Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

After being so inspired by all the nice trailers being built here, it's time for me to get a design set and start building my own. The requirements for the design are: Full Size bed Sleeping Area, ability to use a porta potty at night time, room to haul a motorcycle or some bicycles, high ground clearance for off-road excursions, 1000 lbs dry, under 2000 lbs loaded with a 500 lb motorcycle.

This design has more of a standy/slouchy feel with an over 5' interior to accommodate loading the motorcycle, and for more creature comfort. However, I will be making quite a few compromises to the toyhauler aspect of this make this trailer more off-roadable. The primary goal is to go remote camping in rough country, like Sheeps Canyon in Anza-Borrego, or along the Mojave Road. I also want this trailer to function as a "bug-out-bag" so I can quickly load up my motorcycle, hitch it up to the Jeep and escape out of dodge for a few days.

Tow vehicle is a Jeep Cherokee with a 200/2000 tow rating (without a weight distributing hitch.)

Proposed Spec's:

5x10 trailer size.
Single 3.5K trailer axle - 60 inch hub to hub with 5 on 4.5 bolt pattern (Matches Jeep).
Leaf Spring suspension - probably Jeep Leafs
Shock Absorbers
Trailer Brakes
Parking Brakes
22" Frame Height off the ground to match Jeep
285/75R16 Tires and Wheels to match Jeep
Rear receiver integrated with frame
Rear hatch door to accommodate motorcycle Loading
Main entry door on curbside, small door on roadside to help with motorcycle tie down



Sofa on roadside that converts into full size 54"x75" bed or stores against wall for hauling the motorcycle.
Cabinets on curb side wall
Front cabinets with storage for Porta Potti

This is the basic fame design. The frame will consist of 2 1/2 square 1/4" wall front and rear receiver tubes, 2 x 2, 1/8" wall side rails, and tie into to the main tongue. The rest of the frame will be constructed out of 2 x 2, 1/8" thick angle. According to Solidworks, the frame will weigh ~180 lbs.
Length of the side rails is 114" long, 60" wide at it's widest point, 46" in-between frame rails, and a tongue length of 30"



Any comments? Part of me feels like I should look at cutting a few more pounds out of the frame, but at the same time, I want this frame to take some abuse. I have some concerns about the tongue strength even though what I read seems to say that all is well.

You are barking up the right tree! I have been slammed with requests for a Micro lite trailer so we came up with this.

If I were building this frame, I would add two braces to the tongue to make it an "A" frame. Other than that, it looks good.

My dad has been building trailers for years, and he has only built one trailer that I can remember that did not use at least some type of "A" frame tongue.