Hey guys! I have been looking at buying a utility trailer for things like the lawn mower and engines and junk, ya know cool stuff! Well I got to thinking and looking at some of my "junk" I think I can build a trailer with stuff that I have! My question is how well would a transverse spring, like on the front of an old ford work on a trailer like this? If the trailer was loaded a little heavy on one side, would it lean bad? I am thinking I could build this trailer to look kinda cool and old, but I need it to work as well. Thanks!!
Sounds like you're already aware of the limitations. Parallel leaf springs and axles for trailers are cheap enough. If you really need a good trailer, go with a proven design. Bob
I cant imagine it would tow well. I took a wrecked s10 and used the rear half of the frame to make a utility trailer. worked very well with limited work involved!!
You would need to "wishbone it" to locate the axle. that way the wheel doesn't arc forward or back individually with suspension movement [ or uneven loads ] and get roll / bump steer. By the time you've fukked around with all this geometry and brackets [incl a ball joint ] it would be easier and cheaper just to put in a pair of parallel leaf springs. Even coil springs are a pain in the *** on trailers
i have a 12 foot boat trailer that has a setup like that. i have been rebuilding the boat but i have towed it a few times and it did fine. that's a boat not a utility trailer, different loading though. it is located with 'bones too.
There's been many a "farm find" trailer built out of old Ford parts-the most common being the ones that used a complete rear end and using the torque tube as the tongue. Don't take that as an indor*****t though. For lawnmowers, I've seen a zillion that were unsprung.
Nothing wrong with a transverse sprung utility trailer at all. Mount the spring in tension to eliminate side sway and add a pair of shocks. You'll have a smooth riding smooth towing trailer that will last forever. If you're using a Ford rear end just check the bearings and seals in the hubs, make sure the grease is full in the rear end and the hubs are tight on the axles. If a front end, check and pack the bearings, replace the seals and be sure alignment is good. Probably 10s of 1000s of this style trailer were built from the T days(09-27) through the 60s judging from the number seen in junkyards, farmyards and backyards across the country.
a pair of air shocks could be utilized to deal with a slightly unbalanced load. Make sure you locate the axle in the proper place in regard to the length of the load bed.
Projects often get built "just because" which is OK by me. I built a trailor out of a '81 Mazda pickup by cutting the frame forward of the firewall and folding it together on the centerline of the bed. I welded in a hitch with a surge brake using the stock rear axle and springs. I've been using it for about 30 years and it carries heavy loads and tracks straight. The truck was free since one of the guys on the deer lease ran it into a large Oak tree.
My old utility trailer is a widened and inside-out Model A frame with Model A Front spring and axle mounted a ways back. I ran it light and I ran it grossly overloaded (probably somewhere between 1800--2000 pounds) and I ran it badly out of balance on trips when I was alone and just could not move whatever lump of iron was on there. Its only bad point, a poor choice by the actual mechanical engineer who built it, was split (run forward, not back) radius rods. The naturally bad effects of the split were multiplied by the need on this application for long brackets up to the frame, which have broken from the twisting forces a couple of times. Use a proper central pivot radius rod! A single spring has lower weight limitations than parallels because you can only stuff in so many leaves before the thing becomes rigid, but it has happily carried far more than what it carried when employed on a Model A with no signs of bottoming or anything. The transverse spring has WIDER stance on a front axle than parallels do and gives no roll problems. A parallel spring rear would have wider stance, but then so would a transverse spring rear...and if later than 1931, a transverse rear would have a wider stance than comparable parallel. Even heavily loaded it had no effect on my driving...it did nothing to make me aware of it beyond its image in the rear view mirror.
No reason it won't work if the center of the spring is mounted solid (no roll). The spring is supposed to work as 2 separate 1/4 elliptics.
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