trailer hitch and bumpers

[Luis28]

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how far should the trailer hitch be away from the bumpers

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Luis28

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how far should the trailer hitch be away from the bumpers

The trailer hitch must be on the bumper perimeter. Other than that, the only rule is that the trailer must hit bumper-to-bumper rather than trailer tongue-to-bumper. How far that needs to be depends on your specific design. See <R18> for full details.

[GaryVoshol]

As someone has recently answered you, see <R18-E>

[Russ Beavis]

This should be an easy trigonometry problem for someone to work on. Nearly every robot will have its Trailer Hitch mounted to a long, straight section since every corner must have 6"+ bumpers on both sides.

With a 7" wide Trailer Hitch mounted on a straight section with nearby 3.5" bumpers (backing + noodles), someone should be able to calculate the required distance from the Hitch to the nearest bumper to avoid tongue-bumper contact.

Let us know what you get for an answer.

Russ

[Luis28]

can they touch the bumpers

[Russ Beavis]

I think that the trailer's tongue will touch the bumper first if they're butting. That's a no-no.

Inspectors will almost certainly be attaching a trailer to your robot and swinging it side-to-side to ensure bumper-to-bumper contact (although if the magic answer is, for example, that a 3" gap from the hitch to the nearest bumper is required, we might just use a tape measure instead).

Russ