Need some advice on bike placement on a trailer

[Evadd]

for anyone familiar with rigging a trailer for a bike, i have a couple Q's.

first, a Q about placement on the trailer. i think i read that the load on a trailer should be slightly forward in relation to the pivot point. does this look good? in the pic below, the front tire would be sitting just behind the sideways 2x6 and the rear tire would be about where the tape measure ends.



next Q: how does the strap placement look? this is a mock-up of the front. left-right distance look ok?





i need to finish this up by tomorrow for a track day on tues, so quick advice is appreciated. thanks!

btw, this trailer was a wreck when i picked it up. 1/4" plywood cut into oddly-shaped puzzle pieces. whoever put it together must have been on crack.


crap, sorry some photos are sideways; they're not that way on my computer.

[JohnnyV]

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry Tour)

Bwahaha did this thread title immediately cause an instant facepalm for anyone else?

[Evadd]

ha! yeah, i didn't even realize that the title mimics an interesting thread from last week...

gonna see if i can change it now.


ok, done.

[GearHd6]

You want to make sure you have some tongue weight on the trailer. I'd try and get the engine of the bike so it's slightly ahead of the axle (maybe 6"-12" ahead). Your tongue weight should be about 10% of your gross trailer weight. So if you're bike and trailer weigh 1000 lbs, you should have about 100 lbs on the tongue.

[Evadd]

thanks. i just read about the 10% tongue weight guideline, but unfortunately i have no idea how much the trailer weighs. it was a camper that someone cut down to the frame. i was thinking i could weigh the empty trailer tongue weight and position the bike so the tongue has 40# more weight? (40 being roughly 10% of the bike).