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Downsides to a long trailer tongue?
On 10 Dec 2003 09:00:31 -0800, (basskisser) wrote:
K Smith wrote in message ...
Snafu wrote:
Gary, I'm not understanding the part about "the longer the tongue, the
furthur back we can put the wheels." To maintain the ~10% of the weight on
the hitch rule, increasing the tongue length works the opposite way.
Absolutely the longer the tongue (drawbar?) the further "forward" the
wheels will by to keep the balance right.
K
Once again, you've proven you stick your nose where it doesn't belong.
You certainly don't understand simple physics. If you make the tongue
longer, you will need to move the wheels BACK to keep the balance the
same. Say you have the tongue 10' from the wheels, and the tongue
weight is 100 pounds, to say, at that 10', you need to resist 100
pounds to lift the tongue. Now, we extend the tongue, to 15'. Now you
have a longer lever, thereby LESS tongue weight. To compensate, you
need to move the wheels BACK.
Tell ya what I'll do, I'm not going to give you the answer, but I'll
define a problem and let basskisser and Karen come up with solutions and
see if they come up with the same one, and then hack out their
differences.
Let's go with the situation above. Assume you have a trailer where the
distance from hitch to axle is 10' and the tongue weight is 100lbs.
Also, assume that the trailer is level because if it isn't, it will
affect the answer. Also assume that the tongue extension has a constant
weight per unit length.
Now increase the length of the tongue to 15' from axle to hitch. Just
from the difference in leverage, what is the new, lower weight on the
hitch?
Since we assumed that the extension has a linear weight/length, the
center of mass of the extension is 2.5' from the hitch and 12.5' from
the axle. So what percentage of the weight of the extension is
supported by the hitch?
Knowing the percentage of the weight of the extension that's supported
by the hitch, how much does the extension have to weigh to exactly
counteract the decrease in weight due to leverage and keep the weight on
the hitch at 100lbs?
If the extension weighs any more than the answer you come up with, then
you have to move the wheels forward to keep the weight 100lbs. Any
less, then you have to move the wheels back.
Bonus question: assume that the original level trailer with the 10' from
axle to hitch weighs 1000lbs and the hitch weight is 100lbs, or 10% of
the trailer weight. You extend the tongue by 5' using an extension that
weighs 10 lbs/ft. How far and in what direction do you have to move the
axle to keep the hitch weight 10% of the new trailer weight?
Have fun!
Steve
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