Aluminium tailbox

[tricksta]

Well it's been a while since I was on here and a while since I actually rode anything other than an office chair, my poor Scorpion has been serving as a stand for a pile of random junk destined for the shed (never made it there though! ) since we've been experiencing something akin to a monsoon season for the past few months! Anyway, finally cleared all the junk and dusted the old girl off ready for getting off my lardy rear-end and putting some miles in.

Anyway,

I want/need a tailbox, the scorpion can have a lovely rear rack fitted but at around £150 it's pretty expensive for some bent bits of metal! So I thought I would try my hand at making myself a tailbox, something like a Novosport tailbox (not sure which model, but they're a lot of money and I'm a stingy northerner) but I'm thinking Aluminium!!! No GRP, fibreglass, Carbon fibre etc. (though could be persuaded) what do you all think? No-one else seems to use ally, so is there some problem with it for this use? I can't really think of anything, I mean cars, boats and planes have been using it for years! I could bend to shape and use pop-rivets to join the panels, I even have enough tools to do some hammer forming of compound curves etc.

I like the look of Coro too but I want something tougher and more secure.

Any ideas, advice, images etc. Would be much appreciated

thanks,

Rich

 

[BlackPanther]

Do you definitely need a 'metal' box? I used an old motorbike tailpack when I needed to carry a load on the Trice. Probably around the same weight as an ally box, but a lot easier to put on/take off. I also had the side panniers fitted once or twice, loads of space then. I'm pretty sure that if I made an ally box, it would be sure to leak and rattle.

 

[tricksta]

I have seen a few guys online using the motorbike tank bags and tailbags and it's a great idea but it would need the rear pannier rack to work and the Scorpion can only take it's own specific rack.

Good idea and nice rides!

 

[Night Train]

I picked up one of these on Freecycle to use on my trike.

Aluminium is ok to use depending on what shape your box wants to be. It can be bent in to a slab sided box with the edges pop riveted closed and then sealed on the inside. However, it isn't that easy to get right especially if the shape is complex or the edges have to be accurate.
Also, if you don't have access to a sheet metal brake (bender) then it can be really difficult to get good and accurate creases. The thickness of the sheet also makes a difference. Too thick and it is difficult to work, too thin and the box will be flimsy.

Worth making templates in a similar thickness cardboard first and getting the bends right.

I will happily panel beat a compound curve into aluminium sheet but even given experience in metal bashing I wouldn't like to do anything too large or complex.

 

[tricksta]

The lockable storage boxes are a great idea and can be picked up relatively cheap from fleabay, i'm just not sure how I would have to mount it to the trike. What do most people do with their tailboxes? Drill holes through their seats?? I'm not averse to doing that but i'm a bit concerned about the additional stress on the seat back ( I have the bodylink seat ) and if i was to load it up for an overnighter or anything would it be able to cope??? Don'l like the idea of breaking my seat or even worse breaking it while trying to ride somewhere.

 

[Night Train]

Mine has a rear pannier rack to fix things to, mudguard, panniers, top box, lights, etc.

I would think that is the way to go instead of fixing things to the back of the seat.
How were you thinking of mounting the prospective aluminium box?

Could you make up an extension to the top of the rack to take the box and still have space below to use the panniers?

 

[tricksta]

The problem is I don't own the rack for my Scorpion, like I said in my first post 150 english pounds is a lot of money for just the rack and fitting a standard bike rack would involve major hackery due to the rear suspension and lack of viable mounting points on the rear swing-arm/triangle.

My original idea was to use the relevant mounting points for the official rack and make some brackets that would allow me to mount the tailbox directly to them, avoiding putting weight directly on the suspended rear of the trike and transferring the stresses to the areas of the frame that were designed to take them.

 

[BenM]

err am I missing something here...

if you were going to make special-to-type brackets for your custom box anyway, why not just make special-to-type brackets for a commercial lock box such as the one Night Train mentions? saves all the tedious mucking about getting a Alu form looking good, watertight and rattle free

oh and in my experience Alu tends to have nasty sharp bits where you least expect them - takes a while, and a fair bit of blood sacrifice, to sort out

Whatever you decide to do - have fun.

 

[tricksta]

It's a good point you make BenM, over the last few days I have been considering, just making my own version of the Scorpion rear rack using thicker aluminium plates, cut to shape, drilled and lightened, that way I could just attach whatever kind of tailbox I want.

 

[Night Train]

Sorry, I didn't realise you didn't actually have the rack. I thought you needed the box to not interfere with the rack for some reason.

Making a copy of the Scorpion rack mounts would be easier then making a good aluminium top box.

 

[tricksta]

Yup, no rack

What about tailboxes for aerodynamic purposes, would be nice to combine storage with a little more speed/less effort.

 

[Night Train]

Yup, no rack

What about tailboxes for aerodynamic purposes, would be nice to combine storage with a little more speed/less effort.

That's possible I suppose but it may not be as easy to ensure that it is genuinely aerodynamic and doesn't make things worse.

The aero effect, for those who don't know, relies on helping the air stream leave the back of the trike with minimum disruption. A wind tunnel test with a model would be very useful in defining and refining the shape. Small wind tunnels are easy to make, small and accurate models are not.

Then there is also the issue of making the former to get the smooth shape.
Many people use PU foam, either in liquid mix form or in block form, that is then carved to the shape required before being layered up with glass or carbon fibres.

I was regularly 'scalped' by a Kingcycle when I was commuting in London. I was driving a car!

 

[BlackPanther]

At the risk of going off on a tangent, I ceased using rack bags/panniers when I discovered the awesome 'Radical Allfa Side Pods' which offer 25 litres of storage in total, and keep the weight as low as possible (just 3 straps over the seat/benaeth seat cushion) so that they don't compromise the ride (if anything they make the handling better.) The only downside is that they aren't waterproof, but I just use plastic inner bags.

Et Voila...or is it voici?

 

[tricksta]

I really like the look of that type of bag, my biggest concern was waterproofness, although I realise I could by some decent dry bags to go inside them, it adds to the cost and they're not cheap.