03 Tahoe to cargo trailer

[07burban88]

I know weird question. I adopted a 03 Tahoe for doing a 4l60e replacement on my neighbors Silverado yesterday. It has no motor or transmission. I need a cargo trailer/sleeper trailer for when I go camping. This is perfect. As well it only costed me 2 hours of my time. All I'm curious is do I need to do something special to lock the steering wheel? It will be a flat tow behind my 07 suburban

 

[Charlie207]

That's a heavy trailer. Do you really want four wheels so spaced out? Most trailers with tandem axles have them placed close together.

 

[07burban88]

I mean it was free, minus the engine and transmission saves alot of weight. Iv seen it done before but wasn't sure if they left the front wheels able to turn or not

 

[DoubleDingo]

I mean it was free, minus the engine and transmission saves alot of weight. Iv seen it done before but wasn't sure if they left the front wheels able to turn or not

You need the wheels to be free to turn but not turn so much that they lock to one side or the other. I have flat towed many vehicles in the past, the steering wheel needs to be unlocked, and use bungie cords on each side the wheel to keep tension on it. That allows the wheels to turn but not turn so much that they lock to left or the right, the bungie cords will bring the steering wheel back to center.

 

[Charlie207]

I mean it was free, minus the engine and transmission saves alot of weight. Iv seen it done before but wasn't sure if they left the front wheels able to turn or not

Free is always good.

The engine & transmission are what... 800lbs. combined. You still have all the other stuff on a functioning vehicle to remove, or else your going to blow by thte GVWR for your truck and trailer once you add all the gear to the trailer.

If I was going to make a trailer out of a free truck, I'd cut the frame in half, and get rid of the front clip, and weld a ball hitch frame to the truck frame. Then, add a bed camper or RTT on a bed frame. It'd be orders of magnitude easier to tow around camping in the woods.

 

[07burban88]

ya mean like cutting the frame at the firewall and welding the tongue/hitch? yeah that makes sense it would also remove all the weight for the suspension and stuff. than would just be the tahoe body

 

[DoubleDingo]

ya mean like cutting the frame at the firewall and welding the tongue/hitch? yeah that makes sense it would also remove all the weight for the suspension and stuff. than would just be the tahoe body

Might be tongue heavy like that, you need to make sure it's not too tongue heavy.

 

[j91z28d1]

I've not flat towed anything. is that where you hook a tow bar type thing to your bumper? like the I see big rv's do? how far are you planning to tow?

so the little I've research about towing I've done, it seems like weight isn't as much of issue as wind resistant is at highway speeds on flat ground. atleast as far as fuel mileage goes. so being that it would be super close to your suburban but not above it, it might not be a horrible wind brake. that of course goes out the window if you're towing up the rockies.


anyways, doesn't seem like it would be any worse than a large travel trailer?

 

[DoubleDingo]

I've not flat towed anything. is that where you hook a tow bar type thing to your bumper? like the I see big rv's do? how far are you planning to tow?

so the little I've research about towing I've done, it seems like weight isn't as much of issue as wind resistant is at highway speeds on flat ground. atleast as far as fuel mileage goes. so being that it would be super close to your suburban but not above it, it might not be a horrible wind brake. that of course goes out the window if you're towing up the rockies.


anyways, doesn't seem like it would be any worse than a large travel trailer?

That is it, just towing a vehicle behind a vehicle, except in his vision, a gutted vehicle behind a vehicle. Heck, could leave the hood and fenders on and use it for storage after adding a bottom to set things on, and making sure the inner fenders were sealed so no road debris would enter.

 

[07burban88]

see? that was my idea. to leave the hood and fenders, run metal plates across the frame rails, and store a couple 12v batteries, power inverter and a generator. its a perfect sleeper for camping, or to load up when moving