Trailer progress

[Dangle_kt]

I'm making a bike trailer that will break down into two peices for ease of storage. Got some great advise off here last week about further re-enforcement of the "ladder", and finally had chance to crack on this weekend.

All arc welded, cut with chop saw or angle grinder.

The tools I bought yesterday have been invalueable. Thanks for the help guys.

Got to do a little bit of welding on the suspension mount plates (one is only half tacked on) and I need to fit the 50mm box to the front to take the tow ball hitch. Need to finish fabricating the mounting area (axle to chassis)- its currently only two peices of angle - I'll be fitting a couple of cross sections made from angle, and then I'll also weld some flat across to further support it - a few meaty bolts to hold it together and it'll be ready for a final clean up before galvenising.

Any comments welcome.

 

[Hitch]

Dont forget the vent holes for the galv...
And thoose axles, bolted on?

 

[Dangle_kt]

The Axle has two weld on mounting plates on the bottom, the indespension units bolt to the mounting plates.

Thanks for the tip - fortunatly my dodgy chop saw means that I have four nice vent holes on each corner where the vertical edges of the frame don't quite meet up! DOH!

I will drill the axle cross member though - thanks

 

[Paul.]

Hi
Bear in mind that if you have any fully sealed box sections they need to be vented for hot dip galvanising, better to do it yourself than let some muppet blast holes with a gas torch, and charge you for doing it as well, make sure you get all the slag off as well, that can survive the galv process and it falls of afterwards and leaves bare metal.

 

[nitronorm]

Hey Dangle_kt I can recommend Merseyside Galvanisers in Garston did a crackin job for me and quick too, don't have thier number to hand but they're in the yellow pages.

 

[Dangle_kt]

Finnally finished the trailer today, and took her on her maiden voyage!

She towed beautifully, didn;t even know she was there!

Put her together in less than 10 mins, drove for 10 miles, and took her back apart for storage in less than 10 mins.

BING BANG BOSH! I feel pretty dam proud of myself!

Only problem was that I glue gunned the number plate onto the trailer board and it wasn;t attached when I arrived at my lock up.

Balls! £8 wasted!

But that has nothing to do with the trailer.

I'm pleased as punch!!

 

[tonywelder]

have you got any 'finished' pictures?

 

[crayefish]

Hey Dangle_kt..... did you nick my ladder?

Looks ace so far!

 

[fuff66uk]

Looking good Dangle kt,what weight suspension did you use?

 

[Projects14a]

I may be doing this in the new year, nice to see how others have done it. Any idea on the total cost so far? Im just wondering if it'd be cheaper to buy one second hand. Also, a list of all the bits you bought would be good

 

[Dangle_kt]

Hi,

Sorry not been on here for a while. My TIG welder stopped working, and I quickly became nobbed off with welding.

Still got my little arc welder though, which I used for this project.

To answer some questions.

The trailer is finished, but I have made one major addition, and I still need to do some little finishing off jobs.

The trailer towed well, but didn't hold the bike effectivly enough, so I purchased a galvenized wheel support - it's like a clamp

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Motorcycle-mo...14&_trkparms=72:1301|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318

- took it off the channel and bolted it straight to the frame.

This makes the trailer tooooooo heavy to take apart quickly, which is a bit of a bugger. 15 mins ish to take it apart properly so I can carry it without doing my back in.

I found the clamp supports the bike very well, it means I can leave the bike on the trailer without holding it, whilst I throw the tie downs on and is a great addition.

The trailer is super solid now, tows great.

I still need to mount the wheel arches and get her galvenised - she is slowly rusting... but has been used lots!

As far as materials/costs go:

2x7ft 30mm angle - for "ladder"
10ft 3mm flat - for "ladder"
2x 7ft 40mm 3mm box (I would revise this if doing it again - it is FAR too heavy duty) - for frame and hitch mount
2x 3.5ft 40mm 3mm box - for indespension units/axle and ladder mount. These are stacked on top of each other to get the axle at the right height so the 10" wheels+suspension +double height box = hitch height so trailer is level with the ground.

All the above came to roughly £60 plus a few odds and sods

2x300kg indespension units = £40 2nd hand off ebay

Hitch and tie down hooks x 6 = £14 ebay - new

Front wheel clamp = £50 ebay - new

Mud guards x2 - £13 - ebay

4x large high tensile bolts and nylocs - free (for holding the frame to the axle)

I still need to galvenise it - which should be approx £50 - £60

So you could get a 2nd hand one cheaper, thing is, I know this is bullet proof, that it comes apart for easy storage, can hold any bike I ever buy (except maybe a goldwing - which I would never buy!) and I can sell and make my money back.

If I had the build over again I would:

Weld a peice of angle in a better place for the ramp to sit on for loading/unloading(its too close to trailer, and so isn't very secure base)

Make the supporting frame from much lighter weight steel - although the suspension units can only hold 300kgs, the frame could probably support about a tonne!

Think through a better way to mount the lighting board - I think the best I have seen is vertical small peices of tube on the back of the trailer board, which slide into two large bore tube mounted vertically to the chassis - with two thumb screws to secure whilst driving.

 

[michael1703]

I sold a bike to a guy on ebay and he turned up and started assembling his trailer

Its a weird looking thing, it consisted of two capital P shaped pieces, a + centre section and two wheels

it was small enough to go into a car boot

 

[Dangle_kt]

Yeah they are just downright danglerous IMO. They are built of very small section steel, I wouldn;t want to put anything above a 600 sportbike on one for fear of it falling apart.

 

[michael1703]

no, this was a good one
thick wall 50mm box section , it was infact quite a heavy bike it weighed a good 200 odd lb's