Thread: Discovery 2 V8 and My Hobby

Here in the UK, we have a thriving machinery preservation movement, and I collect and restore/exhibit stationary engines for my sins

Because some of our engines are getting on for well over a ton, we have to move them with a trailer that is usually a 4-wheeler, and up until fairly recently if we wanted to be away overnight we had to take a tent and camp out.

That's not a big hardship, except that facilities at shows are normally less than generous, (with one notable exception, Nuenen in Holland)

Anyway, after the last camping trip we decided to build a bigger trailer but this time we wanted overnight facilities as well, and we had already got the Discovery V8 as our vans were limited to 2 tonnes max towing weight.

The solution was a 20ft 6-wheel turtable drawbtar trailer with the engine room in the back and our living quarters in the front:







The total weight with one engine loaded (we use the old 4-wheel trailer for the second engine) is just under our UK legal limit of 3.5 tonnes and also just under the Discovery max towing weight.

The trailer build thread is on our website:

http://www.stationary-engine.co.uk/D...DBTrailer1.htm

It is up to date as far as this spring 2013, I'll be updating it again later on this year.

We run on LPG all the time, it is relatively cheap here compared with petrol and diesel, and the V8 has enough grunt to drag the trailer along nicely.

Peter

I've just read the entire thread on the link provided by Listerdiesel; how very interesting. The drawings are brilliant, as is the quality of the fabrication and construction, is this project an extension of your profession?
If I may be so bold, can I ask some questions about the design, please?
Does the trailer have suspension? I could not see any conventional leaf, coil or air springs; if not, why not? The lack of suspension would induce considerable torsional stresses to the chassis and transmit vibration to the structure and fittings; not to mention the lack of load sharing on the bogie axles. Do you run low tyre pressures to compensate for the aforementioned? Did you consider a greasy plate type set up for the steering pivot? I feel that, with a polyurathane mat instead of grease, would be simpler and more robust with added stability. Electric brakes would have been far easier to set up and offer much greater braking capacity.
My comments and questions are in no way intended as criticisms, we operate under different legislations and road conditions, apart from differing design/work cultures and componentry availablity.
Cheers, Ian.