Quote:
Originally Posted by Angel And The Wolf
The Prius is 68.7 inches wide. The '78 Courier long bed is 63 inches wide, narrow enough, and low enough to hide in the Prius' aero shadow, but the bed is 59.5 inches inside, Just wide enough for a queen mattress.
When the bed is fully opened, I would erect half hoops over the whole thing, and cover it Conestoga style. Any other trailer I can find that will fit the air shadow has wheels and bearings rated for 45 to 55 mph. I built a camp trailer once on a utility trailer, drove it up to 80 mph, and blew out a wheel bearing. The courier is built for the highway.
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V shaped front end is good, but make sure the edges are generously rounded if possible. That would be top, sides, and bottom. It makes a difference for air attachment. I've built a couple aero trailers, and a 9" radius worked well (first we tried, based off calculations from Huchos book). Make sure the bed is as close as possible without contacting during a full turn. I'm trying to think what else would be useful to pass on... oh, make sure you allow a 15 or so degree angle so you can enter/exit driveways. Smashing out a rear window is a bad way to find out that 10 degrees wasn't enough. Stromforming the front wedge (top cants back) is good for filling space while allowing additional clearance.
The Prius trailer I built is actually so close to the ball that a gap filler would need to be removable. The one for behind a van was the same way. Basically the back of the coupler was the front of the trailer. Yours would be wider, so maybe you would need to start it further back. Our trailers had maybe 2" clearance on full turns.