#5

[ghcoe]

Hope you're well. I've become recently-obsessed with trying a build like this, and really like the design you came up with. Thanks for posting the pictures that you did.

Do you happen to recall the name of that small hitch you found?

Were you able to finish this build? Any tips/hints if I was aiming to copy you?

I don't recall if there was a name for the hitch. I found it in the European bicycle markets. Took a bit to find one in the U.S. I found it on Ebay. They only had a few and I ordered 2.

Thanks. The build is basically where I left it last September. Which is really annoying to me, but I have had too many more pressing things in life come up this year. I hope to be done with that this month. Might get a few weeks to work on it before it gets cold. It really is pretty close. I also, hope to have the shop heated this winter which will open things up a bit for me.

Not sure if I have any tips or tricks that I have not already shared here. If you have questions though let me know. George.

 

[TaigaTradesman]

I just found this site and posted my first foam build. I started my build back in May of this year and ironically used the same dado technique as you. Great minds! After scouring the pages of the forum I also believe you are the founder/creator of the Bug Out Trailer channel on YouTube. If so I wanted to thank you because your channel was about the only available source of knowledge that I could find at the time. I now know there is a whole slew of information on this site. Anyways thanks again and excited to see how this one turns out.

 

[ghcoe]

Thanks!
Yes Bug Out Trailers is me.
I saw your build this morning and made a reply, but I guess my reply got lost somewhere or somehow. Looks great and looks oddly familiar. Good job...

 

[GeorgeDS]

Hope you are in good health and your workshop heating is sorted.

Did you make progres on the bike trailer ?

Found this image from a lightweight bike trailer Paul Elkins built.

This might distribute the forces better than a single board to the axle

 

[ghcoe]

Hope you are in good health and your workshop heating is sorted.

Did you make progres on the bike trailer ?

Found this image from a lightweight bike trailer Paul Elkins built.

This might distribute the forces better than a single board to the axle

Good health still and this weekend was the first weekend that the heater was setup and working in the shop.
No progress with the trailer at all this year. Been bogged down with a ton of other projects this year. I hope to hit it hard sometime this winter, now that I got heat .
I had ran into that frame when doing the initial research on building a bicycle trailer. I am planning on doing a real light frame. Mostly just to spread the towing, hitch and axle forces into the body better. The body on a foamie is basically a uni-body so I don't think much framework is needed.
Thanks for sharing though. It really is a nicely built frame.

 

[GeorgeDS]

Good to hear all is well.

Looking forward to seeing how you do the framing. In ruminating about how to build my bike trailer i thought of routing in the framing. Maybe the triangle could be straight from the axle to the hitch, that way only 3 boards would be needed Maybe even drilling lots of holes in them to lighten them further

 

[ghcoe]

My plan is basically a T design. I am going to try to use 3/4" conduit bent in a S. My hitch is designed to attach under the seat. The tongue will attach there made a S shape over the bicycles rear tire and then run under the trailer to the axle. The tongue will attach to the axle with sheet metal that will be wrapped around the axle and bolted/ pop riveted to the tongue top and bottom. At some point between the front of the body and the axle I am going to run some all thread through the tongue that will run to the edges of the trailer side to side. This will help keep the tongue from twisting excessively while in motion and will add some extra support. At this point I will probably make a kick stand to deploy when in use.

Hope that makes sense.

 

[GeorgeDS]

kinda makes sense. Wondering about metal fatigue though, these bike trailer tongues see quite a bit of abuse. Even the Weber tongues suffer on the biycle travel trailers.

As for a hitch, this is one of my favorites, KISS principle
https://youtu.be/Q-hfASJA6FA?t=675

 

[ghcoe]

kinda makes sense. Wondering about metal fatigue though, these bike trailer tongues see quite a bit of abuse. Even the Weber tongues suffer on the biycle travel trailers.

As for a hitch, this is one of my favorites, KISS principle
https://youtu.be/Q-hfASJA6FA?t=675

Not sure. Only time will tell. I think in this case the conduit has some flex and will absorb a lot of the bouncy forces that would work on more ridged structures. There are some options on reinforcing the conduit without adding too much weight also. I will cross that bridge when the time comes.

That is a pretty cool hitch option. Might have to look into making one of those too. Much cheaper and easier to obtain than the hitch I got.

 

[ghcoe]

Wow! Nearly 3 1/2 years since any movement on this project. I knew it had been awhile but not that long. I am finally at a point were I can start moving along with this project again.

I guess a bit of back story. Covid messes with everything. Original buyer ghosted me so there was no need to rush. Primary vehicle caught on fire so secondary vehicle needed to be built up. Shop was needed for more pressing projects. Overlanding and RV trips. Video editing for such trips. Well you get the point. Things are slowing down a bit here although still quite busy, but I got to get this trailer out of the shop so it has moved up the list.

As stated above the original buyer ghosted me so there was no need to proceed with the build. I though about tearing it apart and using it for other project but before I did that I listed it for sale and got quite a few bites (and maybe a sale) so though I would just finish it up and see what happens.

So here we go again!

 

[ghcoe]

So this is where we left off. I had glued the walls and the roof on. I had some excess foam that extended out past the floor.

I trimmed off the excess and sanded everything smooth to the back wall.

 

[ghcoe]

Then it was time to start fairing out the surface for canvas. I use lightweight spackle to fill in low spots, holes, cuts and grooves. Once dry I sand the spackle smooth. This is also the time to sand all the foam surface to break up the gloss and provide a better tooth for the primer. Sanding the surface also removes a huge portion of what releasing agent that they may have used during the manufacturing process.

 

[ghcoe]

And the roof.