SUPERLEGGERA TEARDROP TRAILER
The Superleggera design (superleggera is super-light in Italian) is a teardrop trailer designed to be as light as possible and so able to be towed behind the smallest European car, or indeed microcar. The light weight has been achieved by:
- Building within the 8ft x 4ft (2440 x 1220mm) size.
- Using 4.00 x 8 wheels
- Using the most minimal possible chassis - this consists of two angle longitudinals and one square tube cross member - all other cross members in the base are wood.
- Using the lightest sections of wood and least thicknesses of ply. The base panel is 12mm thick ply, but the sides and most internals are 9mm.
It is hoped to keep the weight down to under 150kg (330lb) to leave a 100kg (220lb) payload within a 250kg (550lb) maximum gross weight. For an unbraked trailer, this would permit towing behind most very light cars - for example, a Citroen 2CV.
A weight estimate here shows that this was optimistic - the estimated weight without any fittings is 174kg (385lb). This is without an aluminium skin, which would add approximately 22kg (48lb). The nose weight of 22kg (48lb), 12% of the total, is just about right, so the wheels are in about the right place!
For American visitors - sorry, but this design is metric.
Full 3-D Design
This is a single file with different parts of the trailer in their own layer, so it is probably best suited to an experienced existing CAD user. The layers are illustrated below.
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3-D DESIGN |
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All the 3-D model as a zipped .dxf file |
Full 2-D Design in a Single File
This is a single file with different parts of the trailer in their own layer. The layers are illustrated below - click on the graphic to view a .pdf file.
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2-D DESIGN |
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All the layers in a zipped .dxf file |
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View all the layers as a .pdf file |
Construction Plans
Mike has asked for a set of plans that don't use CAD, so here is a .pdf file of construction drawings, consisting of chassis drawing, base frame drawing, geometry and construction details.
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CONSTRUCTION PLANS |
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View all sheets as a .pdf file |