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
Best Practices
Where Is The Weight In Your Trailer?
What’s the big deal with Weight in my Trailer? Isn’t Weight just Weight? Yes, I know about tongue weight, but the trailer is made to carry weight. So, if I’m below the specified weight ratings, what does it matter? If you’ve ever felt this way,
Building An Offroad Trailer From Non-Offroad Plans
A good question from some of our customers: “I really want 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” and enlarge it, or to buy one of the other trailers and beef it up?“
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. This is a good organization because they … Read The Article
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.
What Is The Best Trailer Security?
How many trailers are stolen each year? That’s a question worth pondering, because if you put a lot of sweat and love into building a great trailer . . . . if it disappears, it’s heartbreaking. We don’t like to think about such things, but it puts trailer security
Improving Trailer Safety Chain Connections
We often joke about safety — Yup, Safety 3rd. While it’s fun to joke, there are a few things we do get quite serious about. How to attach trailer safety chains is one. Today we’re looking at connecting chains on the trailer tongue, so the chain is the right length.
Adjustable Ball Mount – Practical Considerations
While studying adjustable ball mount styles I noticed nearly all have a stationary rack and a floating attachment. Have you noticed that too? It’s a pretty important detail when we look at which one to choose.
Trailer Design – Meeting Your Goals
It looks easy. Trailer design is not like building a rocket, but it’s also not as easy as putting a few pieces of metal together. Good trailer design includes meeting goals and ending up with something that will tow well, and perform to your needs.
Building A Trailer – Critical Things To Get Right
There are a lot of little details that go into a trailer building project. Some big, some small. Overall, it’s not hard, yet, when we think about the really important things that make a trailer perform well, the list is pretty short. Give just a little extra
Tips To Set A Trailer Tongue At The Frame Center
When building a trailer, there are a bunch of things we want to get right. Here is one. “How To set a trailer tongue properly, and central on the frame“. Intrinsically this is easy to grasp, but maybe not as easy to accomplish. Here are some tricks
Improve Fuel Economy When Towing
Gas prices are up. Diesel prices are even higher. Since I don’t see those prices changing soon, maybe I can DIY some things to help. Is there any way to improve fuel economy when I’m pulling my trailer?
The Concept of “Strong Enough”
I’m not sure how to categorize this Article. It’s an answer, but more than that. We get questions once in a while something like “My trailer is X long and I want to haul a Y. Is 3 inch angle iron strong enough?”
Are Your Trailer Plans Certified?
This is a great question we get a lot, in many variations. Are your plans DOT approved? Are the plans Stamped? We think it’s great to know the level of plans you get when you buy, so asking about certified plans is a great place to start. However, this question
When Does My Trailer Need Brakes?
There are laws that say when a trailer must have brakes. In most places within the USA, when the trailer total capacity is over 3000 lbs, trailer brakes are required. That’s all well and good, but we all know that laws are an ignorant way of covering the least
Trailer Hitch Class Ratings
As a convenient way to help with safety, trailer hitches, balls, and receivers have categories or load rating groups called classes. Each trailer hitch class has ratings for how much it will carry. A look at the ratings for each component
Trailer Sway – Video Review & Discussion
Understanding Trailer Dynamics like Sway is a really important. If you look for it, there are many articles and some great YouTube videos discussing and demonstrating the many factors and issues.
I-Beam Shape Choices: I, S, W, M or H?
When is an I-Beam not really an “I” Beam? While it’s common to use the generic term “I-Beam” for any beam with an I shape section, there are actually variations with different letter designations. And, there are advantages for the various shapes
Bent Tongue — Judging A Weak Trailer
When buying a trailer, how can we decide if it’s well built, or just cheap? How do you know if it’s strong or weak? While there are always tale-tale signs, we’ll use this example of a trailer with a bent tongue to illustrate.
Why Special Order Axles?
“Some of your Trailer Plans don’t use a standard axle size. Why not?” Good question, along with the also very common “Why should I special order the trailer axle? Why don’t you design for off-the-shelf axle sizes?”
There are a few common-ish axle sizes