Bike Camping Trailers

[joseph.d]

[b]Hi, I am designing a motorbike trailer for my A Level engineering project and need some feedback on the idea. It will be a trailer that attaches onto the rear axle of the bike (You tow it with your bike!), and has a lockable compartment that tents, camping stoves etc can be store in. It will have full lights, usb's for phone/ laptop charging etc. Currently on the market are large bike trailers made aboard that do not comply with UK laws so I would like to build one that is full road legal. It will also be a cheaper alternative to the current £6000 + trailers that are all custom. Mine would be universal therefore a lot cheaper also meaning it can be swapped between bikes. Any feedback on the idea, design and usability will be greatly appreciated. Many Thanks, Joseph.
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Joseph.D

[doggone]

It's hardly something new they've been available for decades, but a well thought out new design could always be interesting.
The potential market is very limited, most of the advantages of a MC like being good through traffic and easy parking are too much compromised.

[1198]

[joseph.d]

The current designs are very expensive and require very powerful bike to tow them. As far as i see it is very difficult to buy a new trailer fit for camping purpose. With regards to the trailer being good through traffic the trailer would be the same width as the bike so the width would not be a purpose. Also regarding parking i understand what you mean by it being a pain to park but the concept of being able to lock the possessions into the trailer rather than have it strapped to the bike and not secure is the main reason. It will be like a tow able, massive top box but with compartments and chargers etc. Thanks you very much for the feedback!!

[joseph.d]

The main frame of the trailer will be lightweights metals. It will provide a much lighter alternatives to wooden trailers with heavy cargo boxes ontop. As well as this the trailer will be a mono wheel design so will provide more space for the cargo as well as save weight and reduce friction with the ground.

[-]

[1198]

Is the design to have two wheels like a conventional trailer or one and so lean with you around corners?
How’s it meant to attach to the rear axle? Bear in mind if it’s to just one side it’ll need a shape like a question mark to enable the bike to point in a different direction when cornering so the wheel doesn’t hit it?

[stinkwheel]

You don't want it attaching to the rear axle. That will totally fuck up the handling because it's unsprung weight.

It needs to attach to the chassis as close the midline of the bike as possible so it pushes through the bike under braking, not lifting or pushing down on the rear wheel. If you're using a ball-hitch and 2-wheel trailer, you need the ball hitch itself lower but try to attach it higher so it's still pushing through the bike. If you're using a single wheel trailer attach it with a UJ roughly in line with the riders backside.

Congratulations by the way, you just designed a PAV trailer with stuff in it. Designed in Czechoslovakia in the 1950's for factory workers to take their wife on hoiliday. I bought one for my bike, made of fibreglass with an off the shelf Indespension unit and steel chassis. It was £450.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/MiQJNgAMGjW0B7fEagH_eFBxXH3dBpjMcZ6hSbMTgr-TGk84ZMXFcCm_LZ628gQmCb-9IBItyjxx27gfsMlGl2xYD8cj1w9J1jd5IFfTGA2tgJ8e72sTFkm7xtXsfER-6hm9eB7MIg=w1335-h1002-no

They are much sought after by Lambretta owners for some reason. A guy down in Leisctershire makes them as kits. An Indian company called Inder also manufacture them.

The main downsides are it tends to "wag" at speed if you get the loading wrong, you are limited to 50mph on single carriageway and 60mph on dual/motorway anyway. They are also a total SOD to back-up. Nearly impossible. Getting one out of a parking space is a work of art.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Ice Burger]

Is it a design and make project or just design?

[BTTD]

Quick google:
https://pbmotorcycletrailer.com/

Looks like it could be a fun project.

[Polarbear]

I had one when I had Goldwings. Big bastard that was much better suited to the Trike than the solo Wing.
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[Teflon-Mike]

Oh-Kay.... it sounds like a very 'good' A-Level design project..... but for ONE thing...... you probably wont be able to prototype and test the thing.

