Open Utility Trailers
- Thread starter James
- Start date
.... ditto
easy lifting. Especially if he puts a box on back(counter balance).
James
Staff member
I had a Wells Cargo color of my choice, enclosed 14' X 6' "V" nose built for me and delivered. I had them add two side windows that open, a roof vent that opens, two interior lights, a side RV door and my choice of rear door (drop ramp or double swing). All this for 4,700.00, I took out all of the luan and insulated the walls, and ceiling, I will be adding cabinets next, along with "D" ring tie downs, wheel chocks and a fold down bed. Just as soon as I get my kids storage crap out of it. DAM KIDS!
To start off with I'd like to say that you made a pretty good choice there James.
OK now for some analysis.
It all starts with the tow vehicle and James has a somewhat marginal tow vehicle. I don't know all the numbers, but I feel that the first limitation that he will hit has to do with the tongue weight. Let's look at some of the numbers. His vehicle has a max trailer weight of 3500 pounds. With that trailer being a single axle that I'm guessing is without brakes the max rating on the trailer is likely 2990. Why? Well the single axle is usually 3500 pounds, but over 3000 and you must have trailer brakes. The empty weight should be right around 1000.
Those numbers look pretty good. You could put 4 bikes on the trailer and the trailer weight would only be about 2000 pounds. Hey that's great you think. It's 1500 pounds under the max, right. Well not exactly. You have to keep looking at the the numbers. I'll make the assumption that 4 people will be going along with the four bikes. Now things get ugly.
It's not just the bike. I'll start with James sized numbers the numbers get really bad for people of my kind of weight.. I will allocate 500 pounds per rider. That's 250 for the bike on the trailer and 250 for the rider plus his gear. We can break this up as 175 for the rider and 75 of stuff. So now we can add it up. The tow vehicle gets four people @175 each for a total of 700 pounds. I believe that the max payload is only 975 for James's tow vehicle. That leaves only 275 for the tongue weight. This might be achievable if you are very very careful with loading the trailer. This also means absolutely nothing but people in the vehicle and everything else in the trailer.
With three people it's a lot better. There is now 450 pounds of excess capacity for tongue weight any payload. Hey you might even be able to put a some stuff, like gear bags, in the vehicle. However, you still need to watch the weights even with three. With only two things become a lot easier.
One of my friends has a similar trailer. He found that putting the bikes all the way forward made for a lot of tongue weight. He ended up placing a wood beam across just behind the first vertical rail brace. That made for a nice front spot for gas cans and other stuff. You might need to push the bikes further aft if you ever plan on three riders. You really will need the bikes relatively close to centered over the axle.
Why are trailers always so darn complicated...
OK now for some analysis.
It all starts with the tow vehicle and James has a somewhat marginal tow vehicle. I don't know all the numbers, but I feel that the first limitation that he will hit has to do with the tongue weight. Let's look at some of the numbers. His vehicle has a max trailer weight of 3500 pounds. With that trailer being a single axle that I'm guessing is without brakes the max rating on the trailer is likely 2990. Why? Well the single axle is usually 3500 pounds, but over 3000 and you must have trailer brakes. The empty weight should be right around 1000.
Those numbers look pretty good. You could put 4 bikes on the trailer and the trailer weight would only be about 2000 pounds. Hey that's great you think. It's 1500 pounds under the max, right. Well not exactly. You have to keep looking at the the numbers. I'll make the assumption that 4 people will be going along with the four bikes. Now things get ugly.
It's not just the bike. I'll start with James sized numbers the numbers get really bad for people of my kind of weight.. I will allocate 500 pounds per rider. That's 250 for the bike on the trailer and 250 for the rider plus his gear. We can break this up as 175 for the rider and 75 of stuff. So now we can add it up. The tow vehicle gets four people @175 each for a total of 700 pounds. I believe that the max payload is only 975 for James's tow vehicle. That leaves only 275 for the tongue weight. This might be achievable if you are very very careful with loading the trailer. This also means absolutely nothing but people in the vehicle and everything else in the trailer.
With three people it's a lot better. There is now 450 pounds of excess capacity for tongue weight any payload. Hey you might even be able to put a some stuff, like gear bags, in the vehicle. However, you still need to watch the weights even with three. With only two things become a lot easier.
One of my friends has a similar trailer. He found that putting the bikes all the way forward made for a lot of tongue weight. He ended up placing a wood beam across just behind the first vertical rail brace. That made for a nice front spot for gas cans and other stuff. You might need to push the bikes further aft if you ever plan on three riders. You really will need the bikes relatively close to centered over the axle.
Why are trailers always so darn complicated...
Now, this will sound hillbilly BUT-
If you have a big full gear box on the back it will lower the tongue weight because(again), it's a counter balance. If anyone on here has seen TT'ers Smacaroni's rig, he had I think a pontiac sunfire pulling a loaded trailer and it's springs weren't maxed even though it should have been because he had a small(150 or less) pound bike hanging pretty far off the back of the trailer counterbalancing.
If you have a big full gear box on the back it will lower the tongue weight because(again), it's a counter balance. If anyone on here has seen TT'ers Smacaroni's rig, he had I think a pontiac sunfire pulling a loaded trailer and it's springs weren't maxed even though it should have been because he had a small(150 or less) pound bike hanging pretty far off the back of the trailer counterbalancing.