Long Moment Arm Jockey Wheel

HellFish

Please pardon the drawing...hope it is good enough for the purpose of asking this question.

When I try to move my trailer (T@G with 150 # tongue weight) left or right manually, the wheel on the jack screw mechanism is more likely to slide and skip than it is to swivel. The moment arm (labeled "small" on the right) is only 3 or 4 inches. So, the torque generated at the pivot point of the wheel (which is what causes the wheel to swivel) is less than it would be if my wheel looked like the one on the left in the drawing. The wheel on the left has a relatively long moment arm (labeled "large"), and would generate much more torque to swivel the jockey wheel and be less likely to skip and bind.

I have seen pictures of jockey wheels with a long(er) arm on the interweb, but they have always been on trailers in the UK (see second photo). Anyone know of a source in the US/Canada?

LuckyJ

It would be very easy for a welding shop to modifiy tye one you have.

Perso, I simply give it a small kik if it want to anoye me. Works every time. I do kik the wheel, not the trailer.

Michigan_Mike

I agree with Luc, that you could have a set-up easily fabricated and that this would make life much easier in areas with loose soil conditions, etc. I made a jockey wheel assembly for one of my earlier teardrop trailers and it worked well. What I have found and would recommend is that you use an inflatable tire as opposed to a hard rubber tire. This allows the tire to spread out across the surface of loose sand and varying soil conditions and will allow you the ability to move the trailer tongue easier. The design in the left would allow for additional clearance too as you need the added height when storing it for road transport. I used an 8” Harbor Freight wheel but recommend a 10” wheel for the added strength. An additional suggestion would be to check over at the Little Guy forum area as we discussed this in length and I know there is a wealth of info there that you could use for gaining more insight.... Keep us posted! 👍🏻

HellFish

Thanks Mike...heading over to Little Guy forum now.