Strange trailer design

[reelfishin]

Came across an odd trailer the other day, it uses two axles, four wheels and only two very heavy leaf springs. The wheels are only 8' but are 8 ply tires. Other than some peeling paint and a few rust spots, it's not in bad shape at all.
I am curious as to how old and who made it? I've had some odd, older trailers but this one is the first with this style suspension. It had a 20' boat on it. Its also a tilt trailer with a detachable tongue which can be removed and replaced with a wheel under the bow area so as to be kept in a garage. You pull a quick release pin, looks about like a trailer hitch pin, pull the tongue and winch stand and insert an 8" swivel wheel that doubles as a spare wheel and spindle. It stores on the winch stand when no in use.
All hardware is stainless steel, it has double keel rollers at every cross member and it was wired with stainless steel wire. It also had a stainless steel common ground run all around the trailer frame made of braided stainless cable which grounded each light. The stop turn and tail light wires were insulated with braided cloth wrap and it has Bakelite insulated wire stands all around the frame. The wire harness separates at the tongue so the tongue can easily be removed.

It's missing a pair of dust caps on the hubs, but so far I've not been able to match them. They are just slightly smaller than the common 1.98" cap but larger than 1.78" caps. I will most likely have to take a sample to the auto parts store to find a match. The spindles are 3/4" outer and 1 1/4" inner diameter, which I thought a bit odd, as is the odd 4 bolt lug pattern with a 3 3/4" bolt circle. The tires look brand new condition wise but appear to be an older tire. I can't recall when BF Goodrich last made a saw tooth trailer tire, let alone a trailer tire. They appear to be from the early 60's or so. All 5 tires are in mint condition with no cracks.
The trailer was found in an old warehouse and was last registered in 1965.

Here's a few pics:

http://i36.tinypic.com/x6d86.jpg

http://i33.tinypic.com/8x78nb.jpg

http://i37.tinypic.com/6h0nzc.jpg

http://i36.tinypic.com/nvvacl.jpg

 

[Bass Man Bruce]

Re: Strange trailer design

It kinda looks homemade to me.
Don't know how you would find it's weight limit.
Doesn't really look like a bad job however, but??????

 

[T S N]

Re: Strange trailer design

Looks like a nice strong trailer.
I wonder if you can get antique license plates for it.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Strange trailer design

It's actually made of pretty light gauge metal, but the way they rolled it into partial tubes makes it work well. The frame has a lot of torsional flex corner to corner but I suppose that adds to what makes it work so well.
The tongue and bow stop are made or heavy gauge steel. By looking at the springs and judging by the size of the boat that was on it, and how it held that boat, I'd say the springs are good for at least 3500 lbs total, but the tires are its real limitation, but even with only 8" wheels and tires, they have to be good for at least 750lbs per tire or so.

It's not home made, there's too many production type features that would be impossible to make without some serious tooling. The frame tubes are rolled or formed into semi closed C channels, the cross members are stamped U shaped channel, and the springs are mounted to a pair of machined stainless pivots with grease fittings. The axles have machined slots and bolt holes to bolt to the ends of the springs with rubber bushings. Each bow roller is a stamped form made to hold two 8" rollers, all shafts are stainless steel. The cross members have stainless studs attached to carriage bolt type clips in which each bunk stand is clamped on with. The tail lights are steel, with studded brass connections on the rear. The light housings are cast aluminum, the lenses appear to be glass. The axles themselves are solid 1 1/2" bar stock with welded spindles with large rectangular brake flanges. I have no idea what type of brakes would bolt to such a flange.

What strikes me as odd is the suspension, but as strange as it is, it works great. It sounds like a ton of scrap going down the road though with all the moving parts and rollers rattling. The bunk rollers are hard as stone. I'll have to either find new rollers or swap out the bunk strips. It may sit too low for my liking to use as an everyday trailer, and it's no galvanized. It would make a great transport trailer for projects since it can be adjusted so easily.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Strange trailer design

my concern is what keeps the axles in line. looks like the have a lot of confidence, in that one mounting bolt, on each side.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Strange trailer design

my concern is what keeps the axles in line. looks like the have a lot of confidence, in that one mounting bolt, on each side.

Each axle has a heavy slot welded to it in which the spring leaf fits snuggly into. The bolt just keeps the spring from sliding out.
The boat that was on it was pretty heavy, a 20' cruiser with a stern drive. I took the upper spring pivot apart to check what I expected to be a bushing and found needle bearings instead. The upper spring pivot is a casting with a bearing pivot and double grease fittings.

The neatest feature is how the wheels always maintain equal weight distribution with this design. It acts like a single axle trailer when unhooked from the truck, the weight pivots over the springs making the tandem assembly act as a single unit. The weight is always centered over the springs no matter how the boat is loaded. The entire suspension can be removed by removing both upper spring pivot bolts. The pivot bolts are 3/4" in diameter.
The bolts at the end of each spring are 5/8" carriage style bolts, (they look like automotive wheel studs with a reduced thread size).

 

[The-Machinist]

Re: Strange trailer design

Kinda reminds me of tho old "camel back" suspension system found on old Mack trucks. Cant say about your trailer, but the Mack setup is a legendary system.

