Building my own trailer.

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DJ

Formerly known as djtheglove
Ok, the trailers I see around cost a lot of money, I don't have that sort of money at the moment, so have had a look in my shed and clubbed together a few bits that I have had lying around for sometime.
I have some 18mm marine ply, some nice tubing left over from a childs trampoline some coach bolts, from god knows where and we have an old three wheel push chair thing you know the ones with the big spoked wheels. I am hoping to build a frame and tow bar fronm the tubing and fit the wheels from the pushchair on to it and then use the ply as the base.
I would eventualy like it to transport the two yr old around in it and also have a removable seat so I can use it for carrying other stuff!
I haven't got down to the build yet but am starting to plan how I will do it. I also have a child seat that could be fixed in but it is rather heavy and am not sure if there is a better idea I could use? I guess for safety of my child the car seat would be good as long as the whole thing and the child together is not too heavy for my wife to pull around.
Anyone else built one of these ever and any advise that could be offered will be gratefully recieved.

Thanks DJ.:biggrin:
 

RedBike

New Member
Location
Beside the road
http://sports.shop.ebay.co.uk/items/Childrens-Seats-Trailers__W0QQ_sacatZ98932

You'll probably find the rear mounted seats sell relatively cheaply. Most parents wouldn't want to put their child in a second-hand seat.

Having seen how much my cargo (bob) trailer bounces around when it hits a bump at speed, and how close some cars come to it, I would be very carefully before I used a trailer to carry a child.
 
OP
OP
D

DJ

Formerly known as djtheglove
The youngest of my children is getting too heavy and large for the seat on the bike so was trying to find an alternative!!

Your warning about taking the child in a trailer on the road is sensible it would just be for short local trips to the allotment or the park mainly and if I could use it to carry some shopping in then that would be great. The car seat that I have is not second hand but is one we have had for about 4 yrs and we know it is good nick I think the safest thing to do would be to fix the seat in to the trailer some how as that seat has all the safety features in it.

Thanks for your warning though I will take note.
 

Amanda P

Legendary Member
dj, I had plans to do pretty much exactly what you plan to do.

I didn't go ahead with it in the end, mostly because of a lack of time. Now the child it was intended for is old enough to ride her own bike!

However, we did do a considerable amount of thinking about it. We planned to use 16" wheels, to keep the centre of gravity low. There was a tubular steel frame, brazed or welded, with a roll-over cage, which could also have a canvas cover to keep the child out of the wind and rain. (Trailers, even with a load in, can easily hook on a kerb and flip over, so a roll-over cage is a good idea). We would have had transverse bars across the floor of the trailer in just the right place for a car child seat to latch on (similar to the isofix points in cars, I think).

The wheels and tubing have been laid around for some years, and I'm just now building them up into a cargo trailer instead.

Apart from overall design considerations, the practical issues are really:

How to join the tubing? Do you have welding or brazing capabilities? Can you get it done by someone else? Can you communicate adequately to someone else exactly what you want? (Carry Freedom's design can be made from lashed-together bamboo if need be, but it'd last longer with welded steel). Tubular steel is hard to join rigidly by bolting - CF's is cleverly triangulated with tensioned wires.

Will you use regular bike wheels and hubs? If so, you'll need some way of supporting each wheel on both sides, and you'll need to buy or fabricate dropouts for the purpose.

If you're using single-sided hubs and stub axles (like most proprietary two-wheeled trailers), that makes the design simpler, but be sure your stub axles are strong enough, and attached to a strong and rigid part of the trailer frame.

Hitch design. Carry Freedom have some designs using pipe-bending spring. Or you can use a track-rod end. My regular trailer has a simple hitch consiting of a steel rod projecting from the bike's dropout. On the end of the trailer's drawbar is a rubber tab with a hole in. This slots over the rod, and a locking pin slots through a hole in the rod. Simple, light, effective, but not as stiff as I'd like - the backlash allows the trailer to wag about behind the bike. My shopping doesn't mind this, but a child might get seasick!
 

astrocan

Veteran
Location
Abingdon, Oxon
Building a trailer

I am in a similar 'cash poor/tightwad' versus 'no time' position and have found some useful info www.instructables.com. There are a few variations on the trailer theme and one of them uses modified air line connections as a hitch.I have also been toying with the idea of using the swinging arm from a discarded childs bike to make an in line trailer with a single wheel at the back (is that a 'bob'?)
As Uncle Phil points out the biggest hurdle is how to join the metalwork, but a welding kit costs more than a trailer DOH!
Good luck with the build, let us know how you get on.
 

noodle

Active Member
Location
northern monkey
sorry to resurect an old thread but this is why im here

for the trailer not old threads

any of you ever get round to doing these? im about to start on one and have lots of decisions to make #
first
single or double wheeled.

i want it to house a box, think fishing seat box which is about 50x40 cm with an extra 30 cm free space at the rear. A few other things im able to weld bits and pieces together ive a choice of materials from old bikes to tubular steel (sky satellite mounts etc) and one of the old load bearing roofracks that bolt together.

Any ideas?
 

Gravity Aided

Legendary Member
Location
Land of Lincoln
I see child trailers getting discarded, from time to time, so I took one from curbside on garbage day, removed the nylon, and got a nice square frame, wheels, and a coupling. So now I have the skeleton of a frame to be built up. I'll probably use some thin gauge steel and screws to make a floor. Maybe build some sides on it as well, but I don't want too much structure, as structure =weight. I may just put new nylon on there, as the old nylon was rotted, and tie it on there with grommets in the ripstop nylon, and anchors on the frame. I have all winter for this to make it to the top of the priority list.
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
The Dutch have always been the experts on bakfiets . I'm sure that there must be loads of DIY advice from that country. Here's a taster from Google Images.

http://www.pinterest.com/ensjr/cargo-bikes/
 

noodle

Active Member
Location
northern monkey
made a start today while it was sunny and ive had to wait in all day

the twisty bendy coupling
image_zps62e39b9d.jpg

and the basic base just tacked welded together for the moment while i work out placing stuff.
image_zps596de22d.jpg

the weight isnt a great issue as its only for dragging along a towpath
 

Amanda P

Legendary Member
Yes, I finished my cargo trailer, and there are some photos here.

You can see that I used regular wheels and axles and a sort of spaceframe chassis, with wheels supported on both sides. It's all tubular steel that I got from the scrap rack of a nearby factory where they make tubular steel stuff for a contribution to their coffee fund.

It's been in fairly regular use for a couple of years now. It's sized so that it can carry one or two other bikes, or three of those folding crates for shopping - those just slot in neatly. It'll also carry trombones, guitars and the like when necessary. Heaviest load so far has been a very chunky roll of old carpet that I took to the tip, but it's also carried bags of cement, sand, lumps of concrete...

It's actually fillet brazed rather than welded, because that meant I could use thinner-walled steel without burning through it, and I think it looks neater - it's hard to weld neatly around joints in round tube. At least it is for me!

It's been off to be powder coated bright yellow now.
 
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