Thread: Trailer with Weird Axle Placement

Pictures aren't working for me?

That any better.

I wish all Forums hosted their own photos as I need to use 6 different systems to post on various Forums.

Yep, they're showing now

I've seen simillar trailers in the States used by full elctric car owners to drive their electric cars long distances.

Kinda defeats why one would bother having an electric car in the first place. "Hey look I'm saving the planet", whilst having a V6 push u along .

If it was my mine it sure wouldnt be wasted in a trailer. Transplated into a paddock basher for sure!!

I think you need to put the powered trailer into perspective.

If you owned a full electric car that had a range of 100klm and wanted to drive from Sydney to Perth you may find a shortage of power points every 100klm across the the country.

The idea of using a powered trailer for long journeys does make sense but still not sold on the safety side of things.

Interesting idea. Put off-road tires on it and you could have 4WD and extra powere with any 2WD car. Or 6WD on your 4WD machine. Go anywhere!
I don't understand the placement of the axle though: you would have an enormous weight on the towbar. the rear of the tow vehicle and towbar would be loaded beyond capacity and the front end of the tow vehicle prbably made very light.
The axle should be positioned so that the static towbar weight was soemthing like 50 kg or so I would think. When braking hard, or going through dips in the road at speed, that would increase and decrease enormously in any case....

I think if I had a all electric car and want to go from Perth to Sydney, I'd be bulding a very light trailer with a decent size but very light generator set on it and just a cable to the car..... That way you could maintain charge for the car on the run and control everyhting from the normal controls. You probably wouldn;t need quite as big a generator as you might think, becasue of the regenerative braking and low/no power use going down hill. And evertime you have a wee or meal break, the genni will top things up along the way too.
Might be a commercial enterprise in that for Australian conditions/distances!
Cheers,
Joe

Originally Posted by jhovel

I think if I had a all electric car and want to go from Perth to Sydney, You probably wouldn;t need quite as big a generator as you might think, becasue of the regenerative braking and low/no power use going down hill. Joe

not to many hills between Perth and Sydney and you would use more power going up the hills

You are right, Sircol.
I should have said Darwin to Port Augusta - that's all downhill....
Joe

Looking at the layout the axle is where it is due to the length of the engine/transmission.

The diff is connected directly to the rear of the trans with two uni joints back to back.

There's no way they could move the axle forward without moving the engine forward.

He was saying when he uses it with his Suzuki Carry (fitted with a Holden V6 for burnouts) it lifted the front end off the deck so he uses it behind his wife's Fairlane!

I suggested he move the tow ball forward under the tray of the Suzuki to effectively move the weight forward and back on to the front wheels.

If he'd used a Camry V6 and transmission he could have ended up with the axle in the right place and nice weight distribution but then he would need to sort out the mounting of the front hubs to the trailer to take the drive.

For a quick and dirty job it works but not quite to my taste.

I can see the potential for a light trailer and a diesel generator of electric cars. A diesel geared right could be stupidly economical and would need to be all that powerful.

To keep the axle centre, you could use a Vee drive that are used in marine boats. The engine could be slightly higher, but would be more balanced.
Other than that, Wierd. Still people will probably say I'm wierd having trailers with towing hitches on the back of them.

Cheers,
Wahoon.

A V drive may be too long by the time you added a tailshaft.

I used a Nissan PAtrol transfer case mated to a 6L80E Chev transmission to turn the drive 90degrees in my latest build project. This is driven off the old front output flange of the transfer.



In this situation I could have used a tailshaft that was 800mm long and had the engine and transmission's centre of balance over the diff.

In my application the tailshaft is 1200 long as I wanted the engine slightly lower than the diff.

You also have to flip the diff centre to get the correct rotation.

Can you tell us a bit more anpout your project, please, Zuffen?
Sounds really interesting.
It's not a burn-out trailer, is it?
Joe

I think I figured it out myself: you put an engine like this into a VW transporter in ind-engine configuration.....
Am I on the right track?
Joe

Whilst I haven't updated this thread for quite some time this will give you an idea of what I'm building.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f116/i...w-what-129838/

It's supposed to be being painted today but I've been told that for the last 6 weeks so I don't hold out much hope.