Weight of Trailers

[Retired Starman]

I checked the tongue weight this morning on a trailer built to FIRST competition specifications. I found it to be a little over 5 pounds with the trailer leveled, the way it should be during competition. I think this is a good figure for teams to use.

BetsySpike,

If you built your trailer to competition specifiations rather than team-built specifications and you came out over 40 pounds, we need to talk. Is your trailer built to FIRST specs for the team-built trailer (plywood) or did you use the competition-built trailer (Alumalite and Coroplast)?

The official field elements will be constructed according to plans found here:

http://usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=11624

Specifically, look for "Payload Trailer Assembly" Drawing GE-09000. It will refer you to 33 pages of prints to build an official trailer. The ones I built could be used in competition.

There are several differences in the Team-Built (TB) and Competition-Built (CB) trailers that affect the weight.
1. Top and bottom of the TB are plywood as opposed to Alumalite in the CB Trailer.
2. Bumper backs are plywood in the TB and Coroplast in the CB Trailer.
3. Bumper mounts and wheel mounts are wood in the TB trailer, aluminum brackets in the CB trailer.
4. Tongue is a piece of conduit in the TB trailer, steel pin machined to turn in the end of a square aluminum tube for the CB Trailer.
5. Target is an 8 in. diameter HDPE tube in the CB trailer as opposed to a plywood semi-tube for the TB trailer.

Built to Competition Specifications, the trailer comes out about 35 pounds.

Retired Starman
Mentor, Team 1648