Got a start on my Festiva trailer today

[fastivaca]

... well sort of! I was at PnP this afternoon looking for a possible seat upgrade but didn't find any. On my way out I saw two Toyota alloy wheels that match those I recently installed on my car just sitting there looking for a new home. Picked them up so all I need now are tires.... and a hitch... and a Festiva to convert into a trailer.

[Kraig]

lol

[lanemeyer14]

That's a lucky score right there!

[AlaskaFestivaGuy]

I was thinking of turning a front-end-damanged blue '93 Festy into a trailer to tow behind another blue '93 Festy which already has a custom trailer hitch attached to the rear tie-down brackets. Both vehicles are completely rust-free.

Has anybody done the hard thinking on this?

What kind of hitch load the front car would have on it, assuming you cut just forward of the door pillars? What about with a few hundred pounds of load in the trailer, positioned in the rear two feet of the trailer (the trailer seat would be folded down or removed).

Can you keep the handbrake system to keep the trailer from rolling away on hills when detached from the car? Could the center portion of the "chop" be done that far forward?

How long would the total rig be and still be able to turn sharp corners w/o the trailer contacting the towing car? I'd like to be able to park car+trailer in a regulation-sized parking space!

I'd also like to keep the trailer's fuel tank usable to pump fuel into the foward tank after it burns down to nearly empty (not burn fuel directy from the trailer's tank). That might get the rig's range up to somewhere in the area of 600 miles. Could I wire up the trailer tank's internal fuel pump to do that?

[FestYboy]

oh wow that's a LOT of engineering there Alaska. first, i'f your removing the front a beams (up to the fire wall), you should figure that distance plus at least another foot to the reciever. you should consider gutting the interior of the now noseless festy to remove tongue weight. you'll still have nearly 100% of the weight on the tongue due to the fulcrum being the rear wheel position. this is not a good idea unless you plan to shift the rear axle forward to the "B" pillar area. even with the gutted shell unloaded, that's about 500# on the tongue and that's alot, especially for a class 1 or 2 hitch, not to mention the rear suspention of the tow vehicle.

[TominMO]

Here is a practical Festy trailer build:

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36914&highlight=trailer

I'd advise against keeping the gas tank, and instead positioning two 5-gallon gas cans at the rear of the Festiva trailer, for better weight distribution. But maybe that's not necessary for this short of a trailer.

[AlaskaFestivaGuy]

FestYboy -- that's why I wanted to keep it short, to keep the CG as far aft as possible and tongue weight low.

TominMO -- what you did is EXACTLY what I was thinking, except keeping the hitch portion quite a bit shorter so the whole rig would fit in a single parking space, plus trying to retain the handbrake. It'd also be nice if the front Festy's rear hatch could be opened with the trailer attached. Also, having a window in the front of the trailer to better see who is tailgating me; could another rear hatch -- welded in place -- be used for that, while also providing a little streamlining and a cleaner look be used in front? What about beefier rear springs in the front vehicle to better handle tongue load?

All -- I've attached a photo from TominMO's thread so you don't have to read through the whole thing. Also, a photo of my existing hitch.

[TominMO]

^^ Actually, that is not my thread, it's gauge_half_inch's.

You could use Aspire rear springs/struts in the towing vehicle.
Window is a good idea.
I think somewhere I saw a Festy trailer with the handbrake retained; I think it might have been bolted to the trailer's left rear strut tower.

[gauge_half_inch]

I made the tounge that long so is it ever did "jack knife" it wouldn't smash the bumper immediately and to allow for plenty of space to open the hatch when hooked up. The tounge weight when empty is only about 60-70 pounds. Pm me if you have any direct questions.

[DriverOne]

AFG, I think it's entirely possible to use the e-brake, even if you do cut the Festiva at the B-pillar. If you mount the brake handle to the tongue of the trailer, you'll retain the use of the system, and have a quick access to a brake in an emergency. You may also be able to use the brakes by converting them to electric so you can power them with a brake module in the car.
Personally, I wouldn't worry about keeping the upper section of the car (full hatch, glass, etc) because if you're trying to see through the trailer I imagine you'll not stack any major cargo above that viewing line, and so cause yourself to pull a "parachute" around behind you. If you cut the B & C pillars down to the body level, you could use a hood to weld to the hatch. This gives you a lifting, locking cover that also helps balance the trailer. You can replace the hood prop with a hatch lift and mount one on the other side.
I think that the use of an A-frame tongue is excessive for a trailer that weighs 400lbs. If you use a T-bar setup to align the Festiva subframe with the straight tongue, you can measure the distance from the hitch to the farthest width of the car to give you your tongue length, thus keeping your vehicle size short enough to park in a parking spot without worrying about sticking out too far.
I'd use a 7-pin connector to utilize all the Festiva tail lights and maybe give you power for an overhead LED light bar to illuminate the trailer from a switch like you'd have in the trunk area. The use of Aspire springs would be a definite improvement in the carrying capacity of your trailer and give you more stability in your towing vehicle as well.
Just keep in mind that the normal cargo capacity of a Festiva is 500lbs. Good luck with your build, and please post pics!

[AlaskaFestivaGuy]

DriverOne,

I do occasionally want to be able to stack stuff that high, packaged in the form of six 12"x24"x12"high doublewall cardboard boxes, six of which fit perfectly between the rear wheel wells stacked in two layers of three totalling 2' talls. That leaves about a 6" viewing space above the load. I've driven thousands of miles in Festies with just such loads, including all the way across the country getting 46mpg while loaded.

I'm thinking of the handbrake as also being somewhat of an anti-theft device. If access to the handle were secured by some sort of locking device (even a padlocked "box" around it), that would definitely turn away the casual thief.

As far as running the trailer's electrical stuff, I could relatively easily do it wirelessly with a couple of $3 microcontrollers runinng at 2.4GHz using WiFi or equivalent, requiring running only a power line to the trailer.

[DriverOne]

I like your ideas, AFG. I look forward to seeing that wireless trailer hookup. I see the benefit of an auxiliary power supply in the trailer as well, maybe in a box where the fuel tank or muffler once was.

[AlaskaFestivaGuy]

Sure, with a resident small battery in the trailer feeding the trailer's microcontroller 20nanoamp (20 Billions of an amp) of "deep sleep" current, I would make a basic alarm system, triggered (waking up the microcontroller) by anything from a solid-state accelerometer sensing movement to GPS movement to who knows what. I could even have it listen for Starbucks WiFi networks coming within range, and "call home" to tell me where it is and which way it's heading. If I put in a little forward-facing camera, I could have it text me a jpeg of the license plate of the thief's vehicle.

But seriously, who would want to steal the back half of a Festiva? And if it does get stolen, how do you explain to the professional donut eaters what exactly it is they're supposed to be looking out for?

Actually, with a trailer battery, I wouldn't even have to connect the trailer to the towing vehicle's power supply for short daytime runs.

BTW, I want to keep the fuel tank with a retractable hose attached to the outlet line that I can stick in the filler port on the towing vehicle to "self refuel" or even to just fill the lawnmower up.