Good lord blue, I think you better buy some more airplanes!

lol.. thats all I can get into the trailer.. well maybe one more.. the rest are still in the house.. only 4 of the planes you see have actually been flown, the rest including the ones at home are waiting for their turn at bat. I just dont like using a plane unless I plan to use it a lot to keep the engine in good shape. Stupid thing is, with my health I have been thinking of selling the whole works...but I keep trying to hang in their..

By the way, my favorites are the Ultimate and the mini Funtana.. I just lost a wonderful CG chipmunk that I built a few years ago and it was my best Sunday flier.

One thing I forgot to mention that I have learned about storing planes in a trailer. If not properly heated or ventalated the conditions can be come extreme. I have a small ceramic heater that I keep plugged in on the floor during the winter so my batteries wont freeze. I have a box fan mounted on the back door connected to a thermastate contolled outlet to blow ambient air into the trailer and out the roof vent when the the temp rises over 70. This keeps the coverings from wrinkling and concernts about electronic equipment as the interior temp can quick reach 150+ deg.

Best regards,
Randy

Here's my new 6x12 trailer, trying to reduce tongue weight now, will put spare tire on roof rack at rear end, that should help.

Silver, very nice.

The canoe, is that for float flying?

Canoe is, and all of this was the result of seaplane flying.canoe.trolling motor.batteries....then fishing poles........and even some float flying. I did finally find a scale at a KMART that goes to 400 pounds so I can get a good tongue weight.
This is a UNITED TRAILER....6x12.....ordered it special with some extra vents....rear flood lites, led lites and roof rack.$2999..torsion axle

So with a tongue weight of 394 pounds........I guess trailer to be about 2700 pounds now maybe......that should be close to the 15% formula. If I shift or rather add weight to the rear of trailer it should lesson the tongue weight correct??

2700#'s? How much did it weigh empty? My 6 X 10 empty was about 1100#'s and I'm figuring I'm in the 15 to 1600# range with what I've got in there.

Marty

I have really enjoyed the ideas on this subject. I do need help regarding setting up a 110 volt set up. My plan is to use a 12 volt set up to charge batteries on the way to the field, however I would like to run an extention cord when I can to power wall outlets etc. i have seen a couple of pictures that include outside plugs, but I need more specifics regarding there installation. Thanks to anyone who can help,
Toycannon

The empty weight was appx 1800 pounds............thats heavy but thats what I saw. I'm gonna double check that. I have all my cabinets up front and they fill up fast. I'm gonna mount my spare tire on very rear of roof rack and maybe put my marine battery in very rear of trailer.
Does anyone have this kinda tongue weight issue?

Hey Toy,
Like everything in life this can be simple or complex depending on how you want it to look. The simplist solution is to mount your inverter somewhere in the trailer that has easy access to 12V power. Depending on the size of inverter you plan on using you should probably run 10 gauge wire froim your battery to the inverter. You should also put a inline fuse in this power feed to ensure you are protected from a short. 10 gauge wire is good for 30 amps so a 30 amp fuse or less is what you want. Most of the inverters already have a 110 outlet on the side of them that you can plug your extension cord into. About as simple as it gets.
You could also wire up a set of outlets in your trailer and power them with your inverter instead of using the extension cord. Good luck, Jerry.

I think most people are over the recommended tongue weight. When I posted the same question some pages back in this thread, there was barely a response. I think it's something you just need to be aware of and try and load the trailer correctly and notice how your tow vehicle handles it. If the steering starts to feel light in the front, thats a sign of too much tongue weight. That can be pretty dangerous if you have to manuever quickly on wet pavement.

Marty

Depending on the current draw from your AC power of 110 volts, 30 amp battery side is a bit small, don't forget, 30 from the 12 volts source, will yield only 3 amps on the 110 side...

I have a deep discharge battery on the tongue of my trailer, with a 1750 watts inverter inside the trailer. The wires from the battery to the inverter are number 2 guage from a welding shop with a 120 amp fuse on the battery to protect the wires going inside.

if you draw just 10 amps from the 110 AC you will draw about 100 amps from the battery...

To keep everything charged up, I hook to my vehicle while driving , when stationary, I have a bank of photo voltaic cells of 600 ma to keep things up.

I can take pictures if some would like
As for interior lighting, I went with 135 white christmas led lights, , those are about the lowest current consumption I can get, and it looks cool

you can also install an outside receptcicle to plug an extension to feed the 110 inside the trailer , again easy to do
Hope this helps

Roger

A lot depends on how heavy the tow vehical is, I pull with a diesel F250 so my 12' trailers tongue wieght is of no consequence. However, the worst thing can be if you are too light on the trailer, then the trailer itself is affected and will tend to sway dangerously. Now, when I am towing my 12000 lb travel trailer, I use wieght distrubuting equalilzer bars which also makes a heavy tongue less noticable.

Randy

Yep, I should have put more detail in my response. I'm using a 800 watt inverter to handle my wall chargers. A 1750 inverter is a big one, can run you power saw off that dude. My setup has dual group 30 deep cycle batteries charged by two 30 watt solar chargers mounted on the roof of the trailer. I have a thermostate controlled RV fan mounted on the roof that comes on when the temp in the trailer hits 95. Lighting is 12volt RV lighting with the 800 watt inverter powering three wall outlets. The trailer is insulated with 1" foam (walls and ceiling) and finished with 1/4" ply walls and ceiling.

Here is some photos of my set up which of course is always in progress, not finished yet with my tiny bathroom with shower and toilette.

O.K....I'm going to shift this thread again. I'm in the market for a trailer for my "stuff". I know that going with a single axle trailer I would want to have the torsion axle. But how about a tandem? I'm looking at a 7 x 14 tandem but it has the "spring suspension" setup. Will the extra weight allow the trailer to carry my planes and stuff with the same gentleness as the torsion single?

The dealer I am talking with says in His "opinion" I would be O.K. with the tandem spring.

Oh, and by the way, the traler brand is a Cargo Express.

I own a 14 foot tandem Cargocraft V-nose trailer, I bought it three months ago and equipped it with, two torsion axles, rear ramp, two top vents ( one framed for a/c), insulated, two rows of e-track, rv latch on side door, and two flow thru vents. The ride is really smooth. I had my wife drive with me in the back on a patchy asphalt ranch private road.

Thanks Plane Jim

Does anyone have the spring suspension tandem? Are you happy with it?

I have found both trailers but there is about 1,000.00 difference in them (enough to pick up a small Honda generator)

This picture is a 7 x 14 tandem torsion.

I had a single axle spring setup and now have a tandem spring axle 18 foot, it is extremely smooth compared to the single axle.

Although, the torsion would probably be smoother, mine does the job perfectly..

But I do slow down on rough terrain.

Roger

That sure is good to hear. Hopefully I can get this "search" finished soon.

BTW...what weight of axle do you have on your tandem? Is it the twin 3500's?

I would have to check that, not sure, but one thing I did is get the 6 foot wide instead of the 7 foot, hence the 18 feet long instead of the 14 footer.

The 6 footer is much easier to towe then the 7 footer , a lot less air drag which I towe with a Kia Sorento with a 3.5 V-6...

Roger

Hey Roger

I am fortunate to have a full size truck to pull with. So with that being said I want to go with the 7 wide.

Ah great, I wish I had the 7 foot wide but it would have been too much for my little vehicle...

Good for you and you are going to like it


Roger

I think I read somewhere that the tandems are harder to manuever by hand/dolly. Is this true?

Marty