The legalities are the key here, and for desk-jockey and likely disinterested school-teacher, it would beg a BIG paper portfolio for them to go through, rather than try lug a hunk of scrap-steel about.... that aside; it's the paper-presentation, the reasoning and research here, that 'could' get you marks, and probably more than you could get adding whistles and bells and USB ports to a wheel-barrow frame.

BUT, the very first 'legality' you need worry about is that you cannot tow with a bike under 125cc. As an A-Level student, and presumably then 16/17/18, not old enough for an A2 bike licence.... begs the question... great idea but what the heck you going to tow it with?

Further thoughts, as Mechanical Engineer, withe career in Design & Development.... YUP, as Stink, says, it is an incredibly tiny market, so your market research is likely to be thin, and likely fictitious. Folk have been building bike-tow trailers for decades, and by and large they have been DIY jobs rather than over the counter products... bit of old skool lore for you, when I got interested in bikes, my Grandad, said, "That's all well and good, but who gonna fix it? If you can't fix it you have to pay some-one. If you can afford to pay some-one to fix your bike, you can afford a car...." now, with bikes as often sold as leisure equipment rather than every-day transport that doesn't hold so true, b-u-t...

When I was at Uni, studying mechanical engineering, this sort of thing was not unprecedented, and with the full facilities of the engineering labs on hand, I know of at least one bike tow trailer that was built. Lad that built it was a died hard rallyist, and thought it a good idea... briefly. After two terms designing and making the thing, he towed it home, I think behind his GS550.... Following Autumn, I went to the Bike Soc binge, with him riding a Mini based trike... with a car ball hitch on the back.... "Ah Yeah" was almost as little comment as I got on the topic. The mini based trike BTW was his 'elective' at A-Level, and after two rally's towing the bike-towed trailer... for the next, he took the trike, and added the ball-hitch to drag an off the shelf 'trailer tent'... the bike drawn was too small, apparently they could get a tent and a beer keg in it... but of the keg was full, the bike handled like a pig, and was no fun to ride. Take what you will from that....

B-u-t... there are 60 million folk in the UK. 3/4 of them may have a driving licence, and most do. Interestingly there are actually more taxed and registered road vehicles than there are people licensed to drive them, by a factor of almost 2:1. B-U-T, of them only something less than 5% are motorcycles, and over half of them are under 125cc and cant legally tow anything, remember. This leaves an ABSOLUTELY minuscule number of people, lets call them 'potential customers' who a) might have a driving licence, less still, a driving licence with motorcycle entitlement, even less still that have a bike to go with it, and more, a bike that they could, and more still, may actually want to stick a drogue on the back of.... THEN of those fifty people... how many do you reckon, might actually part with cold hard cash to BUY such a trailer... and just how much do you think they might pay for it?

You can buy a small camping trailer at Halfords for about £300. That's your price point. So you have to design something that can be built for about half that, to sell in smaller numbers. From the outset, I can tell you that you would NOT get this past the first concept meeting' in the commercial world.... it's just NOT a commercially viable idea.... for academic exercise, it does have merit, B-U-T it is in going through the motions, and putting together a sales pitch, that paperwork pack I mentioned your teacher might like, that considers all these 'problems' tackles them, and ultimately, probably ignores 99% of them, on a 'What-If' its only make believe basis...

So, great idea, but take a few dozen steps backwards, before you start, here.

For A-Level design project, if not ANY, the very FIRST question is, Necessity is the mother of invention, so WHAT is the necessity here? What 'problem' are you trying to engineer a solution to?

Straight away, that £300 Halfords camping trailer is your bench-mark. IF there is a need to haul camping kit about... that is the answer, you are not solving a problem that hasn't already, you are just trying to build a better mouse-trap. SO, what about your design do you think is 'better'?

You have already mentioned that there are bike-tow trailers on the market, which re-enforced the idea you are not solving a problem some-one else already hadn't; all you mention is that they are expensive... but this is to ignore the relatively 'cheap' £300 camping trailer already on the market, in Halfrords, that could be towed behind a bike... with a suitable hitch attached.... (THERE, is the more promising academic design problem to tackle.. the 'hitch'... but I'll park that notion, I think.)

