Sixty Fiver

Makes for quite a long load...

Reynolds 

My new homemade trailer, Y-Frame Large clone, hauling some wood:

Turbo231

Can this be trailer "Saved from the Dump" too?

I haul bikes and large cargo with a Little Tikes 2-kid trailer. Take off the fabric and you've got a great support frame for a lot of things. However, my old unit, which had seen too much sun anyways, was cracking/breaking, I was gonna have to make a new deck for it...until I found another one at the dump in great shape! Sweet! Moved my extended hitch and wheel/axles over and I'm in business again! Kept the stroller bar on the back, keeps the frame from shaking and being loud when empty.

Here the fabric is 1/2 removed and the stroller wheel is still attached. Fabric was mostly toast anyways, but it protected the plastic deck from the sun.


All set! Will recycle the old trailer when the snow starts to fly. I stop hauling bikes in the winter and switch to a covered trailer for groceries and such.

niuoka

excellent, now I know how to get my canoe down to the river for fishing. Ive talked about doing this and everyone thought I was wacko.

thedragonslayer

I took apart two trailers and attached them to each other with bolts making a double length trailer, Jerry had already hauled more than 200 pounds with it and bent the axel pin on his bike doing it. The trailer itself held up great.

https://www.bikeforums.net/asset.php?...7&d=1383182742

thedragonslayer

warmachine

I just finished converting the Burley D'lite I got for $20.00 a few months ago.
It didn't include the rain cover and the wind drag that the canvas material caused was mildly irritating, so I thought about converting it into a flatbed.
The plywood deck that I've seen on others' conversion seemed to be easy to implement, but the weight of the plywood didn't inspire me.
I thought about using an aluminum sheet braced with square tubing, but discovered that I could buy a new trailer for the cost of the materials.

As I was walking through a shop, I came across this stuff and realized that I could just weave a floor with it.
It's lightweight, weather resistant, strong, and cheap.



Here it is finished, mostly.







The swinging arm in the rear was originally located at the top of the trailer and was used to brace the walls as well as hold up the seat.
I had to cut the arm down a couple of inches since the rails it attached to were wider than it's current location.
I still need to find something to plug the vertical rails that I cut, but it turned out quite well.

I used about 200' of the utility cord to weave the floor at a cost of $6.00, one dremel cutting disc, and a few zip strips.
It turned out to be quite inexpensive.

I weigh a bit over 200lbs and the trailer seems to hold me just fine, so I think that the new trailer will hold up quite well.

djyak

Looks great! And saved a ton of weight with that cord.

Condorita

I just got one of these. Got it all set up and took it out for a quick test around the block.

CoachManny

Lots of great pics!

I just found a Aosom Cargo Trailer for $90 with FREE shipping.

I'm jumping on it!

We ride a lot around town and this would come in great handy on getting groceries and other stuff instead of the massive weight on the back and the bags on the handlebars.

I will come back and post my pic when it's all said and done :-)

Thanks for such great ideas!

Manny

gna

Good idea. I wonder if the nylon webbing they use for lawn chairs would work?
https://www.acehardware.com/product/i...uctId=11133103

warmachine

I don't see why not.

PatrickGSR94

Wow great ideas with the cord and webbing! I've had it in mind to convert my son's trailer with busted straps into a utility trailer, but was concerned about the added weight of plywood for a deck. I will definitely keep this in mind!

fietsbob

junk yard for old seatbelt webbing has possibilities ..

Grishnak

My single wheel trailer/Raleigh western classic.I need to check the wheel alignment,as its bad over the beach.

jackc846

I have the same set-up on a retroglide. I also have a rack over the rear wheel.

bluebirdy

Here's my home made bicycle trailer, just a suitcase an old 3 wheel stroller chassis and a stainless steel draw bar. It connects to my Birdy with a rose joint and a stainless pin that i turned a groove into which connects with a captive pin in the tow hitch!


Post Script, loaded up the trailer with 28.6kg of shopping today for a 10k section of a 36k ride an all time PB for this set up!

subcinco

I just added some pics to my bike trailer blog. Check it out at Bike Trailers

Sixty Fiver

Part of my wife's dowry was the Burley trailer which will be serving as my new mobile shop...

PatrickGSR94

Cool stuff, wow 11 years sure is a long hiatus!

BIGDCYCLES

Lots of good info in here. Dumpster scored what will be my frame which used to be a love seat or chaise lounge frame. 1X3 rectangular thin wall tubing, torsionally rigid. Think it is around 2 feet wide an 3.5 feet long. Still debating wheels we will see what I score during city cleanup. Probably be a flatbed to pull behind my xtra or trike once complete.

PatrickGSR94

So I finally made an attachment to my son's trailer that will allow me to haul groceries or other items!

I wanted it to be easily removable as my son still rides in the trailer sometimes. So with the top cover fabric removed and the frame folded down, I added a piece of 1/2" plywood (doesn't add much weight), which I attach with a couple of hitch pins with cotter pins to the side rails. Then the plastic container is attached with carriage bolts through the plywood, a nut and washer on top of the plywood, then the container, then another washer and wing nut inside the container. I remove the entire plastic box + plywood together as a unit, with no tools needed. I went for the yellow-top box as I figured it would be more visible AND matches the bike! I'd like to put a slow-moving vehicle triangle on the back, but the ones Lowe's carriers are freakin' $20 for a piece of sheet steel with reflective tape on it! No thank you.

My son also loves riding around the neighborhood in the box as well. I don't take him out of the neighborhood in the box, though.

I made a WalMart run last weekend and it worked great, only bad thing was finding a darn place to lock up outside the store.

If I ever need to carry larger items with the trailer like a flat bed, I can remove the plastic box easily with the wing nuts, again no tools required.

Thulsadoom

Here's a couple of pics of my latest flatbed.

-Bought a typical used kiddy trailer with probably less than 5 miles on it for $25 on craigslist.
-removed all canvas and repositioned a few braces
-installed a 3/8 piece of plywood that I had laying around, painted it brown with some left over house paint.
-I bought a new Burley elastomer hitch and installed it on my touring trailer, removed the old one and it installed right on this trailer.
-total investment, maybe $35.
-weight: 18 pounds without plastic tub.

PatrickGSR94

Wish I could find a trailer that cheap locally. I saw one the other day and then when I looked the next day it was already gone.

BIGDCYCLES

They go quick around here as well. See lots of them for close to new prices though.