Second use of my new trailer

[Night Train]

That's great, love the dog impersonating a pretzel!

Just out of interest, how much does it weigh?

 

[Night Train]

I gather the most simple and basic trailer hitch can be mackled together out of hosepipe and jubilee clips and a few nuts and bolts. I don't know how easily removable they are though...

They can be quick release if a Hozelock coupling is used.

 

[Arch]

They can be quick release if a Hozelock coupling is used.

oh, of course!

 

[Tharg2007]

can we have some closeup pics of the hitch please?

 

[Amanda P]

I made an articulated hitch which is difficult to describe in words alone... It's basically 1" box section steel; no machining involved.

It may be the subject of an article in the forthcoming CC magazine, when I've made another one and photographed the process.

Umm... can you wait for the magazine article?

The Bykaboose trailer has a rubber articulation, and it suffers quite badly from "shunting" and "waggling" (oscillating in time with the pedal stroke) when it has a load on, due to the flexibility in the rubber. I suspect the same might be true of a hose hitch; that's why I went for metalwork instead.

 

[TheDoctor]

That's great, love the dog impersonating a pretzel!

Just out of interest, how much does it weigh?

Answered already, NT.

The dog (is) heavy, though (20kg) so we're not inclined to take him on tour.

There you go. 20 kg.

 

[Night Train]

Cheers Doc,

Means the dog has enough mass to be hitched to the trailer while rider and bike go on the back.

 

[TheDoctor]

I have a feeling that husky-drawn sledges have already been invented. Still, crack on!

 

[Amanda P]

I'll see if I can weigh the trailer at some point. It's not noticeably feather-like, but it's no heavier than I could help (see my mumblings about thin-walled tube). I reckon it's good to carry 50kg or so though. (It can take my 75kg standing on it anyway).

 

[Amanda P]

It weighs 9.65 kg. Our rather smaller Bykaboose comes in at 7.55 kg.

Given the disparity in their capacities, I'm quite happy with that.

 

[Night Train]

Cheers Phil. I have thought about a trailer and that would give me a ball park to consider.

I have a habit of over engineering so my car trailers are probably 1/3 or more heavier then they needed to be.

 

[Andy 71]

Also, do you know where I might source clevis pins?

 

[Andy 71]

A pic of that hitch would be good.

 

[Amanda P]

The joints are held together by bolts and nyloc nuts. It's important to use nyloc nuts, or they will come undone and a lorry will run over your trailer and flatten it. Failing that, Loctite threadlocking compound or a blob of weld or braze joining the nut to the bolt.

The faces that move over each other are filed off as flat as I can make them. They consist of steel end plates brazed into the box section steel tube; I used plenty of brass so as to leave a brass bearing surface over the steel.

The bit left on the bike is a straight copy of the hitch pin for a Bykaboose trailer (which we also have). They seem to have disappeared, and the hitch pins were a silly price anyway, so I made extra ones for our other bikes. Both trailers now fit on any of our bikes. The pin is simply a bit of 8mm steel rod brazed into a flat plate with a hole in it to fit over the rear wheel axle. There's a hole drilled through the rod to take the clevis pin of whichever trailer is attached.

I may accept orders for hitch pins, hitches or complete trailers, but don't hold your breath waiting for deliver. I'm a busy man!

For clevis pins, try your local car parts factor or tractor parts shop. They're often used for holding bits onto tractor tools, brake pads into calipers and that sort of thing.

 

[Arch]

oh, Phil, the Paper Bicycle chap at the Rally is apparently a Carry Freedom dealer, and said up until now, hitches weren't really a dealer issue (might explain your difficulty getting one), but that the new one (to be seen in Issue 34, mailing soon!) will be available...