Originally Posted by
harshbarj
When riding the hitch rotates slightly solely loosening the nut which is BAD on an IGH setup.
I had the same problem with my Burley and a NuVinci. The nut actually fell off once. Fortunately I was able to go back and find it.
The general BF reaction is that it doesn't happen and I was imaging things.
I posted a very similar story to yours
here:
I tested the safety strap on my Burley Flatbed trailer today. That isn’t a good thing.
The bike felt odd and I looked down to see the hitch hanging from the safety strap. As you may know, the hitch is placed behind the axle bolt and the bolt is then put back on. The problem is there is no give for up and down motion of the trailer. When there is an up, or down, movement it loosens the bolt that holds both the trailer, and the wheel, on.
I backtracked and found my axle bolt. However, while this is the first time the bolt has actually come off, it is not the first time the bolt has loosened as a result of using the trailer.
I decided to do something about it. The hole in the hitch is about 10.5mm; this makes it hard to move easily. My rack has a standoff that would put it about 4cm out on an M6 bolt. Not at all ideal; but this was my first plan. I then went to my local ACE hardware to look through the bins and see if parts and ideas would come together.
One idea that looked good was to take a nylon bushing and make a bushing to fit inside the large bolt hole in the hitch bout would shim it down to a M6 bolt and then use a couple of M6 fender washers. This would allow for up and down movement without loosening the bolt.
Once I decided what I wanted to do the hardware guy at Ace took the bushing and filed it down until it fit in the Burley trailer hitch the way I wanted.
While he was doing that I kept losing faith on using the rack bolt as that would put the hitch out on a lever. Instead I picked up a longer M6 and use one of the rear brake mounting points (yes, a steel frame, and a heavy one at that). At this point the hitch is a bit closer to the centre of the bike and has some up and down movement without loosening the bolt that is holding it on.
I am at work right now; the ACE trip was on a lunch break. I will test it this evening (I loaded my laundry in the trailer and used the washers at work, that I why I was even pulling my trailer today). So, even though I haven’t tested it on the road, I want to give a plug to the local ACE, they spent almost 20 minutes trying to get a 27cent part to fit perfectly.
Here is a picture of what I did:
