Trailer access calculation?

On Wednesday, March 25, 2020 at 5:45:05 AM UTC-7, John McLaughlin wrote:
Thanks Martin. I think that after maybe another week or two of
lockdown, I'm going to be bored enough to make something around
my aluminium ladders using a couple of spare wheelbarrow wheels
and some scraps of timber. If I can get the ground clearance right,
as well as the total length, width, and wheel position, that should do
it. And it'll keep the neighbours amused.















At 11:35 25 March 2020, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Wed, 25 Mar 2020 09:40:18 +0000, John McLaughlin wrote:

I want to bring my trailer home to do some maintenance while
we're all
grounded, but I'm not sure if I can access my house from the
road. I
have a 90deg bend to get around and then the second issue is a
short,
steep slope, which may ground the back of the trailer.

So my question is, if I measure things up, how can I calculate
whether
access is theoretically possible? Is there any advice on the
internet -
I can't find anything?

I don't want to just try the trailer for size because I fear getting
it
stuck.

You could always model it:

1) use a 25m tape measure +_ compass to draw an accurate map
of the track
on a decent sized sheep of paper, say A3 and use a sensible scale,
say
1:25 or 1:50 Draw in the track to its correct width and don't forget
obstacles, (hedges, poles, gateways, buildings etc.

Seeing that there's a steep slope involved, use some scrap foam
plastic
to make a scale 3D surface and glue the map to it I'd use a hiking
GPS or
Google Earth to measure the height difference unless you already
know
that.

OR (in order of decreasing accuracy)

Walk the track centre line with a GPS

OR

Take measurements off Google Earth

2) measure length + width of trailer + towbar and towing vehicle.
Make
cardboard cutouts of the plan view of trailer and car. Add a scale
towbar
to the trailer (lollypop stick would be fine) and add something to
the
trailer where the wheels should be. Rubber toy wheels would be
best, but
small blocks of wood or foam should also work. Connect car and
trailer
with a drawing pin or similar, placed where the tow ball is in the
car.

3) now you can move car+trailer models along the track and see
how close
the trailer comes to hitting anything.

At least, thats how I'd do it and, even if it takes time to do
properly,
its something else to do while in COVID lockdown. Making the
measurements
can reasonably be described as 'your daily walk'.

HTH


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org



take videos for us! We are bored.