Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Well #4 is done and gone so now onto #5. This build it not a build for a vehicle, but rather a bicycle, to be more exact a E-Bike.

While in the process of selling #3 I was approached by a person who was interested in if I could build a travel trailer for a bicycle under 100lbs. Well good question so challenge accepted. I am currently into this build quite a ways and it does seem that I should easily come in under 100lbs. At this point I am hoping for 75lbs.

Floor with inner frame rails attached.



Walls mocked up for window placements.

Once I figured out where I wanted the windows I cut them out.



Then the spackle to smooth things out on the printed side.



Then a sanding to smooth the walls out.

Then it was time to cut the canvas to length.



Then roll up the canvas and get it ready to be glued down.



A hour later we have a canvased wall.

Once the canvas is dry I cut back the canvas where glue will be applied for assembly and cut out the windows.



Then a quick test fit to make sure the windows fit properly with the canvas installed.



I weighted the wall with the windows fitted at this point, it came in at 11lbs.

this is gonna be good...

skyl4rk wrote:this is gonna be good...

I was wondering how long it was going to take till you found out...

Not to much got done this weekend as far as working on the trailer.

I basically only got to cutting the excess canvas off the other wall and prepped up some templates and a hot wire cutter for the shelves.



I am adding two shelves to the front of the trailer.

Another fun project.

Have pondered this exact same thing a couple times with an electric bike for touring. If only solar recharge feasable would be the greatest thing ever. Not an expert but my basic understanding is demand use exceeds slow solar recharge capacity. Damn. But going to campgrounds or other 110v source, can charge overnight. Ideal 2 batteries.

Having built many years ago a basic bike trailer from cedar and metal studs to do touring, didn't work out well for me and had to scrap the bike touring thing quickly.
Trailer was maybe 18x30 and light. Great.
Problem was my camping equipment and stuff was too heavy. Didn't have the luxury of ultralightweight gear back in the day.
Hard to pedal, never mind uphill and wind, plus braking hazard from momentum. Especially downhill. Just my experience fyi.
There is a traveler setup like this on YouTube who does this. Think it's corroplast if I remember correctly.

But back to the build.
What will you be doing for axle and wheels? Dimensions? Or did I miss that?
Bike racers measure everything in grams so whatever you can do to the extreme to reduce weight is huge.
Less paint and glue to minimize weight.
So why not a lighter floor than OSB? Would think this is the ideal place for a luaun foam sandwich torsion box that everyone talks about.
And in theory, just the torso or major weight bearing section. The ends could be even lighter, just luaun.
Couple thoughts to ponder.

Terra6 wrote:Another fun project.

Have pondered this exact same thing a couple times with an electric bike for touring. If only solar recharge feasable would be the greatest thing ever. Not an expert but my basic understanding is demand use exceeds slow solar recharge capacity. Damn. But going to campgrounds or other 110v source, can charge overnight. Ideal 2 batteries.

Having built many years ago a basic bike trailer from cedar and metal studs to do touring, didn't work out well for me and had to scrap the bike touring thing quickly.
Trailer was maybe 18x30 and light. Great.
Problem was my camping equipment and stuff was too heavy. Didn't have the luxury of ultralightweight gear back in the day.
Hard to pedal, never mind uphill and wind, plus braking hazard from momentum. Especially downhill. Just my experience fyi.
There is a traveler setup like this on YouTube who does this. Think it's corroplast if I remember correctly.

But back to the build.
What will you be doing for axle and wheels? Dimensions? Or did I miss that?
Bike racers measure everything in grams so whatever you can do to the extreme to reduce weight is huge.
Less paint and glue to minimize weight.
So why not a lighter floor than OSB? Would think this is the ideal place for a luaun foam sandwich torsion box that everyone talks about.
And in theory, just the torso or major weight bearing section. The ends could be even lighter, just luaun.
Couple thoughts to ponder.

