Hauling a dolly across the country
I have an ACME dolly. I want to haul it EMPTY behind the MH for 2000 miles. I have hauled it empty for 15 miles a couple of times. With full tires it hops a lot. With the tires reduced to whatev...
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Having the car on there transfers the bouncing to the car, which has suspension. The dolly combines with the car's tires & wheels to become the unsprung weight, and the rest of the car is sprung weight. Essentially, the dolly becomes part of the car.
If the dolly weighs 400 lbs, it's as if each of the car's front wheel assemblies weighs say 250 lbs instead of 50 lbs. All of that stuff stays on the road, just like the car's tires would normally. (I'm simplifying the explanation, so I hope no one criticizes me for not being literal here.)
So now, an unloaded dolly with no suspension:
Hit a bump, it bounces.
Add 500 pounds, and hit a bump. What happens? It still has to bounce, other than whatever the tires absorb, which is not that much. So on a bigger bump, you still got the dolly bouncing, but with more load on it. The dolly is not designed to bounce down the road.
I'm concerned that is not a good approach. (edited that sentence a couple of times, I think I finally said what I meant, lol.)
If the dolly weighs 400 lbs, it's as if each of the car's front wheel assemblies weighs say 250 lbs instead of 50 lbs. All of that stuff stays on the road, just like the car's tires would normally. (I'm simplifying the explanation, so I hope no one criticizes me for not being literal here.)
So now, an unloaded dolly with no suspension:
Hit a bump, it bounces.
Add 500 pounds, and hit a bump. What happens? It still has to bounce, other than whatever the tires absorb, which is not that much. So on a bigger bump, you still got the dolly bouncing, but with more load on it. The dolly is not designed to bounce down the road.
I'm concerned that is not a good approach. (edited that sentence a couple of times, I think I finally said what I meant, lol.)
