First Tow and Weigh In

[philpom]

Finally got around to greasing the bearings and hooked "BIG" Tiny to the truck for it's first tow. I was pretty sure it was going to be good but I'll admit a little anxiety as I drove off. Took a quick trip through the neighborhood and back home for an inspection and off to the scales for an official dry weight.

I built on the HF 1720lb trailer kit and was hoping to keep the camper less than 1001 pounds to ensure integrity of the build and was very happy when the certified CAT scale came back with 840lbs for the camper. I'll call it 900 pounds officially for good measure. At this weight the suspension is softened up and shouldn't beat the crap out of it down the road. I attempted a crude determination of the camper center of gravity like this (if this is grossly inaccurate or you know a good way please share):

trailer weight 279lb
camper weight 561lb
Half the camper (about 2 feet up on the cabin box) 280lb
280(half cabin)+279(trailer chassis)=559lb located below the 2 foot mark

So about 66% of the camper weight is at or below 2 feet high. Not exactly sure how to translate to center of gravity but I'm guessing about 3 feet? Seems reasonably good and should be stable but I'm open to thoughts?

During the drive out to the scales I kept on city streets but on the way back home I hopped on the loop running around the outskirts of town and had a sustained pull of 60 mph. The camper pulled true with no wiggle or wobble in it's track. Pretty sure I'm good to go but of course I wonder what would happen if I hit the mother pot hole or some other tragic uneven condition, I don't want it on it's side The camper is 8' long, 5' wide (over wheels) and 4' high not including the awning bag and vent cover.

Anyway, our first camp trip is about a month away so exciting time are ahead!

[Onajourney]

Congratulation!

[QueticoBill]

That's great!

[pchast]

Congratulations.

[rjgimp]

Nicely done! Considering the weight and dimensions I wouldn’t worry a bit about it going over due to road conditions and as the cabin height is 80% of width, I frankly wouldn’t even worry about wind, outside of maybe a 70-80 mph gust.

[GPW]

Success is so Sweet !!!

[Modstock]

I wonder what would happen if I hit the mother pot hole or some other tragic uneven condition, I don't want it on it's side

I actually did this sort of. I was going down a smooth dirt road at 35-40mph. Not realizing a big hole coming up. It was covered level with a fine dust.
Once I hit it and looked in the mirror, I saw the tire about 2ft off the ground.

Pretty sure it was the standard 2" ball/hitch/ that kept it from going over.

You'll be fine on the freeway. The hole I hit was huge.

Sent from my SM-A115AP using Tapatalk

[philpom]

A quick update...

We joined the Texas Tear Jerkers group earlier this year, we towed the camper out to east Texas and met everyone for a fun time. Towed fine, even up to 75mph. Checking the hub temps, they never got more than ambient hot. Felt much better after that.

Then a few months ago we drug it up to NW Arkansas to our vacation home (this was a 750 mile round trip). We took a trip from there to Beaver Lake for a few nights. Again, the drive was nice and no issues (once or twice while cruising down I-40 I'm pretty sure it caught some air while traveling at 75mph but it came down true and we just kept going. I now have supreme confidence dragging it down the highway for any distance.

I do want to say, the worst thing for these stock HF trailers suspension in my opinion would be the dirt roads. 15-20 MPH, a bad spot and it'll rock pretty good back there. No clue how bad it actually was but I couldn't imagine taking it down a full on logging road without some modifications. Super easy down the free way though!