Educate me on Trailers

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by ebarker

A critical dimension is the height of the door frame, which is less than the interior height.

We have a rather modest trailer (purchased at a rather modest price) that barely fits everything we need it to, and the door is sufficiently short that we have to tilt a 5' robot to fit it inside. I would not make the same mistake again!

[Phyrxes]

We just purchased a Homestead brand trailer from a local dealer this year.

6'x10' Single Axle (No Brakes) and it uses a 2" ball so it can be towed by most SUV's, Trucks, or Vans.

We elected to get the rear ramp and the side door. The only other major option was we elected to go with the taller height so we could load a max height robot on a movers dolly without tipping it. This makes the trailer about 7'6" tall and consequently is about as much pain to park as a box truck when it comes to parking decks.

The school district bought it so it has local government plates as well.

[Chris Fultz]

A 6 x 14 tandem trailer is probably 2500 pounds empty. You will easily get it close to 5000 pounds with room for that much stuff.

I would be worried about the Ranger, and that is about the tow limit for the Ridgeline. Check the vehicle ratings and be sure you are not going to exceed tongue weight or total towing weight.

The rubber suspension is nice. We have that on our trailer. Smooth ride.

The front tongue is a great place for the spare because it is easy to get to.

Surge brakes are good and are very common. They are reliable and only need a connection to the back-up circuit on the tow vehicle to lock them out when you back up, so it is minimal impact to the vehicle wiring.

[ebarker]

I agree with Chris. You start throwing stuff in the trailer and next thing you know you have a gross weight over 5K.

A Ridgeline really limits your options. A Ranger max's out at no more than 6K.

You also need to think about your trip length. Are you driving coast to coast or just scooting around town ? What is your top extended speed, what is your terrain.

In addition of weight, weight you have to start and then stop, you are also dragging a giant parachute behind you. Weight and the giant parachute adds up to stress on the drivetrain.

I've seen people take their minivan and put a hitch on it, drag a big trailer a thousand miles and cook their transmission to the tune of $ 5,000. Money that could have been used to get a better vehicle and / or trailer.

In a few weeks when we go to St. Louis I've got to pull the rig over the Appalachians. We have an max ascent / decent of a couple of thousand feet and a max grade of 4%. After that it is downhill and flat all the way to the Mississippi.

We do about 2 dozen events a year. A 7x14 would be nice but a 6x12 is nimble and navigates the urban jungle and rural jungle well also. We do not carry a machine shop in the trailer.

Ed

[rsisk]

couple things I noticed that are different from our trailer that I think are important.

Ours is lined with wood, helps protect the skin of the trailer from damage from the inside.

We have a couple vents on the roof that let in light and let out hot air (important in SoCal)

The roof of our trailer is curved giving it a bit more strength.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by ebarker

In addition of weight, weight you have to start and then stop, you are also dragging a giant parachute behind you. Weight and the giant parachute adds up to stress on the drivetrain.

Not to mention the increase in fuel use....my wife's 08 Silverado with the V6 engine gets 21 mpg, but I've knocked that down to 10 by hauling something huge on a trailer behind it.

[FrankJ]

Take at look at what you are really going to be hauling. If you go the minimalist route you can use a smaller trailer. More options on tow vehicles at least for local travel. If you go with the monsters you are limited yourself to something with a heavy duty tow package with the weight & brakes to safely pull it.

[sanddrag]

The Ranger is rated tow up to 5,600 lbs. Not sure on the Ridgeline.

We towed a 6x12 tandem axle U-Haul with the Ridgeline loaded with all our stuff for competition with no problem.

I'm thinking A 6x14 tandem axle would be about 2200-2400 lbs empty, and we'd have at most about 1500 lbs of stuff in it. I'm inclined to think we would be okay. Most trips would be local, but we've tossed around the idea of hauling it out to IRI, or Cal Games, etc.

I just don't want to get too small of a trailer and regret it. (but I guess the same can be said for too big of a trailer).

Does a rounded off "nose cone" make a lot of difference? Do we need that?

Also, I'm interested more about comment regarding lining the interior to protect damage to the exterior from the inside. This crossed my mind, as I believe the walls of the trailer are something like .030" aluminum right? If something got banged into that on the inside, I'm assuming you'd get a dent from the inside out right?

[Chris Fultz]

Ours has plywood inside walls, studs and then the exterior aluminum shell.

You want to have an inside lining of some type.

And I think you will quickly hit 1500 pounds. Robot and batteries will get you to 500 quickly.

[Alex Cormier]

Yup, as Richard has stated above, we would love to be the company that would do the trailer graphics. We feel strongly about keeping the love and business within the robotics community and price accordingly. We are reasonable in pricing with a quality that exceeds expectations every time. If you would like to talk more about pricing and see photos of our work, please email me at Alex@TwoPencilDesigns.com.

Good Luck with your trailer hunting!

[Phyrxes]

Depending on the manufacturer of the trailer it may either have a "rounded nose" or a "wedge nose" or some other shape for aerodynamic reasons.

One other trailer design you may wish to compare is how it is vented as some of them are more vulnerable to leaking and damage contents.

[ebarker]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

We towed a 6x12 tandem axle U-Haul with the Ridgeline loaded with all our stuff for competition with no problem.

Scooting around town is probably no biggie in your neighborhood. Dragging it across the Mohave Desert mid-summer at 70mph could be another deal altogether.

The Ranger is probably fine no matter what. The Ridgeline I'm a little skeptical of. Mainly no experience with that one.

I'm not saying it doesn't happen but generally the walls interior walls are plywood. You don't want to touch the outer skin from the inside. 0.030 aluminum.

ditto on the roof. The arch shape is more for water runoff than anything.

There is a reason they build them like this

Even though mine is a Toyota Crewmax extended with 10,800 towing capacity.

We are going to Raleigh next week. I think I might go across a truck stop scale and get our gross weight.

[Mr V]

If you go with the diamond plate floor make sure it has a durable no-skid coating applied.

The Ranger will pull it fine if it's got the 3.73 gears (common on the 4wd) and stock size tires.

The Ridgeline, if it pulls it very often, hope you have the extended warranty to pay for those transmissions it will go through.

The Dodge won't even know it's there and it's MPG won't be cut in half or more like the other two, meaning it will use less fuel than the others.

[FrankJ]

Originally Posted by Mr V

If you go with the diamond plate floor make sure it has a durable no-skid coating applied.

The Dodge won't even know it's there and it's MPG won't be cut in half or more like the other two, meaning it will use less fuel than the others.

Is that because the Dodge's gas mileage is already half of the other 2

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by FrankJ

Is that because the Dodge's gas mileage is already half of the other 2

Empty it should get about the same to 90% of the MPG of the other two, (though you will pay up to 20% more for fuel depending on where you live). The Diesel will only loose about 10-15% of it's MPG towing that "small" of a trailer while the other two will loose near 50% towing that "large" of a trailer (note both must be kept out of OD with that load).

I'm not a Dodge nor a diesel fan BTW, just stating the facts of Diesel vs Gas.