On Wed, 25 Mar 2020 09:40:18 +0000, John McLaughlin wrote:

I want to bring my trailer home to do some maintenance while we're all
grounded, but I'm not sure if I can access my house from the road. I
have a 90deg bend to get around and then the second issue is a short,
steep slope, which may ground the back of the trailer.

So my question is, if I measure things up, how can I calculate whether
access is theoretically possible? Is there any advice on the internet -
I can't find anything?

I don't want to just try the trailer for size because I fear getting it
stuck.

You could always model it:

1) use a 25m tape measure +_ compass to draw an accurate map of the track
on a decent sized sheep of paper, say A3 and use a sensible scale, say
1:25 or 1:50 Draw in the track to its correct width and don't forget
obstacles, (hedges, poles, gateways, buildings etc.

Seeing that there's a steep slope involved, use some scrap foam plastic
to make a scale 3D surface and glue the map to it I'd use a hiking GPS or
Google Earth to measure the height difference unless you already know
that.

OR (in order of decreasing accuracy)

Walk the track centre line with a GPS

OR

Take measurements off Google Earth

2) measure length + width of trailer + towbar and towing vehicle. Make
cardboard cutouts of the plan view of trailer and car. Add a scale towbar
to the trailer (lollypop stick would be fine) and add something to the
trailer where the wheels should be. Rubber toy wheels would be best, but
small blocks of wood or foam should also work. Connect car and trailer
with a drawing pin or similar, placed where the tow ball is in the car.

3) now you can move car+trailer models along the track and see how close
the trailer comes to hitting anything.

At least, thats how I'd do it and, even if it takes time to do properly,
its something else to do while in COVID lockdown. Making the measurements
can reasonably be described as 'your daily walk'.

HTH


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org