Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello ya'll: I'm building a new utility trailer (my first) and have seen formula's based on trailer and tongue weight as to where to place the axle. While I have measured axle placement on trailers at Lowe's and Tractor Supply, I wanted to be very sure of axle placement before welding the brackets.
The formula's call for weighing the trailer and the tongue but my question is this: If there is no axle installed to travel to a weigh station, how would you suggest that these weighs take place? I'm scratching my head currently trying to figure out how to make this happen. All suggestions are welcome.

Thanks,
RP

As daft as it sounds you may get away with using several sets of bathroom scales unless the trailer is huge - if you find some cheap at yard sales you can use them in pairs with a plank of wood across to spread the weight evenly - I weighed a fairly big trailer for the same reason & had it balanced on a pair of bathroom scales each side where the axle would go plus one for the tongue - just have to add up the total on all the scales.

To add to your point, only one scale is needed since it shows 1/2 the weight.

If the trailer is too heavy, the load can be shifted further away from the scale so more weight is on the "dead" side.

This uses the proportion (length 1)(weight 1) = (length 2)(weight 2).

Thanks for the replies guys. We don't own bathroom scales but those are great ideas. I may end up buying a couple of them for this purpose.

RPat,
Might not be the easiest thing to do but if you search the web a little you can find engineering tables that list most metals in different shapes' weight per inch or foot. Then it's really just a matter of doing the math. Dave can help us here if we get stuck.

Len

Do the math, it should get you close. Tack the axle in place and take it to be weighed... cut the tack welds and reposition as needed. My guess is you will want the axle close to the center of the "utility" part of the trailer or just slightly aft.... you don't want the tongue to get too heavy, when the trailer is loaded.

Guys: For anyone's future use, here's what I found:

Steel weights per foot: http://www.metalworldinc.com/

Calculating the placement of the axle: http://www.etrailer.com/Merchant2/graph ... _2_800.jpg

After performing the math calc's, I was 1" off my current estimated placement. Fairly close.

Thanks again for the comments.