Boat tail project based on a single wheel trailer...

[aerohead]

Way too much fun!!!!!!!!!!!
I see a wave forming!

[wyatt]

If you can reattach flow onto the trailer you have the opportunity to see gains, at least relative to with no attachment. On a non-articulating trailer, you could just seal the gaps and go that way.

It reminds me of Austin Powers, "Mini Me, you complete me!"

[BamZipPow]

Originally Posted by wyatt

If you can reattach flow onto the trailer you have the opportunity to see gains, at least relative to with no attachment. On a non-articulating trailer, you could just seal the gaps and go that way.

It reminds me of Austin Powers, "Mini Me, you complete me!"

When I take the cargo body off of the trailer, I should be able to go crazy with various designs...which include pivot points on the truck and trailer so the gaps will be minimized or eliminated. Keep in mind that the trailer will still pitch up/down at the trailer hitch adapter so I have to account fer that.

Refueling fer tomorrow's trip, I am reminded by the trailer to load up the trailer with some weight as it bounces a lot when empty.

[jeff88]

Excellent work! Very insperational!

Originally Posted by BamZipPow

Refueling fer tomorrow's trip, I am reminded by the trailer to load up the trailer with some weight as it bounces a lot when empty.

Put a gas tank with some sort of quick release! At least that way if you are going to weigh it down, you'll do it with something useful! Plus if you notice the trailer hopping around, you'll know it's time to refill!

[BamZipPow]

Had the opportunity to drive a round trip from College Station to Houston and back...so I attached the single wheel trailer to the truck to see what the new configuration would do. The drive was a little bouncy even with the trailer loaded up with my standard tool load out and luggage.

So while I was driving...I was thinking...if it would be possible to put some sort of shock absorber setup between the trailer and hitch to minimize the amount of bounce being transmitted back into the towing vehicle. It will be something fer me to investigate to see how feasible it would be to do that.

Install a fastening point on the hitch bar and another on the trailer deck with the shock absorber attached to both points. As the trailer wheel bumps up, the shock absorber compresses and dampens the bump/bucking into the truck. With this type of setup, I should be able to minimize the amount of weight I need to preload into the trailer. Any thoughts?

[freebeard]

My trailer-hitch-in-progress has two downward pointing ears for the safety chains to pass through. I'd thought about adding a steering damper that would be positioned just under the hitch.

There is a category of 'load-leveling' or 'equalizing' hitches you might want to look into.

I also saw someone suggested running with the trailer tire half-flat. Sort of a real primitive air suspension with no unsprung weight? You could compare aired up with load against empty with low pressure.

[BamZipPow]

Originally Posted by freebeard

My trailer-hitch-in-progress has two downward pointing ears for the safety chains to pass through. I'd thought about adding a steering damper that would be positioned just under the hitch.

There is a category of 'load-leveling' or 'equalizing' hitches you might want to look into.

I also saw someone suggested running with the trailer tire half-flat. Sort of a real primitive air suspension with no unsprung weight? You could compare aired up with load against empty with low pressure.

I looked at the load-leveling/equalizing hitches and it won't work on this type of hitch because of where the pivot points are and they are a friction based type of dampening.

Because of the small trailer tire, I don't think I want to risk pre-mature failure of the tire since the sidewalls would incur extra stress with the lowered inflation.

Here's a piccie of the hitch and my rudimentary drawing of what it would roughly look like...


I would probably lower the nose of the trailer to a lower point on the hitch ears and extend the attachment point of the shock absorber so that the shock absorber would git a better radius angle. As the back end of the trailer travels up, the shock absorber would compress and dampen the bucking effect of the trailer.

I have to determine how much compression travel there will be so I can find an absorber that will fit correctly. I'm probably looking at a gas filled shock absorber, too.

[NachtRitter]

Hey BZP ... From the pic, it looks like you could put the shock "under" rather than "over" ... seems to be a ready-made attachment point on the lower part of the hitch ears. Since the shock should resist motion regardless if it's getting pulled or pushed, you would still get the same effect but with a neater install and (potentially) less fabrication.

EDIT: Maybe a little more fabrication, as you may want one shock per "ear" ... can't tell from the pics if going "under" in the middle would work

[aerohead]

My Morris Minor 1000 had 'friction' shocks.I didn't have X-ray vision,but I suspected that inside their was something akin to brake pads on either side of a section of 'rotor' if you will,with some sort of spring-tension preload keeping a constant force against the 'rotor.'
A mechanical disk brake unit from a contemporary mountain bike (yard sale/metal recycling center),with the cable held by a tension spring might be adapted to provide a damping function to the pitching.It would be extremely low mass if nothing else.

[BamZipPow]

After doing more research, it looks like I would need to go with a coilover shock type as the coil spring is what dampens the bump on compression and the shock absorber is what keeps the spring from oscillating when rebounding. I might be able to use a stock ATV or motorcyle spring setup since the trailer weight would be similar to those type of vehicles.

The coilover spring will need to be installed to the inner part of the radius as it will need to be compressed vs being extended while in operation. This will assist in keeping the trailer tire (along with gravity) pinned to the road. I might have to design a preload lever to allow me to hook up the trailer or it will be near to impossible to rotate the hitch adapter so I can insert the trailer tongue into the receiver hitch. More brain power required...

I guess if I git an adjustable coilover setup, I could always spin the collar down every time I need to connect/disconnect the trailer. We'll see...

I could probably even go with an airbag type of setup as it would be totally adjustable to load weight, but that's starting to git kinda expensive...