Our local 4x4 club, of which I'm a club officer, is talking about building a teeter totter. For those that haven't messed around with one, this is what it is:
We used to have access to one from another club but theirs is no longer mobile. It really wasn't built the best anyway so the club is looking into building one ourselves. I volunteered to lead the project so I'm looking for some design input/ideas.
If this isn't a picture of the one we were using, it is very similar to it:
I think part of the problem with the design above is that the ramp would slam down so hard from a relative high distance that the teeter totter was slamming itself apart. I also think the lack of a suspension in the trailer when towing didn't help either.
I like the simplicity of this design:
Downside to that simple design is I feel like it is a little boring. I do think the original design above is a little more fun and challenging because it is relatively tall. We were thinking we could mount some collapsing bumps stops at each corner of the teeter totter to absorb the impact.
I will say it is extremely difficult to get a vehicle to balance. I've never seen it done and I've only heard of 1 person doing it at any of our club events. I've been wondering if there's something we could do to slow the action of the teeter totter a little. I don't know, maybe that would make it harder?
The other trick is this essentially needs to be a trailer so that we can haul it to various locations. And as I mentioned above with the problems we had on the previous teeter totter, I think it should have some suspension when it is being towed.
I also need some input on how heavy the steel needs to be for the driving surface. Keeping in mind we should assume there's a possibility of someone trying to drive their crew cab longbed Super Duty on it. So it should probably be ready to support 8000lbs.
Thoughts?
We used to have access to one from another club but theirs is no longer mobile. It really wasn't built the best anyway so the club is looking into building one ourselves. I volunteered to lead the project so I'm looking for some design input/ideas.
If this isn't a picture of the one we were using, it is very similar to it:
I think part of the problem with the design above is that the ramp would slam down so hard from a relative high distance that the teeter totter was slamming itself apart. I also think the lack of a suspension in the trailer when towing didn't help either.
I like the simplicity of this design:
Downside to that simple design is I feel like it is a little boring. I do think the original design above is a little more fun and challenging because it is relatively tall. We were thinking we could mount some collapsing bumps stops at each corner of the teeter totter to absorb the impact.
I will say it is extremely difficult to get a vehicle to balance. I've never seen it done and I've only heard of 1 person doing it at any of our club events. I've been wondering if there's something we could do to slow the action of the teeter totter a little. I don't know, maybe that would make it harder?
The other trick is this essentially needs to be a trailer so that we can haul it to various locations. And as I mentioned above with the problems we had on the previous teeter totter, I think it should have some suspension when it is being towed.
I also need some input on how heavy the steel needs to be for the driving surface. Keeping in mind we should assume there's a possibility of someone trying to drive their crew cab longbed Super Duty on it. So it should probably be ready to support 8000lbs.
Thoughts?
