Contributor II
Ummmm I was thinking, ( a dangerous thing) how about a powered axle for an overland trailer for those really tuff spots? Think there's a market?
Powered off road trailer wheels
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If you are in that tough a spot, you probably shouldn't be limiting your self with a trailer. Backing up on a tough tight trail downhill is a bitch.
If 4wd, lockers, and aggressive tires don't cut it, don't try it.
If 4wd, lockers, and aggressive tires don't cut it, don't try it.
A tongue jack like the XO Jack , which allow you to winch a trailer, IMHO are sufficient. The key would be to have recovery points on all corners. This way if a trailer needed to be pulled backwards, for example, and steered from the front the jack would suffice. My jack saved me when my driver side spindle sheared off. I was able to winch my trailer onto a flat bed trailer and make it home. A crappy plastic wheel trailer jack wouldn't have worked.
Having a powered axle way over complicates things.
Having a powered axle way over complicates things.
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Amen.
Though a trailer with a powered axle is fun to think about, it's completely unnecessary in the camping/adventure world. Perhaps in the military or road construction for some mongo building machine, but not for typical off-road off-grid adventuring.
XO Trailer Jacks... I love my XO750 and have my old single-wheel jack available cheap if anyone wants it. I'll list in the for sale threads sometime. Makes it a hell of lot easier too, in any kind of terrain, to move my trailer around or adjust it that last bit when hooking up.
Contributor II
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I actually have an axle designed up and I am starting to fabricate that has steering. I do a lot of real sharp switchbacks and having steering on the trailer would make life a lot easier.
Contributor II
Old Man, that's a step up. A 12 volt to 36 volt switch box, could power a hydraulic pack , a 6 way spool valve open centers, and remotes, now we're talking. The real challenge is getting the differential pointing up so the hydo motor could mate to it. Manual Locking Hubs, it could work. Just imagine being able to move the trailer independently of the tow vehicle, like when it slides on a sloped incline.
Safety First. The last ditch hauler.
Safety First. The last ditch hauler.
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I had given this some thought. Electric motors sensing tow vehicle speed. Adjustable to match, slightly slower, slightly faster. One of my friends at work has been working with some controllers from Prius and Leaf. The challenge isn't powering it but, coming up with a way to interface with the tow rig. Powered wheels would have helped me in soft sand, mud and some of the rocks I've dragged across.
Costs less than a Wrangler:
You don't have to match electric motor wheel speed unless on ice. DC will just have unequal loads on each wheel. AC, by nature will be perfectly synch'd. But that would be another problem, like having three lockers engaged in turns.
I'm guessing those prius's are three phase dc?
You don't have to match electric motor wheel speed unless on ice. DC will just have unequal loads on each wheel. AC, by nature will be perfectly synch'd. But that would be another problem, like having three lockers engaged in turns.
I'm guessing those prius's are three phase dc?
Thinking like that , leads to this. Good luck
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Influencer II
Actually we had a discussion about hydraulic powered trailer axle a while ago somewhere else.
The guy that came up with that put the hydraulic pump into the vehicle and pulled the lines to the trailer, he built a prototype but got told that he will never going to pass the technical inspection (Europe) so the project came to an unfortunate end.
But it actually worked well.
The guy that came up with that put the hydraulic pump into the vehicle and pulled the lines to the trailer, he built a prototype but got told that he will never going to pass the technical inspection (Europe) so the project came to an unfortunate end.
But it actually worked well.
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There are two ways I could see this working. First with an old school rig you could go PTO, hydraulic pump then run hydraulic motors on each wheel end of the trailer (or run one motor and a small drive shaft or directly mount it to a pickup truck drive axle. A Ford 9" of GM 10.5" would be good for this as they both have removable pinion housings that would provide a mounting surface for the motor and are readily available and cheap). But doing something like this would be expensive, probably around $6-8K, but if done right you would have the ability to use the trailer as primary power if need be. The other way would be nearly identical but using electric motors rather than hydraulic. The electric rout might be better as if you damage the system you wont dump oil everywhere. Also for a newer rig without the ability to run a PTO, this could be accomplished by running a second alternator. I would go for a modified Leece Neville, these things can be made to run a welder reliably (I have converted a few over to "weldernators") and would provide enough power to run a few power assist motors. Anyway its a cool idea I think, and I could see benefits.
For ideas on how to engineer a hydraulic set up research agricultural equipment. Also I have built a few fluid power set ups and honestly with variable displacement pump and motor there is nearly no limit to how fast you can go, or how much power you can put down, its all about ratios of fluid flow.
For ideas on how to engineer a hydraulic set up research agricultural equipment. Also I have built a few fluid power set ups and honestly with variable displacement pump and motor there is nearly no limit to how fast you can go, or how much power you can put down, its all about ratios of fluid flow.
I’ve considered it as well, but not for full time assistance, only when needed for tougher obstacles. My plan was using a matching rear axle to my rig (Range Rover Classic) in order to carry spare axle shafts, diff, etc. I’d run the rear driveshaft up into the tongue with a flexplate and starter motor on it (another useful spare), hooked to the 12v battery in the trailer.
The starter solenoid could be triggered from a switch in the cab via the aux connector in the 7 pin wiring harness. In my case, the tires would turn at 60 rpm, one rotation per second. It wouldn’t match the vehicle speed, but should be a big help when going over logs, deep ditches, etc.
I was going to use the factory hydraulic disc brakes with a master cylinder for a parking brake, but hadn’t figured out modulating them with the vehicle brakes properly. A simple solution would be adding a pair of electric disc brake calipers opposite the hydraulic ones. With a pair of cheap brake controllers you could even have cutting brakes for maneuvering.
The starter solenoid could be triggered from a switch in the cab via the aux connector in the 7 pin wiring harness. In my case, the tires would turn at 60 rpm, one rotation per second. It wouldn’t match the vehicle speed, but should be a big help when going over logs, deep ditches, etc.
I was going to use the factory hydraulic disc brakes with a master cylinder for a parking brake, but hadn’t figured out modulating them with the vehicle brakes properly. A simple solution would be adding a pair of electric disc brake calipers opposite the hydraulic ones. With a pair of cheap brake controllers you could even have cutting brakes for maneuvering.