 

[Shizzy]

Re: Strange trailer design

As long as everything looks to be built right I dont see a problem with it. I would however be tempted to add a panhard bar to each axle to limit side to side movement.

http://www.timskelton.com/lightning/race_prep/suspension/panhard.htm

 

[Maclin]

Re: Strange trailer design

It looks like to me that the current tongue is a mod to the original design. In the pic numbered 137 the terminations on the outside rails look out of place, like they used to go all the way to the tongue itself. Also looks like the paint is fresher or not as faded or something on the new long tongue pieces, could just be the light. Also the bracing on the winch/bow stop does not quite fit the original workmanship as far as design and beefiness of the components. That is a strong looking trailer from the first cross rail on back though.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Strange trailer design

It looks like to me that the current tongue is a mod to the original design. In the pic numbered 137 the terminations on the outside rails look out of place, like they used to go all the way to the tongue itself. Also looks like the paint is fresher or not as faded or something on the new long tongue pieces, could just be the light. Also the bracing on the winch/bow stop does not quite fit the original workmanship as far as design and beefiness of the components. That is a strong looking trailer from the first cross rail on back though.

The tongue looks original to me, the two rails are terminated with a folded over and stitch welded flap of the outer side. There is a built into the leading end tilt latch that is made as part of that end structure. When the tongue is removed, the rear section has a wheel that inserts into the same pivot as does the tongue. Thus leaving the boat on a rollable platform and able to fit into most garages. The bow stop holds the wheel which also functions as a top cap.

The whole trailer is sprayed in what appears to be either gray paint of maybe spray on cold galvanizing paint. The original color appears to have been white with blue fenders. The fenders are also quite heavy, they have 5 supports and are made of very heavy gauge steel. They would more than double as steps to get into the boat, even for a guy my size.

The two tail lights have hard rubber housings, are made by Peterson, and have three screw lenses about 4" in diameter. All contacts are brass and the bulb contact spring is stainless steel.
It had a winch with two speeds and a manual clutch handle.

The tongue tube itself may have been replaced with a longer one, maybe to handle a longer boat. The trailer appears a good bit older than the boat that was on it. It is the same diameter though as the original as it fits into the channel in the main frame. The tilt latch resembles a door knob latch and requires two hands to release it.

If nothing else, with the tongue removed, and he pivot wheel installed, it makes a great rolling platform on which to work on and maneuver a boat around the shop. The tongue probably weighs well over 150lbs, I'd venture to guess that the main frame is under 250 not counting the running gear. It's also a very narrow trailer by todays standards. Its as narrow or narrower than most jon boat type trailers. The main frame is only about 40" wide. The boat that was on it sat very high up above the fenders but it was a very deep V hull.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Strange trailer design

Kinda reminds me of tho old "camel back" suspension system found on old Mack trucks. Cant say about your trailer, but the Mack setup is a legendary system.

Good call, it didn't sink in at first, but your right on with that. I suppose thats what they copied when they built this, only a lot lighter duty.

The springs solely retain the axles and there is no lateral movement. Both springs have a needle bearing bushing on which they pivot, the combination of both the left and right bushings make it quite rigid.
What it does do is make the entire suspension system act more independent than if it were a conventional trailer.
The trailer can tilt all the way back till it hits the ground and all 4 wheels stay firmly planted on the ground and still evenly loaded.

The frame is made of fairly light steel, more or less just stamped sheet metal. The number of cross members makes up for it's light gage. The way its rolled on the edges makes it strong. The tongue extends nearly to the first axle, and there's a bronze bushing pressed into the tongue, and two steel wear washers on each side. The tongue is heavier steel, but it don't look any newer, just cleaner since it was stored in the boat all these years. They had the swivel wheel on it and the tongue removed so that it was movable where it was stored all these years. (It was sitting in a warehouse since the mid 60's).

What got me the most was that I've been dealing with boats my whole life, and have never seen another like it, and I've had some odd ball trailers over the years.

One thing that made me wonder why they did this was that a single axle would have been simpler and just as strong, the only advantage I see was to use four small tires to keep it low.
I considered swapping the 8" wheels for 12" wheels but I think they would hit the fenders when the trailer is tilted on on a steep incline or ramp.
(The entire axle carriage moves as one, while the fenders stay put).

I gave some thought to the possibility that the frame was cut and that someone added the tilt option but what throws that idea out the window is how the tilt latch is made into the first crossmember and the heavier tubing which lines the upper center rail in which the tongue seats up into.
I would say there's a chance that someone made it longer with a new tongue, but they went through a lot of trouble to make the hinge area on the new tongue. The whole trailer is sprayed with what almost looks like gray primer, but its a heavier coating. The tongue is the same but just not as dusty since it was covered up in the boat.

I loaded a boat on it the other day, it's real pain to load on dry land since the cross members are so close together, its impossible to get a jack in between each frame section to work the trailer back under the boat. We ended up just chocking the wheels and manually sliding the boat onto the trailer. We put a 1500 lb boat on it, which it handled just fine.

I think my biggest concern if I were to use this on a regular basis is the small wheels, I never liked those tiny trailer wheels, they turn too fast at road speed.