Have you ever thought about truss structures for the main beams of a trailer? Trusses have some really nice advantages for stiffness and lightweight – mostly when the beams get long. They also come with a few disadvantages that are worth talking about.
Articles > Adventures
These are stories and thoughts including Do-it-Yourself adventures. Some success stories, some humorous, and some stories of disaster. We learn from them all. If you have a contribution, we’d love to hear it. Enjoy These Adventures! – See all the Mechanic’s Posts here.
Easy Way To Extend A Trailer Tongue?
Is there an easy way to extend a trailer tongue? This may seem like an odd question, yet it has come up many times. While the question seems simple and direct, there are actually a lot of pieces to give a good answer. If you are ready, we can dive into a few variations
Mixing Trailer Brakes For Tandem Axles
For most people trailer brakes are just part of the trailer – something we hook up and expect to work. That is great most of the time. However, for those who want to dig a little deeper, especially with tandem axle brakes, there is a whole world of things to consider
What Is Wrong? Tiny Home Trailer Video
This topic comes from a custom trailer builder we work with. He asked: “Will you please look at this tiny home trailer video? I have a customer that wants me to build one like this – with insulation cavities and 1/2″ anchor bolts. They want a triple
Aluminum Trailer Tongue Break – Ouch !!
What is the first thing you think when looking at this image? “Oh My !! That’s Awful.” – was my thought. According to the driver, “thankfully it didn’t happen when I was on the highway ten minutes prior.” This catastrophic tongue break
Building An Offroad Trailer From Non-Offroad Plans
A good question from some of our customers: “I want to build an offroad trailer, but I can’t seem to find the right trailer plans to build it. Is it better to buy the 4 x 6.5 – 2500# – Off-Road Trailer Plans, then enlarge it, or to buy one of the other trailers and beef it up?“
Concepts Of Trailer Air Suspension
If you are looking for something a little different in trailer suspension, one good approach is air. It is a little off the beaten path, but not too far, and there is a lot of support for doing it. For a smooth riding trailer suspension, air can do it, but there are
Rigid Mount – Trailer Axle Without Suspension?
What happens if you hard mount an axle on your trailer – without a suspension? The question has come up a few times, and it is worth talking about. There are some distinct advantages of eliminating the suspension, but there are also some pitfalls.
National Association of Trailer Manufacturers – Oops?
I really thought I was done with posts about safety chains. We have several of them on the site, but I found a video that begs for comment. I really like the video and subject matter – from the Compliance Director of the National Association of Trailer Manufacturers
NATM Answers : Are You Trailer Safety Aware?
What do you see wrong with the way the safety chains and other trailer safety equipment are set-up in the image? That’s the question we asked in the previous article. The image is a screenshot of a YouTube video by NATM, the National Association of Trailer Manufacturers.