Mismatched trailer and tow vehicle..help me move

[KamperBob]

Drive slow for safety first. Vertical nose trailers develop tongue lift that increases with speed and increases sway potential. Building travel time into your schedule pays other dividends on long trips like more a relaxed driver who can better enjoy the ride and some scenery.

Little trailer wheels turn fast which stresses wheel bearings. Spin welding a bearing ruins your day. (Ask how I know.) Stop early and often to check hub temps as well as tire temps. If too hot to touch, that's a warning sign to take a break for corrective action.

Better MPGs is a bonus reward for good behavior.

Hucho's compendium has a trailer section that shows marginal gains from front rounding and greater benefit from rear tapering. Hoerner's bible on drag explains how rounded fronts make tapered tails all the more necessary due to base pressure (which seems misleading so I prefer wake suction as a more intuitive description).

That trailer is short with a very blunt nose. It may splash a wide enough bow wave around the sides that rear reattachment may currently be slim to none to begin with. A simple, gentle tapered boat tail extension may be help without front work. If you round the front it's been shown that edge radii only need to be about 10% of the span for good return. Once the big splash is dead further rounding only helps marginally so for an enclosed trailer just sacrifices interior volume. Tuft testing should show detached flow areas which represent low fruit to pick first.

For a one-off trip it's hard to justify a lot of investment. Especially on a short departure schedule with other moving priorities. In your shoes I'd focus on safety and bake time into the itinerary to enjoy a sedate pace and the rewards of frugality that follow.

Good luck either way!

[euromodder]

Are you keeping the trailer after moving ?

[sparksnsaaben]

KamperBob: I've already had this rig (empty) up to 100mph with no stability issues. I've already weighed everything that I'm moving and will have a near infinite amount of adjustability concerning tongue weight. I'll definitely have freshly serviced bearings and will check for hub temperatures, thanks for the reminder. Give me a little time and I'll fully understand your 4th paragraph. Speaking of which, what is Tuft testing?

euromodder: No, I probably won't keep the trailer after the move. However, I have plenty of time and should be able to make the mods for cheap. Regardless of the fuel or time savings, this project sounds fun just for the sake of science. Any monetary and/or time savings will be spent appropriately in New Orleans. My sister is a photographer and desperately wants to spend some time there. I love a good drink, so needless to say our time in The Big O will fun for me as well.

To everybody that has contributed so far: Thanks for all of the input. I now have a direction to research. Thanks!!!

[slowmover]

The test for stability is more to: high crosswinds (man-made or natural; think wind shear and direction-reversing several times) while applying the brakes in an emergency lane-change maneuver . . starting and returning to the same lane . . on a downgrade.

Chances are that anything above 45-mph will upset (turn over) the trailer. Straight-line stability is easily upset. Just a tail twitch is all it takes. Tripping hazards are little spoken of, but highly dangerous (whether grade changes or junk in the road) all too often.

You can run US-287 from CO to Beaumont, TX to pick up IH-10. Helps you to avoid the major metro areas (for which traffic is heavy at least 50-miles out from their perimeter). Not many choices until you arrive in FL. Pick a sensible daily travel number. About 300 - 450-miles/day is actually a very good number with a trailer. Trailer towing pretty well doubles the risk of an accident, mile-for-mile. So choose restaurants for their appeal ahead of time, not just motel reservations, and plan breaks every two hours, plus an hour off the road for every four driven.

And only a fool travels at or above the posted limit, IMO. Let the sheeple go around you to avoid their bunched herds. 58-62 is great for forward motion and FE. 65 about tops. Steady pace allows all the good things about motor travel to happen.

The big truck FE mantra is about full-time use of cruise control and the fewest brake and steering corrections per 100-miles. Can't make this viable at or above limit. Plus aero is upset by too many changes.

I think you'll do well with a boat-tail, both for time & money spent/saved. Have the axle[s] aligned, ck brake app/drag, and spring for a PRODIGY or similar quality brake controller. (A

If you decide that this is a good tow vehicle and trailer combo for your personal possessions, remember that FL is hurricane country. In that event, I'd contact Andy Thomson [correct spelling] of CAN AM RV in London, ONT, the expert at hitch rigging in North America. A sway-resisting hitch is good, but a sway-eliminating hitch is best.

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[jakobnev]

I think initially you get the best return from adding just enough deflector to the end of the roof on the Saab to prevent it from pulling the air down along the rear hatch. As you extent the deflector beyond that, you soon reach a point where it becomes better to start adding a partial boat tail to the trailer instead. As they are both extended they compete with each other with diminishing returns, until you have covered all the space between the Saab and have a complete boat tail on the trailer. (You are going to call it quits before that tho)

If rounding the front edges of the trailer ever comes into play, is difficult to say.

(This is all just in my humble laymans opinion btw.)