Living Car Free - Rebuilding a Burley trailer?

Hi, all--

I have just inherited a one-child Burley trailer whose fabric is completely shot. The frame is in fine shape so I'd like to try creating a new bottom and shell. I'm interested in hauling groceries and/or cats. Someone suggested putting in a plywood bottom, someone else suggested masonite.

Does anyone have any experience or suggestions? Photos?

Thanks,

Megan in Winston-Salem

I've never done it, but masonite is not very durable when wet. I don't think even the tempered variety of masonite is very durable when wet. You might try 1/4" Luan plywood. You can get various pre-cut pieces at most home centers. Then I would paint or varnish it to seal it well -- particularly the edges where water can get in. Obviously if you want to carry heavy loads you'll need thicker ply, but for reasonable grocery loads or cats (unless you mean tigers) it should be fine.

There is also metal sheeting with patterns cut out that you could use as a lightweight decking, but it would allow road spray up on your load. It is also a little more expensive than luan ply. Good luck!

I'm working on a similar project using an old Schwinn trailer that had one of the aluminum struts for the sides broken. I'm going to put a 3/8" plywood deck on it, and use some mending strips to attach a Rubbermaid container to it as well. What I'm still trying to figure out is if I can use it to haul water. Our inlaws have a distiller and we fill up two 5 gallon jugs every week for water for our family. I was thinking of putting on a couple of angle brackets and footman's loops so I could hold the jugs in place, but was wondering if there's a better way to do this.

Marylandnewbie, what's so great about luan plywood versus any other? I don't know much about the differences and am curious.

I have a Burley Solo, capacity 75 lbs., and a Burley Flatbed, capacity 100 lbs., which is the trailer I use almost daily. Keeping in mind that both these trailers are fabric, the thinnest A/C exterior plywood, cut to shape to fit the frame, is going to be stronger than the trailer's rating, (and probably, the amount of weight you can put on it is certainly more than you're going to want to haul).

I would stay away from masonite for this project unless I, for some reason, just wanted to do it twice.

I have considered putting a plywood bed on my Flatbed for the purpose of bolting on a lockable box, but that idea is currently on the shelf with some other things I haven't gotten around too, yet. When I get to it, I'm planning on cutting a sheet of A/C to fit the frame, drill holes in the four corners that fit just inside the frame, paint the plywood, and attach it using either J-bolts or biiig, 0.340" Zip-Ties. The Zip-Ties will be lighter, but for my purposes the weight savings isn't a practical factor.

Another option is to take it to an upholstery shop and see if they can sew you a fabric bed to fit the frame.

One thing I did do with my Flatbed is Zip-Tie PVC pipe cross members between the vertical bed rails. This allows me to carry my usual load without having to tie anything down.

http://static.flickr.com/34/71291112_f7583156c2.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/34/71291167_d30883ed27.jpg
As you can see, the vertical, Zip-Tied on, PVC sections are fishing rod holders.

This trailer will carry significantly more than what these photos show.

Oh yeah, I also took off the stock rear reflectors, rotated the mounting tabs 90 degrees outboard, and clipped on Cateye TL-LD500 taillights to give me both reflectors and active lights to the rear. This is in addition to the Cateye TL-LD1000 on my seatpost.