trailer aero
 

only have a few days to get this done...

i have lots of self taping roof bolts err i mean screw's
lots of 3/4" wood, and maybe more of the plastic sheets.

and i don't care what it looks like.:thumbup:


map of route


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDih5...ature=youtu.be

I watched your video but didn't have any sound (my computer).

I would like to give a little aero help to my trailer at some point too.

A short tounge would help so the trailer can draft you better.

One thing I had considered is if I had a 2 axle trailer I would make it so I could pull the tires off one of the axels when towing empty or near empty. More tires more drag.

If the trailer is going to be open stack all the tall stuff toward the front. The front of the trailer is not as important as the back, unless its taller than your vehicle.

originally, it was a rear entry 2 horse trailer with tack room in the front.
the roof and walls had bad rust, and thus i made it a cargo trailer.

thus the axils are very far back compared to a avrege open cargo trailer, or car transporter...


having the axils so far back, helps in side winds quite a lot and is very very nice in sustained side winds.
but with a smaller tow auto, it limits how i load it, and how much load quite a bit....

to hall a small/mod size auto.
it must be loaded back words, to put most of the load on the trailer, and not the tow auto.

but for this trip, i will be on the light side. just my bio fuel and mabe some parts to sell.
only the tank pump and barrel will be higher then the front rounded part of the trailer. i can see over the trailer with my rear view mirr

im thinking about cutting and using the plastic, to cover the out side of the tires, more or less boxing them in.

1: Do not shorten the tongue. Too much work, structural, low payoff.
2: build a splitter for it instead. use metal or lumber, build a triangle at same height as front of curved front, and use two panels as sides. Now the crosswinds will not cause as much trouble there.
3: build simple three panel boat tail for trooper, that goes back 4' and is above that splitter with a safe clearance for odd driveways, etc. let's say 6"
Angle it at 12 degrees down and in on sides. More than that and it will separate.
This will manage the flow off the trooper, reduce the trooper's wake, and deliver it onto #4
4: roof over trailer as you planned. curve it down slowly all the way back, and make it open up where you need. Even if you have to grab the screw gun to open it up, finish it off as smooth as you can.

Anything else beyond that will be of limited return. I would not bother covering the trailer wheels, when you look at the running board construction and other things that are already crapping up the air there.

See splitter detail below. three pieces of metal/wood, two panels. Leave top open unless you have panel material to spare.
Now it will work more like this motorcycle trailer in the second pic.

for the time that the trailers being pulled, would removing the air deflecter on the top rear of the trooper help much :confused:

was thinking i mite help maybe, just a thought.

I'd pull it and mount the boat tail on those mount points.
turn the tank lengthways. this will let you curve the roof in on the sides. any tumblehome you can do is money.

ok thank you, now ive got some ideas.

ill see what i can do.

sent you a PM

* Put a splitter plate on the tongue to reduce crossflow between the towing vehicle and trailer. Could be a V-shape, or even a single vertical plate.

* Cover the wheels

* Build up the sides to the height of the front, and put a roof over it, at least as far aft as the fuel tank.

* if you can't make a roof, try mounting the fueltank lengthwise rather than transverse - frontal area will be a lot lower


In the long run, if you want to keep the trailer, moving the axles forward will increase its usefulness - unless you use it for very specific purposes that can take advantage of the rear axle position
(like transporting heavy gardening equipment, small crane , ... over the axles with the lighter stuff up front).

Aero wise that rounded nose left from the horse trailer is about as good a start as you can get. You could build sides up to template. I'm not sure of the trip purpose or how much weight goes on that trailer. Seems like a lot of tongue weight. If one set of axles would suffice maybe remove the rear one for the trip. That would bring tongue weigh down. With a template shaped profile there would be more cargo space up front so the hitch might not be overloaded. Hard to say really. I feel like I'm missing a lot of context...