Your actual trailer; they already exist, so what's your 'gimmick' what makes your design idea worth anything?

Believe me, it is NOT a dang USB charging port! They flog bikes that have them as standard! I even have one already in the pannier on my 750. I could even plug the electric refrigerated cool-box into the fag-lighter socket it's in, if I wanted!

So, what is the problem YOUR design is setting out to solve that hasn't already, and then whistles and bells of a better mouse trap, what will 'sell' and more pertinently at what cost?

Whether you can or not, is one thing, whether you might argue you could well enough on paper, another, and that argument is the grade winner for an academic project... B-U-T..... If I was your teacher, I'd be sending you back to the drawing board, and likely suggesting you design/build something 'like' every-one else... and hint here, think of what your 'Mum' could do with in the kitchen... lightweight folding steps or the like... if the problem isn't 'yours' and its slightly less esoteric, and every-day man in the street understandable, you stand a MUCH better chance of teacher and marking adjudicators being able to understand and empathise with you and give you marks, than something so 'wiered' and out of there sphere of comprehension, let alone experience... and save building bike-tow-trailer, if you must, for elective studies of your own back-yard...

Back over to you.... but take a few steps back, and go back to the drawing board... and if you are going to design something, be SURE you know what the 'problem' you are trying to solve here actually is.
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[WD Forte]

Just use a wheelie bin & bungees like a real biker
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bikers smell of wee

[joseph.d]

Thank you so much for all the feedback. Good thought Teflon Mike, maybe it’s worth looking more into the needs of the course and A level itself rather than just getting carried away with the idea. The context I have to stick to is to design ‘ A product, device, artefact or the transformation of a space to improve the camping experience’ hence why I wanted to do a camping trailer.
I will be sure to use the feedback you have all giving me in the portfolio Thanks again all!!

[Teflon-Mike]

[Sister Sledge]

What a great thread to read: Op is enthusiastic and has real ideas and focus. Forum users arrive and one by one pour a glass of cold water on op until they leave education without completing haha!

I'd say your main issues are it's already been done and you'll be copying someone with various bits, the actual legalities (bad enough with car trailers!) but mostly getting any suspension just right - I think the latter will take up more time than the rest combined.

I do wish you well and I will help where I can but this project will be tough for you unless you can think outside the box (though others will have and dismissed those ideas).
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CCM 404 DS

[joseph.d]

Again, thanks everyone for all the input and I will definitely be reconsidering the bike trailer, and maybe looking into tent pegs instead!!

[dynax]

It might be easier to design a multifunction sidecar, design a chassis that can take modular bodies that can be swapped for different uses, like a passenger open/closed, one for carrying goods, one person caravan, one that can be used as an outdoor kitchen etc
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Mike.
Bikes: Xena, Bridget,Florence
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmihUc0xXxYbR4_0l-F1FzA/videos?view_as=subscriber

[stinkwheel]

I have long thought that a pitbike rolling chassis with off-the-shelf hard motorcycle luggage attached would make a good motorcycle trailer. You'd just need to fabricate a horizontal pivot to attach to the bike, the vertical pivot can be the steering stem.

Several advantages, not least being the suspension is adequate, they have the correct amount of trail and the lights are already wired in. Yu cold potentially even hook in the braking system, although a braked trailer on a motorcycle would be a minefield.

Also:
https://youtu.be/5-BgEB4kLZ8
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Lone-Wolf]

Wotcha.

I'm afraid I fall into the "big" trailer group.

https://www.lonewolf.me.uk/LWMEimages/GL1100-02.jpg

https://www.moonshiners.org.uk/LWMEimages/2015-TCT.jpg

https://www.lonewolf.me.uk/LWMEimages/TCT2002.jpg

https://www.lonewolf.me.uk/LWMEimages/TCT-2916-2.jpg

https://www.moonshiners.org.uk/LWMEimages/2015-DOT.jpg
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Cheers.
^..^
L.W. - www.moonshiners.org.uk