fenderbender

Thanks for sharing your great drawing! Love the fact that it's bolted together. But cant help thinking it is a bit over engineered. There would be no need for the angled front part if you kept the trailer bead level with the hubs. It would mean a higher centre of gravity but that could be solved by using containers that fit between the beams. Any chance of a description and pictures of that hitch?

astronomerroyal

Thanks. Other than address the height difference, the front part provides some rigidity. Without it the chassis (for the most part made of 1" aluminium angle) would be too flexible. I did consider somehow suspending the load below the chassis bed, but since I carry various loads (Pelican cases, suitcases) it wasn't obvious to me how best to do that.

After making the SketchUp plan I made some other diagrams, with accompanying stability calculations (e.g. static tipping criteria, kinematic max cornering speeds etc.) I can probably dig these out.

...and the hitch. I think there are some close-ups in the is thread, or the post your trailer one. Universal joint from a golf cart, couple of large bolts and washers, drilled some holes.

dayworks

For a while I've been posting to this thread about the development of my cottage-industry trailer. It's now a bonafide product you can find out about it here: www.redbiketrailer.com and there was a mostly positive review (with a few adventures!) here: https://www.commutebybike.com/2010/12...railer-review/

DTSCDS

I am in the brainstorming (a.k.a. "design") portion of my trailer build. I am about 97% sure of these:
Use 3/4 conduit, bent and then brazed (assuming I can do it outdoors with enough ventilation I don't drop dead from the toxic fumes)
Hitch attaches to the frame.
Based on using wheelchair wheels. (I have already secured a wheelchair that will be cut apart for my use.)

The wheels are my question. They wheels are the typical plastic/resin/whatever material with a chromed metal 'hand rail' attached. Does the hand rail thing add any structural benefit? I am liking the idea of removing it, but really it would be removing them for purely cosmetic reasons. I don't want to weaken the wheels just because I think it will look better without the handrail.

I keep going back and forth on my opinion:
1) Yes, since it is metal and bolted on at every 'spoke', the wheel is design with the added structural stability of the hand rail factored in.
2) No, the wheel will be plenty strong without the hand rail. The hand rail is purely functional and not structural.

Anyone want to weigh in?

BossCat

I made a longhaul trailer using wheelchair wheels (not completed yet), the hand rims on my wheels can be removed without affecting the structure of the wheel but I just left them on.


Pictures of your wheels/trailer would be good so we could see your setup.

Regards
Tom

badmother

I got hold of several wheelchairs for this purpose, and all of them had wheels that are strong without the "hand rail". I found the wheels a bit big so I built new wheels around the hubs. I built a flatbed much like the Y-frame from Carry Freedom. On a recent tripp we needed something smaller so mowed the atachment point further back on the flatbed and used the wheelchair axels to fit smaller (12,5") wheels.

dayworks

the answer is: 2) No, the wheel will be plenty strong without the hand rail. The hand rail is purely functional and not structural.

badmother

Did you see this? https://www.youtube.com/user/tonyhoar.../2/om3_i1OAKIQ
Number 7 out of 9 films.

Found it here: https://www.tonystrailers.com/buildyourown/

AdamDZ

I've built two trailers based on old Burley child trailers. They're pretty easy to convert into bin or flatbed trailers with basic tools and some hardware from a hardware store.

Bin Trailer

Flatbed Trailer

The flatbed turned out to be more elaborate than planned, a single sheet of plywood with a couple of support beams will work just fone too.

pick

Very cool...loved the flat bed..is that yellow and black tape reflective? If so, where did you get it?

AdamDZ

Yes, that tape is reflective. I got it from Harbor Freight Tools. It's not as reflective as the certified DOT tape but it's also several times less expensive.

badmother

We are again working on trailers. Same system as The Bike Friday trailer but we use a waterproof plywood platform when we are not touring. I hope I found the right link to somebody elses picture on flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/touring...ol-378187@N22/

What I wanted to tell you is that we finally got around to bending tubes the DIY super easy and cheap way. I decided many years ago to try this one day and now we did.

There are several tutorialson youtube and instructables. What we did was buying 2m long tubes, 22mm. We filled them with fine sand (sand for sandblasting) to stop them from collapsing when we bent them. The ends was plugged with bar end plugs from old road bikes. Perfect fit.

We needed a jig or something to bend it around. We found some pieces from an old wooden longue chairs and decided the shape was right. Bolted them to a solid rough garden table/bench structure, no drilling needed. Small piece of wood to keep the tube in place . One person holding it down using bodyweight, one bending.

What we made was the curved towbar, or trailer arm if you want. We had a model I bought some time back but we wanted severalsince we need several trailers. No pix now since we are going on holyday and the pix is on boyfriends cellphone.

No-T

Hey all.
Where is a good place to buy trailer wheels and tires in bulk for trailer building. In the process of doing a small quantity of custom trailers and paying retail for some of these styles will put me over the top. Looking for a place that I can get 10-20 sets at a time and not 1000 sets from China. Looking at all options at the moment in regards to style but single sided with quick release like what seems to be pretty common these days is the axle style we are wanting.
Reply with PM would be fine

Nic

badmother

Are you sure you can not buy 10-20 from china?

Edit: https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...-release-axles

drumbent

I've built and / or modified some trailers over the years. First off, I'll say that I'm not a fan of seatpost mounting, and use only axle or chainstay mounts. Also, I've long given up trying to make safe and practical hitches, and have used mainly Chariot hitches over the years.

The first two trailers were no-welds using conduit for the frame and slotted elec. box covers for the dropouts. I got the plans from an old book titled "Build Your Own Carts and Trailers". Details on two of them are at my website: one small and one much larger.

I've since modified two other trailers, a heavier one with steel frame and wood sides, and a lightweight one with a box made mainly of coroplast (election sign stuff). My blog also has posts of no-weld trailers built by others who sent me their photos, under the trailer tag.

The above are all great, but when I really need to move stuff my homebuilt e-assist cargo trike gets the call. (Trike blog tag)

Mark

gdlerner

I own 2 carry freedom y frame ,I am trying to get the samll one lighter s (so I can safe some weight when I am flying)o now I changed the load bed for another and make more holes the weight now is 5,2kg 800g lighter.Any one has any idea what lighter material can I use for the load bed to get it lighter.



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NuttyDounuts14

Hi,
I want to try and build a trailer tent for my Raleigh Nitro, and was hoping I get some advice.
Firstly, would the trailer be made stronger be attaching it to my saddle post or to my wheel forks? Or does it not matter?
Secondly, would I be better off using aluminium or carbon fibre for my rods? (I'm going to use the bamboo trailer plans from Carry Freedom)
Finally, what would make a good base material? It will need to be able to take 100kg.
Thanks in advance for any help you can give me