Gdetrailer wrote:
JaxDad wrote:
Gdetrailer wrote:
a 5vr REQUIRES min of 20% pin weight, moving even the fridge a couple of feet back towards the rear WILL affect the pin weight negatively. This move would require SOMETHING else heavy to be placed FORWARD to balance the effect.
A comment like that is, while a valid statement to a point, ridiculous in its claimed importance.
The largest double door (12 cubic foot) Dometic RV fridge I could find weighs 238 pounds.
If we use as an example a 10,000 pound 5'er, pin weight should be about 2,000 pounds.
If the center of the axles to the pin is 20', and the fridge is moved say 5' forward the most it could change the pin weight by is likely about 50 pounds. That's about the sames 6 or 7 gallons of water.
I suspect that wouldn't be an issue.
Fridge was just one example of what can affect the balance of the trailer. Weight is static, but CENTER OF GRAVITY IS DYNAMIC. COG IS affected by moving tall and or heavy objects and in a 5vr which is already top heavy this can be even more of a challenge to keep in control. You can't see or feel COG but it IS there, engineers can figure out where the COG is from evaluating weights of items and placement. Ideally COG must be as close to the ground as possible.
Moving things about in a haphazard way can result in overloading one side or even ONE wheel. That is why there are ENGINEERS working with designers. So unless YOU have some sort of ENGINEERING DEGREE along with some designing sense haphazardly moving things CAN cause you problems. One must understand that there ARE valid reasons as to placement of items and it is not always cosmetic.
True this! A builder or designer/builder will have to plot out the total weights from side->side and from front->back. The choices to be made will not be that difficult but awareness of trailer physics has to be addressed. Otherwise, you may end up with a trailer that will not stop swaying, or in the extreme case, a trailer that is undriveable.
One thing I found is that it is hard to get side->side balance when installing the kitchen area on one side. The kitchen contains a lot of weight because of the things we put into it, countertops, cabinets, stoves, fridges, sinks, etc.. In my rig, the shower stall and fresh water tank are also on the kitchen side. FWIW, I ended up with a 300lb. difference side->side. I have since offset that with a battery box weighing 150 lbs. and plan to store most cookware and incidental storage items on that light side. I have put the trailer on the road with the total 300 imbalance and din't notice any detriment but keeping it close is the goal.
