Seen on Craigslist

joshuabardwell · Jul 17, 2012

Axle placement? What axle placement?

Am I missing something, or is this a really unsafe trailer?

Diamondpilot · Jul 17, 2012

That is a self unloader. Very rare and not sought after. Just undo the coupler and she will fall flat on her rear end and the load will slide right out. That is if you make it home without killing yourself first pulling that death trap.

Chris

Travelover · Jul 17, 2012

It looks like it was built right and some genius extended it.

Adiredneck · Jul 17, 2012

You know, I consider my dad to be a pretty crafty guy, but when he welded up his firewood trailer, it had the axle about 4" ahead of the center of the trailer. A few years back, I gave him a 2000 lb dexter axle, and convinced him to move it back. The first load of wood he did,he was amazed at how much better the tractor pulled it out of the wood lot. For the previous 10 years or so, it had been lifting up the back of the tractor so much that he could not pull it with the 8n when it was loaded.

kebo · Jul 17, 2012

Travelover said:
It looks like it was built right and some genius extended it.

I bet that trailer makes the truck wobble from side to side all the way down the road, especially if it has any weight behind the axle.

joshuabardwell · Jul 18, 2012

Travelover said:
It looks like it was built right and some genius extended it.

Good eye! I didn't notice that. This guy has several homemade trailers for sale on CL.

EDIT: here they are, while it lasts.

http://knoxville.craigslist.org/grd/3145515355.html
http://knoxville.craigslist.org/grd/3145512900.html

Oh! It comes with a new tongue jack. Although I can't figure out why you would need one. Maybe an anchor?

joshuabardwell · Jul 18, 2012

Adiredneck said:
You know, I consider my dad to be a pretty crafty guy, but when he welded up his firewood trailer, it had the axle about 4" ahead of the center of the trailer. A few years back, I gave him a 2000 lb dexter axle, and convinced him to move it back. The first load of wood he did,he was amazed at how much better the tractor pulled it out of the wood lot. For the previous 10 years or so, it had been lifting up the back of the tractor so much that he could not pull it with the 8n when it was loaded.

I don't want to come off as snooty or something, because lord knows I have done some dumb stuff in my life, but it just astounds me that someone would take on the task of building a trailer without doing enough research to know that you can't just put the axle wherever the heck you want.

murphy1244 · Jul 18, 2012

At least he is using red flags on his load.

crazyal · Jul 18, 2012

Not that I would defend the person who decided to add that wooden bit on the end but it's not axle placement but weight distribution that matters. If you load pillows on the rear and lead on the front you would be fine.

Todd727 · Jul 18, 2012

The pickup bed trailer is fine. The axle is well back. You have to look at the total trailer length. Unless, as crazyal points out, you load all the weight aft of the axle, but there is quite a bit of steel in that tongue.