# Second use of my new trailer



## Amanda P (3 Jun 2009)

It had its maiden voyage to work and then onto the supermarket last week, but that's rather boring.

Yesterday I had some problems with my bike and had to come home on the bus.

So today, I hauled that bike home on the trailer with another:







It's still painted in slobbery red oxide primer until I'm sure it's exactly how I want it. When I'm sure it'll go to be powder coated. 

It's made from scrap tubing I got from a place in Elvington where they make steel furniture frames and the like. Thin-walled where I could get away with it, thicker where I couldn't (the wheel outrigger thingies). Fillet brazed construction - it's hard to do neat welds on round tubes this thin. The steel cost me £3 (to the steel place's tea fund). Gases and brazing rod probably £10; wheels about £15 I think from Burton Bikes (an Ebay seller who seems to be inactive just now). They came with horrible knobbly tyres on, though; decent ones cost me another £10 each. It's probably taken me around 10 to 15 hours' work.

I built it specially to be big enough to carry another bike on it, or to take three folding crates of groceries, or two trombones, or a guitar+amplifier. (It might be able to carry other stuff too...)

The triangulated struts were inspired by Alex Moulton's designs, and they make the trailer very stiff as well as providing handy places to hook bungies or ttie ropes. There's a bit of perforated plate on the back for attaching lights.






If you remove the two clevis pins, the drawbar telescopes out and comes off. Remove the wheels and then the whole package fits in a slot 4" wide for storage.






I'd just got home from work when I took these, and the dog was desperate to get my attention...


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## Joe24 (3 Jun 2009)

> Never mind the trailer, what did the poor dog in the first picture ever do to you?



its the right way up really


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## RedBike (3 Jun 2009)

I feel quite upset now. I can't get a bike on/in my trailer.


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## TimP (4 Jun 2009)

RB,

Based on what I've seen on another thread...

If yours is the Revolution trailer/very similar here is how to rack two bikes onto it:

*Preparation*
Pad the side bars of the trailer
Remove the bike wheels
Turn the bars through right angles

*The attaching*
Invert the bike, bars to the front of the trailer.
Turn the bars so that they run front to back
Strap the frame to the outside of the trailer with the bars tucked on the inside
Attach a second bike in a similar manner on the other side
Take the four wheels and put the two front wheels into the gap between the bikes.
Take the back wheels and place drop them within the forks, back as far as they will go.
Strap everything down.

Hitch trailer and you are good to go!

(It took a few iterations to find a suitable configuration for fitting two bikes onto the trailer)

I'll try and find a picture of two bikes being towed in such a manner a bit later.


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## Bokonon (4 Jun 2009)

Nice trailer Phil. What have you used as a hitch??


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## Crackle (4 Jun 2009)

> Never mind the trailer, what did the poor dog in the first picture ever do to you?



I agree, it's been shot.

Nice trailer. I've been playing with the idea of a trailer, one which'll take the dog as I'm thinking of ditching my car. I don't suppose the dog ever travels on the trailer though.


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## Amanda P (4 Jun 2009)

Bokonon said:


> Nice trailer Phil. What have you used as a hitch??



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.

I was going to use a Carry Freedom hitch, which, according to their website, you can buy separately. In practice, though, I haven't been able easily to get one. I got fed up of waiting and starting fiddling with my own design.

The dog has travelled on a trailer (not this one though, a slightly smaller Bykaboose trailer). He has one of those fabric-sided folding travelling box/bed/kennel things. We just strap that onto the flat trailer and he travels inside. The end result is much the same as those trailers you can buy with a fabric dog kennel attachment.

He's heavy, though (20kg) so we're not inclined to take him on tour.


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## Gareth (4 Jun 2009)

It's great to see another well built home-made bicycle trailer in use.


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## summerdays (4 Jun 2009)

I like it... but couldn't you paint it a nicer colour? How about a dark green to match the base and the bike that was pulling it? (Can you tell I'm a girl)


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## Amanda P (4 Jun 2009)

Uncle Phil said:


> It's still painted in slobbery red oxide primer until I'm sure it's exactly how I want it.



I haven't decided what colour I want it. But now that you mention it, British Racing Green would be nice.


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## Amanda P (4 Jun 2009)

But then, what if I pull it with another bike, and it clashes??!


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## Bokonon (4 Jun 2009)

Uncle Phil said:


> 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.



I look forward to seeing that. Your trailer and Gareth's efforts are giving me inspiration to start my own trailer project. I have a good idea of what I am going to do (when I get round to it) but the hitch is the major detail I am yet to sort - I was thinking of using track rod ends.


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## Amanda P (4 Jun 2009)

I thought of that too. But you can't buy them in B&Q, or at my friendly neighbourhood engineering works. The ones I checked out online were expensive. And you still need some sort of quick-release arrangement...


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## Bokonon (4 Jun 2009)

RS have reasonably cheap ones. My quick release would have required the use of a spanner or two... I guess being able to detach the trailer easily would be useful when locking up at the supermarket etc.


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## Arch (4 Jun 2009)

Excellent trailer Uncle Phil. You should bring it on group rides, as a breakdown truck. Although you'd have to tow the rider too... Britch Racing green would look nice. Surely it can't clash too badly with anything?

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...


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## Night Train (4 Jun 2009)

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

Just out of interest, how much does it weigh?


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## Night Train (4 Jun 2009)

Arch said:


> 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.


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## Arch (4 Jun 2009)

Night Train said:


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



oh, of course!


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## Tharg2007 (4 Jun 2009)

can we have some closeup pics of the hitch please?


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## Amanda P (5 Jun 2009)

Uncle Phil said:


> 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.


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## TheDoctor (5 Jun 2009)

Night Train said:


> That's great, love the dog impersonating a pretzel!
> 
> Just out of interest, how much does it weigh?



Answered already, NT.



Uncle Phil said:


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



There you go. 20 kg.


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## Night Train (5 Jun 2009)

Cheers Doc,

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


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## TheDoctor (5 Jun 2009)

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


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## Amanda P (5 Jun 2009)

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).


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## Amanda P (5 Jun 2009)

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.


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## Night Train (6 Jun 2009)

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.


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## Andy 71 (23 Jun 2009)

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


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## Andy 71 (23 Jun 2009)

A pic of that hitch would be good.


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## Amanda P (23 Jun 2009)

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.


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## Arch (23 Jun 2009)

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...


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