Axles, Angles & Approach

[truckasaurus]

I've been giving more thought to which axles and what frame I'll go with on the 33'er and I got a bit sidetracked thinking about approach angles. I kind of assumed that longer trailers had their chassis higher off the ground to maintain a decent approach angle, but now I'm not sure.

I did a napkin sketch of a 4" chassis with an additional 4" channel below it like my trailer, added a 45 degree Axis axle ( 4000 lbs style) and 16" tires (225-75 16's) and it looked like at maximum compression the tire would be less than 4" above the top of the chassis. I kind of wanted to see if the current trailers had floors at the same heights across the range of sizes and how they compared to vintage floor heights if possible.

One the one hand I'd like a low and sleek racing trailer perfect for the slalom and on the other I don't want to end up beached like a whale at a Provincial camp site, a happy medium would be doable. The question is how high is too high, I mean 4" wheel wells are dangerously close to a flat deck scenario which would be very nice for the interior layout :-)

[Inland RV Center, In]

Originally Posted by truckasaurus

I've been giving more thought to which axles and what frame I'll go with on the 33'er and I got a bit sidetracked thinking about approach angles. I kind of assumed that longer trailers had their chassis higher off the ground to maintain a decent approach angle, but now I'm not sure.

I did a napkin sketch of a 4" chassis with an additional 4" channel below it like my trailer, added a 45 degree Axis axle ( 4000 lbs style) and 16" tires (225-75 16's) and it looked like at maximum compression the tire would be less than 4" above the top of the chassis. I kind of wanted to see if the current trailers had floors at the same heights across the range of sizes and how they compared to vintage floor heights if possible.

One the one hand I'd like a low and sleek racing trailer perfect for the slalom and on the other I don't want to end up beached like a whale at a Provincial camp site, a happy medium would be doable. The question is how high is too high, I mean 4" wheel wells are dangerously close to a flat deck scenario which would be very nice for the interior layout :-)

I would suggest that you not have a starting angle greater then 35 degrees.

A 45 degree starting angle, will punish the trailer.

Andy

[truckasaurus]

Thanks Andy.