No Frame Trailer? Would this be safe?

[Jiminsav]

This is a photo of the Boxter upside down with the axle ripped off...

Mike, i see a piece of wood ripped out from the bottom where an axle should be..that tells me that the axle is still connected to the wood, but that the wood gave up the ghost on holding the wood in place..*duck and cover*

[Jimbo]

...it could be acceptable if the tongue ran all the way back and connected to the axle. The rest of the technique would result in a quick, dirty throw away that could be fixed with a composite floor of some sort..esentially all this guy did was cut out a tear shaped box and bolted it up...there is no way this could hold up over a long period of heavy usage and no way, built as descibed could it be safe IMNSHO
madjack

I've been giving this one some thought and it should work shouldn't it? The design would just be like a T right?

[Jiminsav]

yep..a ºTº

[waywardson]

hello everyone,
not intending to argue at all,
but,
i have a wood frame trailer on the farm (i built in 1994)
i built it out of rough sawn, seasoned oak, sawmill lumber,
its 6 x 12' 6",
pretty much as described with a bolt on pipe tounge and axel,
the tounge extends almost to axel but is not connected to,
ive had it loaded heavy and it has always performed well,
i painted it black so it looks like steel,
have been on interstate with it several times and it has done fine,
just goes to show a good carpenter can build about anything,
i wouldnt trust an axel bolted to plywood but oak is a different story,
george

[IraRat]

I think this line lifted from his promo text pretty much says it all about the idea of bolting the axle to the plywood floor.


The PLANS show all the dementions...

AAARRRRGHHHH!!!!!!

You beat me to it!!! I wanted to say that!!!

[Arne]

I'm tending to agree. Torsion axles put a lot of twist at the mounting point, leaf springs do not. I still think a torsion axle might be doable, but it would have to be mounted to angle iron or some such embedded in the box (to take the twisting forces).... but I still do not think a full metal frame is necessary.

I also think it would need more engineering knowledge than I posess to get it done right.....

Not sure who posted it, but there was a diagram of a double tongue trailer when the 2 pieces that formed the tongue widened and came back towards the rear of the trailer. Those two pieces, one on each side, could be incorporated into the mount for the torsion axle and should be strong enough to give great support for the trailer and also a mounting point for the torsion axle..

[angib]

Not sure who posted it, but there was a diagram of a double tongue trailer when the 2 pieces that formed the tongue widened and came back towards the rear of the trailer.

That might have been me, on my Superleggera trailer chassis:





This is for separate left and right torsion units but, with a little adaptation, would work for a one-piece torsion axle.

Andrew

[An Ol Timer]

The more that I follow this post, the more convinced I am that the designer of these plans is a long lost descendent of Howie.....

[Arne]

Andrew, I thought it was you but didn't want to give credit and find out I had been in error.... that undercarriage design looks to be perfectly useful for a teardrop.... seems plenty rugged enough to hold several hundred pounds of wood in a sturdy box shape.....

[IraRat]

The more that I follow this post, the more convinced I am that the designer of these plans is a long lost descendent of Howie.....

Okay--I gotta hear this story:

Who is Howie and what happened?

[angib]

Who is Howie and what happened?

Hey, it's not just me! I had assumed that all Merkans knew who Howie was and that I was the odd-one-out who didn't. So, Ol' Timer, tell all.

Andrew

[Chip]

another 2.5 cents worth,,,
On the subject of no frame,, ya got to be crazy to attempt no frame at all,, now minimalistic framing is another thing,, If the box construction is designed with very little flex and provisions are made to tie the "box" and the frame together so that the Unit acts as one unit rather than two independent components and transfer loads over a uni-body type construction it will work, how ever the no frame concept is dangerous,, most trailers are built on a frame that is intended to carry a significant load, then a dead load is bolted to this frame and we go bouncing happly down the road,, Now rethink the load and frame and unibody concept and ya come up with a frame and body that work together rather than independent of each other,,,
This line of thinking is only intended for those intending to head out on the pavment to the campground and home again,,, for the serious or ameture off roaders,, forget the minimal frame,, build a tank and bolt a box on top and hope it all holds together,,
After looking at a lot of trailers on this and other forums, most frames are way over built and if ya really dont need the extra weight why over build it.

Looking at a minimalistic frame/body for next project

chipper

[An Ol Timer]

I thought that some of the guys from the post about the convertible galley top and "Chupacabra" fame would tell me. Howie a ghost of Las Vegas fame who believed in making a "conifer waterbird". OK! You tell me!

[Woody]

Hey I just saw this and was thinking of something and the CHUPACABRA thing was a PSA for those who haven't camped in their habitat. So beware of bumps on the roof at night

[IraRat]

We'll never know, Andrew. And what the heck is a Merkan? Is that another word for Yankee?

My favorite baseball team, by the way--so let the hostilities and anti-New York spew forth in all of its venomous glory...........

But if I hear ONE word from any Red Sox fans, this thread will take on an ugly life of its own. Tom gets a pardon, though, even though he lives in Worcester.

Kind of like Gerald Ford pardoning Nixon, except Tom never did anything illegal and he never had a meeting with Billy Graham bitching about us Jews.

If Tom ever DID do something illegal and he wants to share it with us, he gets TWO pardons.

Smoking a few joints doesn't count, Tom, nor trying to feel up your 13-year-old classmate Sally Latimer.