Build your own trailer

[-Savage-]

Hey all, just wondering if anyone can see any major problems with this as an idea for a trailer?

This is a rough drawing, and hopefully gives the right idea.

The whole thing will be 75cm wide and 180cm from bike rear axle to the end of the trailer.

I'm going to try and use a bike front wheel and tyre the same as is on the bike.

I intend to use a normal tow ball and hitch to mount the trailer on the tow bar rig, which will come wither side of the swing arm, and have an threaded bar through my bikes rear axle, with spacers and nuts (split pins to secure nuts) and a brace up to the pillion peg bolts.
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My Bikes - - - Royal Enfield 500 with sidecar, VFR800, CBR600FX,
Peugeot Speedfight 100, Kymco Hipster 125, GSXR750K5, Jawa TS 350

[ms51ves3]

You may want to put a hinge of some kind on the brace otherwise you're going to lock your subframe to your swingarm and have no rear suspension.

EDIT: Actually, even if it was hinged, would it not lock up anyway? You may need it to slide.

Probably best to mount it to either the swingarm or the subframe.

[Teflon-Mike]

Tell me if this is wrong, but what you are suggesting, is basically making a backwards facing wheel-barrow..... a one wheeled trailer.

Then extending the rear swing-arm and bringing it round the rear wheel with a conventional ball-hitch on it to drag the backwards wheel-barrow?

Question; if it has only one wheel and is attached to the bike by a ball-joint so it can twist in any direction.... what stops it falling over?

There are probably a lot more questions, and MOST of them are legal.

The Construction & Use regs apply to trailers, and as far as I know, they are framed to prohibit 'home-built' trailers since about 1995, via wording that prohibits the use of parts like axles or hubs NOT expressely designed for trailers.... why Indespension and I think Al-Can have an almost monopoly on trailer frames for caravans and the like in this country.

NOT sure whet the regs for bike trailers are like..... but DO know its a nightmare.....

Then you have the small matter of whther your bike licence lets you tow a trailer.......

LOTS of research before you start sketching me-thinks.....
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[Whosthedaddy]

I do accept major credit cards and Paypal but wont be offended if you dont on this occassion as many of the photos are missing:

https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=170053
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[Stevie GooGs]

https://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg307/virusjohn/rat%20and%20survival%2009/S8000083.jpg

Jesus thats one backpack to be on a bike with, i get pissed of will carrying anything on my back for more than a couple of hundred miles.
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[G]

As above - if it's only got one wheel, you only want two or possibly one plane of movement.
If it's got two, then you want three planes of movement.

This is my home made push bike trailer linkage. Ok, it's for a different purpose, but it has still pulled a good chunk over 100kg!
I used two pivots and a 20mm threaded rod to handle rotation - however you definitely want to avoid that with one wheel.

https://gees.zenfolio.com/img/s10/v2/p206432087-3.jpg

[The Shaggy D.A.]

[G]

Yea, don't worry it is now - that picture was taken several years ago.
Luckily so too because the nut did fall off at Glastonbury this year. Unfortunately the bolt worked it's way up a bit, so was only in the upper bit, leading to that plate bending up - however some stamping on it allowed me to put it back through both.

[virus]

Ok so youve got the lengths withing the legal limits, but im afraid everything else is a bad idea.


1) Dont attach pillion pegs to axle, you'll break the sub frame you've made or break your pillion pegs off when you get suspension movement, Ideally you want 3 points of contact on each side all on the sub frame to get it solid. Dont mount t the swingarm unless youve got a hardtail because trust me when the trailer wheel skips and the rear wheel doesnt its going to play havoc with your cornering. Make sure you use decent box section not flat bar for the frame like I did once, it ripped itself to pieces with the flex.

2) wheel placement good, wheel size bad, use a moped frontend or some such, smaller wheel handles better.

3) you CANT use a car style towball and hitch with a single wheeled trailer, the trailer will pivot and fall over and you wont have any control over it, either 2 wheels and a hitch, or one wheel and a universal joint (small car propshaft is were its at for this).



Any more questions let me know, Ive made enough mistakes testing mine and trying to modify it to for the rat chop (no longer got the 750 pictured above) to know what im doing pretty much.


Cheers
John
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own: 81 xs1100g...
owned: 85 rat CG (sold), 91 GS500e (stolen), 84 gsx400f (scrapped), 81 z250 (siezed, siezed, scrapped), 83 cb250rs (sold), 84 gpz750r ratfighter (killed) 84gpz400 (sold), '80 cb650 ratfighter (wrote off) 95gsx6/12f ratfighter (killed) 91 xj900 (sold)
stinkwheel Well I just had my hands up a pigs fanny. Which makes your concerns pale into insignificance.

[virus]

[-Savage-]

[virus]

correctomundo, any rotation = falling over, and not just of the trailer, make sure your joining method however has some way of adjusting the rotation, or even better have it fixed so the damn thing is aligned correctly, havign the trailer tilted a few degrees over compared to the bike results in some very brown trouser inducing moments



Cheers
John
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own: 81 xs1100g...
owned: 85 rat CG (sold), 91 GS500e (stolen), 84 gsx400f (scrapped), 81 z250 (siezed, siezed, scrapped), 83 cb250rs (sold), 84 gpz750r ratfighter (killed) 84gpz400 (sold), '80 cb650 ratfighter (wrote off) 95gsx6/12f ratfighter (killed) 91 xj900 (sold)
stinkwheel Well I just had my hands up a pigs fanny. Which makes your concerns pale into insignificance.