Thanks!
I purchased a cargo bicycle trailer to scavenge the axle, wheels and hitch from. It was more economical to do it that way than to purchase them separately.
The dimensions are 7'6"x3'6". I did some research on some trailers that are made/manufactured in Europe and found that the dimensions I came up with were pretty close. There is however no real set way to build a bicycle trailer I found out.
My clients wanted a trailer that was no more than 100lbs. Doing the calculations in my head I figured I could easily come in under 100lbs even using OSB for the floor. I decided that since this was the first build it was probably better to stick with something I knew. Of course that was at the start of the build, but now I may try to lighten the floor since yes there is a lot of weight there. The trailer is planned to be towed behind a cargo e-bike, so I guess they have bigger capacities than a standard commuter e-bike. Most of the standard e-bikes I have looked at have a weight capacity of 275lbs-300lbs.

Terra6 wrote:Another fun project.

Have pondered this exact same thing a couple times with an electric bike for touring. If only solar recharge feasable would be the greatest thing ever. Not an expert but my basic understanding is demand use exceeds slow solar recharge capacity. Damn. But going to campgrounds or other 110v source, can charge overnight. Ideal 2 batteries.

I was part of a team building a solar car racer. The cars were all built low and flat with the maximum area for solar cells. The cars were also allowed to sit and charge the batteries at the end of the day with the cars tilted to face the sun. Just looked up solar bikes.

https://electrek.co/2018/09/27/solar-po ... e-journey/

ghcoe wrote:

Terra6 wrote:Another fun project.

Have pondered this exact same thing a couple times with an electric bike for touring. If only solar recharge feasable would be the greatest thing ever. Not an expert but my basic understanding is demand use exceeds slow solar recharge capacity. Damn. But going to campgrounds or other 110v source, can charge overnight. Ideal 2 batteries.

Having built many years ago a basic bike trailer from cedar and metal studs to do touring, didn't work out well for me and had to scrap the bike touring thing quickly.
Trailer was maybe 18x30 and light. Great.
Problem was my camping equipment and stuff was too heavy. Didn't have the luxury of ultralightweight gear back in the day.
Hard to pedal, never mind uphill and wind, plus braking hazard from momentum. Especially downhill. Just my experience fyi.
There is a traveler setup like this on YouTube who does this. Think it's corroplast if I remember correctly.

But back to the build.
What will you be doing for axle and wheels? Dimensions? Or did I miss that?
Bike racers measure everything in grams so whatever you can do to the extreme to reduce weight is huge.
Less paint and glue to minimize weight.
So why not a lighter floor than OSB? Would think this is the ideal place for a luaun foam sandwich torsion box that everyone talks about.
And in theory, just the torso or major weight bearing section. The ends could be even lighter, just luaun.
Couple thoughts to ponder.

Thanks!
I purchased a cargo bicycle trailer to scavenge the axle, wheels and hitch from. It was more economical to do it that way than to purchase them separately.
The dimensions are 7'6"x3'6". I did some research on some trailers that are made/manufactured in Europe and found that the dimensions I came up with were pretty close. There is however no real set way to build a bicycle trailer I found out.
My clients wanted a trailer that was no more than 100lbs. Doing the calculations in my head I figured I could easily come in under 100lbs even using OSB for the floor. I decided that since this was the first build it was probably better to stick with something I knew. Of course that was at the start of the build, but now I may try to lighten the floor since yes there is a lot of weight there. The trailer is planned to be towed behind a cargo e-bike, so I guess they have bigger capacities than a standard commuter e-bike. Most of the standard e-bikes I have looked at have a weight capacity of 275lbs-300lbs.

I was considering use a Baltic Birch sandwich with foam in between for my trailer but went with plywood. One inch foam and 1/8" plywood might be lighter. I measured the Mahogany plywood I have and it is lighter than Birch. Maybe a ply top and wrapped bottom?

[quote="Terra6"]https://electrek.co/2018/09/27/solar-powered-electric-bicycle-journey/[/quote

WOW!! I would never have imagined that an 8,000 mile electric bicycle trip, was possible!

Paint me, amazed :-)

All they sell here, in bike shops these days, are (about $2000.00) electric bikes. 20 miles or so, is the max you can expect to get from their rigs, Out on the local bike paths, the electric bikes are going so fast, that it is absolutely frightening to us pedal power riders.



.

Progress this week.

Applied canvas to the ceiling side of the roof panel.





Once dried I trimmed the excess canvas off.

I had forgot to cut out the left wall shelf dados the week before so I had to cut those out.