Where to buy "draw bar" for trailer

[zikkimalambo]

Hi All,

I am looking to fir a draw bar onto my trailer so as to make it a little longer to accomodate a box to put my gas bottles in.

what I think I want is something that is either U section or rectangular section so that i can bolt one end of it where the hitch currently bolts on and bolt the hitch onto it. length will be about

600mm.

As I will be bolting the trailer end of it to a flat plate, I think rectangular section might be needed, as if I use an inverted U then then it might spread (though I could put a solid spacer under i suppose.

Assuming you can make any sense of the above,

Where is the best place to buy the "bar"? Steel Stockholders? Trailer supplier? Metal fabricators?

And what should I buy? I haven't measured the hight and witdth of the hitch yet, but I would imagine I am wanting something like 50mm wide by

60mm high.

[TMC]

50mm x 50mm 3mm wall box section from any steel stock holder's off cut rack

However by placing gas bottles so far in front of the axle it will considerably increase the nose weight of the trailer possibly to more than your car allows and also maybe make the trailer unstable

Further there will be considerable stress at the joint of existing and new bits. Better to replace the whole existing draw bar part of the trailer

Tony

[Christian McArdle]

Putting gas bottles at the front is bad for two reasons. Firstly, it may tip the weight forward too much, making it impossible to get nose weight down. Secondly, it puts a large mass at a large distance from the axle, making the trailer much more unstable. It is far better to distribute any large masses near the axle to reduce its moment.

If it is a large trailer and only a small weight of gas, then you might get away with it. However, if you can contrive a way of storing the bottles near the middle, then this would still be a superior solution.

Christian.

[zikkimalambo]

Bah!

I think i'll have to abandon the idea of putting the bottles out front.

The original problem is how to squeeze 2 x 40L Aquarolls into a pint pot. Putting them out front would mean adding about 400mm to the length which would make the total length of the trailer about 3M!

I think perhaps I need to think about going up rather than forward. Perhaps by putting some sort of rack on the fridge box and putting the Aquarolls up there. Or maybe by finding a way to attach a set of roof bars to the trailer so I can strap the Aquarolls up there.

[Guy King]

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Go to your local back street metal fabricators and ask 'em to do it for it. If you're near Telford, drop me an email.

It probably wouldn't be a good idea to have a join where you're thinking of having a join, unless it's consdierably reinforced.

[Guy King]

The message from "Christian McArdle" contains these words:

Panniers over the wheel arches?

[Guy King]

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Provided they're empty, that'd be fine. Or even up front as they'll weigh so much less than gas bottles.

[Christian McArdle]

I'm not sure 90kg up 2m high above the axle is much better...

From a physics point of view, an underslung attachment just fore and aft of the axle would be best, if this can be accommodated by the trailer structure without road safety issues.

Christian.

[zikkimalambo]

Eh?

90K? Surely not?

Oh, perhaps you are thinking i'm going to transport them full??

No, they'll be empty during transit and while i've not checked, I can't see them weighing that much.

Also the trailer only has sides appriox 400mm high, so I can't see the bottom of the suggested load bars being more than 1M above the axle and probably not even that.

Another thought might be to increase the height of the box on the trailer 6 - 8 inches or so in order to squeeze a little more in. hmm.... the manufacturer might even have a kit for it.

[Christian McArdle]

Indeed. Although I'm confused now. First it was gas bottles, now it is empty Aquarolls. Just what are you transporting? Do you mean that you need to shift the Aquarolls out of the way to make room for the gas bottles?

Christian.

[zikkimalambo]

[Guy King]

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Some might, if they were heading for somewhere with no water supply.

[Guy King]

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Or another little trailer to tow behind the trailer to put the barrels in?

[zikkimalambo]

Bah and double bah!

Just typed a long reply and g**gle trashed it!

We've just bought the Aquarolls, so need to accomodate them (in an already full trailer) so plan was to put make room for the Aquarolls in the trailer by putting the gas bottles on the outside of the box.

I think my favorite at the moment is to get some 1/2" ply approx 2' high and make a kind of box without a bottom or a lid to fit just inside the existing trailer box. I can then use the existing soft cover on it. Won't gain a whole lot of height, but overall it should give approx 6 cubic feet of extra space, which should be plenty.

I think given that some of the stuff is fairly light (though some is pretty heavy) I should still fall within the 400Kg limit of the trailer.

[manatbandq]

That's similar to what I have done. I added hooks to take the shock cord of the soft cover and used more shock cord between these hooks and the old hooks on the side of the trailer to hold the new box down.

I haven't been pulled over yet ;-)

It also makes the top of the trailer visible in the rear view mirror which is useful.

MBQ

[Bob Mannix]

As to that, I put a couple of 22mm pipe clips on the back of the trailer and use a 2-3' piece of copper pipe with white tape at the top. This gives me a centre line for the back of the trailer when reversing and, as they are open pipe clips, the pipe can be removed and replaced easily.

[John]

Illegal unfortunately.

[John]

Illegal unfortunately

[John]

Illegal unfortunately.

[John]

Illegal unfortunately.