is large enough to let me haul everything I have to. What I would like to do is to have a "three piece" trailer that's say 16 feet long but which lets me add on some kind of extenders to the frame front and rear if I have a longer load than that. I'd rather spend extra time bolting extenders to the frame to have the capability than not have the capability I mean. 16 feet is long enough for the wheelbase of any vehicle I can think of hauling to have all four tires on that center frame - even if the front/rear vehicle overhang will overhang the trailer. (which if I use the extenders becomes irrelevant anyway) But I wanted the extenders to let me stretch things to about 22-24 feet. (3-4 feet each)

One brainstorm I was wondering is if I could change the width of the axle between two options. The maximum 102" width for stability when hauling vehicles (less common) and something narrower for normal use (and because 102" is too tall if on it's side to flip up in my garage, but the axle could be stored separately in the garage) - maybe having separate suspension mounting points or something/two locations to put it to if I can't use the same suspension position for both axles. The front/rear extender idea might apply to the sides also - I was thinking six feet wide was plenty wide for a normal use trailer anyways (with a normal garage door being 6ft 6in, flipping it up wont bang the rails) so this makes a center section which is 6ft wide 16ft long - which can be extended to 8ft wide 22-24ft long when bolting extensions to all sides. Giving extra space for hauling construction sheet goods and bulky stuff in a lower aero stack than otherwise.

Last part i'm still not sure how best to aerodynamically 'merge' truck to the trailer incl in a way that can change with taller loads. Open to ideas. Starting to get the idea that it may not have to touch as long as the gap is small enough though - possibly even some hard piece that changes orientation with the trailer angle to not interfere with turns or retracts at lower speed?


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PS - And so I return in 2016. :-P And I realize with depression i've been on the board 4 years, have attempted to start (early) research projects in a number of directions, and been unexpectedly stymied and pushed back due to unplanned RL problems.

Just mentioning in case someone else says "hey aren't you the guy who was going to..." - yes I was. I just haven't had a chance to get started yet because I can't build anything in an urban environment without a garage to park it in. :(

For what it's worth i've learned things that wont work and why, revised plans, and was hopefully saved some dead ends in the process.