Recommended ground clearance

Anything to do with mechanical, construction etc

Postby Cary Winch » Mon Sep 19, 2005 6:59 pm

Powderburn,

You brought up a really good point about access height. On one of our trailers with a 12" frame height the top of the mattress is about 18" off the ground. On a SUV height one with the frame up to 15" the mattress is about 21" off the ground. This is about chair height. So, you just sit down on the edge of the mattress like you were sitting down in a chair. We use a flexible bedding retainer on ours so the bottom of the door frame doesn't cut into your legs.

Part of the secret of making that work well is having a wide door. Our doors are 36" wide so all you have to do is swing your legs in after sitting down and your in. None of that dog house entry stuff normally associated with teardrops.

We had a full size off road option. That put the bottom of the frame at close to 18" off the ground. I am 5' 11" tall and when I sit on the edge of the bed on one of those my feet are off the ground. That is too much for me. The SUV height is perfect for my size personally, my feet sit flat on the ground and I am very comfortable. Though the standard street height is no issue for me either.

Perhaps the question should be, how the heck do you get into a trailer with a 21" ride height? Not to be a wise guy, but it must involve a step stool or something. That ought to make you a real hit at gatherings, climbing in and out. Should gather a crowd.


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Postby benroy44 » Mon Sep 19, 2005 7:11 pm

No problem for me im 6"1" 21" is just right for me :)
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Postby Cary Winch » Tue Sep 20, 2005 7:33 pm

Right on Benroy44! Personal size really really plays a factor and a tall guy is going to like a taller unit.

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Postby PaulC » Sat Sep 24, 2005 3:00 am

I'm with you Powderburn. At 6' 4" my frame stands at 22" off the ground.
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Re: Recommended ground clearance

Postby Andrew Herrick » Tue Feb 28, 2017 11:41 am

Obviously, there is no one-size-fits-all-answer to ground clearance.

Mechanically, the:

- longer your trailer (body or tongue)
- longer the distance between the trailer axle and the hitch point
- rougher the roads

... the more ground clearance you'll need.

Torsion and axle-less (Flexride) suspensions have already been covered. If you want to lower your double-eye leaf spring suspension, however, here are your options:

- Use a drop axle. A 4-inch drop is standard, but you can find 2-inch and 6-inch drops some places.
- Use underslung (i.e. undermount) springs, in which the axle sits on top of the springs, and not the other 'way around. This requires a little conversion kit if you're adapting an overmount suspension.
- Use smaller tires. If you want the same highway capacity, go wider.
- Use shorter hangers.

Now, if you're adapting a kit trailer, the job's more difficult. They usually have slipper springs rather than double-eye springs. You can convert those to undermount set-up by welding or bolting on different hangers, but that isn't a job for the faint of heart. If you don't choose the right lengths, you'll have your trailer too high, and it'll be prone to bouncing side-to-side, or it will be too low, and you'll bottom out the frame on the axle with every big bump.

With all that said, I think it's hard to have a minimum ground clearance for a teardrop trailer. They're just so short. Myself, I wouldn't want the frame lower than 8-10 inches from the ground, and if I was worried about scraping the tongue or the coupler, I'd use a ball mount rise on the tow vehicle.
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Re: Recommended ground clearance

Postby IndyTom » Tue Feb 28, 2017 3:44 pm

Holy Thread Resurrection, Batman!! Talk about an oldie but a goodie!

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Re: Recommended ground clearance

Postby working on it » Tue Feb 28, 2017 4:47 pm

Andrew Herrick wrote:Obviously, there is no one-size-fits-all-answer to ground clearance...- rougher the roads

..... the more ground clearance you'll need.....
This thread seems more concerned with lower, level, and ease of entry; though not stated as such, another clearance issue should address a "minimum angle of approach & departure" for trailers, too. Though mostly of concern to off-roaders, anyone who has scraped a bumper going in or out of a driveway or crossing a large dip in the road has experience with those clearance issues. One poster said he set his overall minimum frame height at 21", for some off-roading. I also have a 21" frame height, soon to be 22"(taller tires), and I did intend to have it this tall, from the start. I did't have the budget (at the time), to buy an axle/spring/tire combination suitable for eventual off-roading, but all my initial designs were headed for that end. The base frame set-up was an 8" tired, motorcycle trailer, that I extended to a 4x8 size, and added 14" wheels (& stronger spindles, bearings, 5-lug hubs) to raise it up higher (+ the advantages of better tires). Longer rear shackles were also included, to help. I set this height for 1) good entry height for me (a little more difficult for the wife), and 2) the aforementioned "approach & departure" angles. While not extreme, they were adequate for what I intended to use the trailer for; more radical angles are used in extreme trails/rock crawler off-road trailers (you've seen the designs: up high in the air, axles with overslung springs, with the rear of the trailer angled up (cutaway).
overslung axle.jpg
overslung axle.jpg (50.23 KiB) Viewed 296 times
(I didn't see the need to do this, nor did I want to lose the storage space). If I had stayed with smaller wheels (not 8", that's far too small IMHO), and with the original frame height (about 11-12", I think), I would scrape the bottom of my trailer entering or exiting my driveway (the dovetail on my carhauler always does). I've had bad experiences enough with bad roads, interstate and secondary, much less with rutted fireroads or whoop-de-doos (a term for rapidly changing road inclines and declines) off-road. When I went with my wife to purchase her "business-only" trailer (for "catastrophy" insurance adjusting work), I pointed out that she might not travel the best roads out there; we bought a trailer with high ground clearance, opposed to one of her co-adjusters, who had a low-clearance trailer (got stuck at times).I guess the choice of how high you want your ground clearance depends on what you want to do with your trailer, and where you intend to take it.
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my trailer 21inch high ground-to-frame clearance.png (263.7 KiB) Viewed 296 times
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