Thread: how's my tongue look to you?

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I am building a trailer to pull behind the Willys to haul the little Willys and other gear. These pics show the progress so far. The only thing I am wondering is whether the tongue looks too "flimsy" for the bulk of the trailer. I am not worried about strength because of the wall thickness and the gross weight, it just somehow doesn't look right.
What do you think if I ran 2 more 1" bars to triangulate it farther forward? Or 4 bars top, bottom, sides, or is that getting too far into the supsenion bridge look ?
John

When I saw the title I thought you were seeking a medical opinion.

It is strong enough, but for cosmetics you might want to make it look more substantial. I would take some flat stock and make a triangular gusset on each side and punch it full of lightning holes to give it that racey look like the rest of your car. You could taper the plates to extend out maybe 8 inches or so forward. Once painted the same as the tongue it would look pretty good IMO.

Nice trailer idea.

Don

Also, if you mounted a small moon tank up front you could actually carry some spare gas just in case. (or your favorite brew )

Don

"I would take some flat stock and make a triangular gusset on each side and punch it full of lightning holes to give it that racey look like the rest of your car. You could taper the plates to extend out maybe 8 inches or so forward."

Don,
Are you talking about an 8" x 8" (approx) triangular gussett ,with holes, from the exisiting side tubes up to the main tube? or are you talking like a piece of 1/4 x 3 flat with holes angled from the existing side tubes into the main tube 8" forward of all the tube connections?

John

Don,
I thought the "tongue" thing would engender some interest.

I am not sure I like the whole concept of using the front end as a trailer. Most of these trailers are made to look like ther rear of the car, but I had the extra front end and didn't want it to go to waste. Notice that I used small wheels ? I couldn't use the existing wheel openings because that would bring the axle too far forward. Well, I could have, but then I would have had to build a flat bed and slide the front end towards the back and have all of the flat space in front of the nose. I thought about it but decided it would look even more strange that doing it this way. Although, I am not adverse to chopping the whole thing up and startaing over.

John

Well there's sterngth and then there's deflection. If there is too much deflection it could get squirrely on you going down the road and have fatigue issues. What's the tongue weight going to be? Make sure it is pointing down to the ball and not up; that will also mke it tow squirrely.

You certainly have some cool stuff!

Kitz

Kitz,

You got a good point there.
Trailer and car are dead level in static position.
I did a little test and hung 250# on the hitch and measured < 1/4" deflection from the front frame beam. Tongue weight should be around 50-75# fully loaded. trailer empty wieghs 195#, which gives me 500#+ for load capacity. I am using .187 wall 1 3/4" MS tubing for the tongue and 2 x 2 x .120 for the main frame. tongue goes through the front frame member and welds to the rear frame member. It certainly couldn't hurt to add some lateral braces all the way to the hitch to make it a full "y".
John

Originally Posted by 41willys

"I would take some flat stock and make a triangular gusset on each side and punch it full of lightning holes to give it that racey look like the rest of your car. You could taper the plates to extend out maybe 8 inches or so forward."

Don,
Are you talking about an 8" x 8" (approx) triangular gussett ,with holes, from the exisiting side tubes up to the main tube? or are you talking like a piece of 1/4 x 3 flat with holes angled from the existing side tubes into the main tube 8" forward of all the tube connections?

John

No, I would just make two triangular shaped plates, looking at your pictures maybe 4 wide and 6-8 inches long (whatever will fit from the side tubes to fill the gap on either side, and run up along the main tongue tube.)

If you look at this picture they would go from the cross tubes forward slightly.

Don

If I had one of those fancy programs I could circle the area for you.

Don,

Yeah, now I got you. that would be simple to add. I like your idea of the moon tank too. How would you mount it?

I don't see a need for more bracing, unless you do it for looks, you said that the wheels are centered front to back. If the tongue bends it's going to bend between the hitch and the front brace, not between the the front brace and the axle (I can't see how it's put together behind the clip though), longer the tongue, the weaker. If it bends easily, then you need a stronger tongue (not always a bigger od), not more bracing.
Your not hauling a motor or tranny in it (Which I think you could if needed to), just coolers, clothes, lawn chairs, food, beer, etc, and a heavy glass front clip, with rotating/high weight
I like the tank on the front idea.

My .02 worth!

Pat

I took your advice and added braces to the tongue. what do you think now?
While I am asking questions, what do you think I ought to do to the inside? Paint, bedliner, raw? I think I want to put black and white checkerboard tile on the floor.
John

If you want the B/W checker look for the inside floor maybe look into those snap together garage floor tiles? I'm pretty sure they make smaller ones that might fit the bill? Very cool trailer BTW...

G.