Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I have decided to build the Genric Benroy trailer with a few adjustments. The major tweak in the plan is building the frame. I am going to need a stronger trailer I can put a motorcycle carrier on the rear, or tow another trailer. With all of this additional weight I will be more comfortable with brakes. I will tinker with idea this for a few weeks, then order an axle. Once I figure out the frame, I am going to build the GB almost with no variation from the plans here. I am fairly confident I can have all the wood work done in a weekend, But might take a while to put the finishing touches on.

My goal with this is to make jigs for everything in the build, use the trailer several times to find out what i didnt need, what should be added, then build a permanant trailer.

I am going to start this weekend with figuring a materials/cost list for the frame and go from there.

This is exciting
John in Vegas

tj0llll0 wrote: I am going to need a stronger trailer I can put a motorcycle carrier on the rear, or tow another trailer.

John,

I would not put the motorcycle carrier an the rear vecause if you ever tow the trailer without a motorcycle attached then your tongue weight may exceed your the amount your tow vehicle can handle

That is a valid concern, however, I have decided to build with a sliding axle assembly, and I think that will more than compensate. As far as the bike goes, it is fairly light and between the bike and carrier, it should be under 300#s. The other altenative is to always take 2 bikes and mount one in front.

John in Vegas

tj0llll0 wrote:I have decided to build with a sliding axle assembly,

Do tell - I would be interested to see how you will do this.

Andrew

Im going to do it kind of like the way the axles slide on the big rig trailers, but it wont be a quick and easy slide. I will build a frame that will hold the axle assembly and the frame will sit on top of it. The locking will be from 4 big bolts or pins on the corners of the axle frame. The only question about this working that I have is wether or not the axle will go back far enough to compensate for the weight of the bike.

John in Vegas

Here is my update. I have my frame plans good to go. I have them drawn out (by hand, not to scale) and have decided to wait till around turkey day to get started (My friend who welds better than me will be back in town). I will also get my sketches scanned so you guys can look at them and give opinions.

Just wanted to let anyone who was interested a heads up that I havent disappeared!

John in Vegas

Sliding Axle plan sounds really nice.
Flatbed trailers use a different approach they use air trailers with a spread and a dump valve. By dumping the air in the rear axle everything pivots off front or transfers most of the weight of the trailer to front axle.