open stacker project

[mbulriss]

Greg,

Love it. Love the simplicity of design with the triangles.

By way of background, I have a Chapparal Aluminum bed trailer with dove tail, large storage box up front, dual tire racks above and wing walls on the sides. I also have a Performax 24’ enclosed with 5’ tongue and 1’ hitch puts me at 30’ behind the 43’ Bird. I mention these because my random comments below will refer to features of them. I really wish I had an enclosed stacker now!

-If drawn to scale, your balance looks pretty good.
-Love the rotating triangle design. Simple & effective. Your single point of failure is the rotating or hinge assembly. As such, the support for that assembly needs to be quite robust. I have some ideas we can discuss. Call me if you want. Remember the pics I sent of my rooftop crane assembly?
-Per you comments, I would not even try to rotate the loaded assembly by hand, nor would I use hydraulics. The stackers tend to use winches. Mount a heavy one on the tongue and let it do the work. Power source from bus plug is readily available. And it’s a safety if something breaks and has to be loaded manually.
-the fancy “arches” can be light framed aluminum sheet attached to the triangles. Just like my wing walls on the Chapparal.
-if you can dove tail that trailer bed far enough that might solve some rear clearance problems and maybe reduce overall load height which is a large problem as you mentioned.
-Highly endorse your rear load ramp and structural support idea. The back door ramp and dove tail on the enclosed trailer is great.
-Suggest drop in wheel chocks on the back of the upper ramp. Kind of like motorcycle chocks. Drop them in a hole in the ramp and insert a lock pin on the bottom side of the stud.
-Good thing that trailer has 7k axles! I assume it’s pretty stoutly cross framed underneath. How close will you be to the 14k limit when fully loaded? Most stackers have triple axles for added safety.
-Does that trailer require 2&5/16” ball and have you upgraded your receiver to 2.5” for 20k+ loads? My LXi has been converted to 2.5” receiver and braced (builder said he wouldn’t blink at 30k load but that’s not happening). On the other hand, an enclosed stacker might approach 20k and I like the safety factor. Loaded with the Hummer, the enclosed trailer pulls as easy as the Chapparal.
-Do you have equal lift load bars and anti sway bar hitch assembly?
-I have to assume that trailer has four wheel brakes!
-Trailer tires rated for the 7k axles?

There may be others I forgot, but that’s my random thoughts for now. You got what you paid for!?

Neat idea. Fully loaded height will make checking your routes ahead of time fairly important.

FWIW.