Bauer Drop-Down Trailer

Last crawled date: 1 year, 10 months ago

BACKGROUND:
The idea behind this proposal is to produce a compact, light-weight design, with a particular focus on a drive-on lead-in angle that can support any height of car. A 3° angle has been achieved when mounted to a towing vehicle, and the possibility to lie entirely flat when in storage.

LIFTING/LOWERING:
A centrally placed hydraulic pump feeds the pistons (one attached to each Lifting Unit) that extend to lower the platform, and compress to lift. A reservoir is attached to the pump to provide the necessary fluids. The shown design uses an electrical system to run the hydraulics, however, it would be no trouble to replace this with a manual pump if simplicity is required.

SUSPENSION:
To ensure the trailer takes as little space as possible, I wanted to keep the overall width of the product really slim. For this reason, the suspension is mounted above the wheels allowing them to press right up against the platform. A mountain bike like system is used, with a central suspension pivot arm to transfer the vertical wheel movement. Although it looks as if the wheels will catch on the fenders, there is plenty of space under there for bouncing around :)

WIDTH: 2816mm
LENGTH: 5330mm
LEAD-IN ANGLE: 3 degrees
RIDE HEIGHT: 225mm


SOLIDWORKS ASSEMBLY:
The native SW files are fully adjustable. Not in the main assembly, however. You must open individual assembly files to control different aspects of the design.
Track Height: Open the "HYDRAULIC-PISTON" Assembly, and slide the "PISTON UPPER MOUNT" to change the height of the main car tracks. The piston tubing files will automatically update with the change of the piston extension.
Suspension: Open the "SUSPENSION ASSEMBLY" file, then "SUSPENSION-COIL". By changing the height of the spiral curve in this part file, the suspension itself will compress or extend in the overall assembly file.
Jockey Wheel: Simply open the "JOCKEY WHEEL ASSEMBLY" file, and play around with the height and rotation of the wheel.


UPDATES:
The STEP files can be viewed in both raised and lowered versions for those without SolidWorks (please see TRAILER-ASSEMBLED_lowered.rar, and TRAILER-ASSEMBLED_lifted.rar).