Dual Sport Trailer assembly thread

[DakarNick]

Originally Posted by rw4x4van

I didn't get anything done last night, my apologies

I'll continue tonight. That reminds me, I need to check tracking for my shock. But, I still need a 21x3.00 tire so I can get the shock lined up.

[thatboatguy]

Originally Posted by Greg Bender

So how did it do? To me it looks like it might not be stout enough where it connects to the backbone/frame. But I'm just looking at a photo :>

Regards,

Gregory Bender

Actually I'm pretty happy with that part. I'll try and post some more photos today. I rode around the hood and actually don't like the hitch. I brought the front wheel off the ground at one point and it bent my license plate! I put the box on the frame temporarily and then sat on it. Nothing bent unduly so I jumped on it a little. Then I jumped on it hard landing with my full weight. The shock took up the impact and nothing got bent out of shape. I will redo the hitch to be more like Paul's I think. Right now I got sidetracked by a couple of other items on the honey-do list.

George

[Greg Bender]

Originally Posted by thatboatguy

Actually I'm pretty happy with that part. I'll try and post some more photos today. I rode around the hood and actually don't like the hitch. I brought the front wheel off the ground at one point and it bent my license plate! I put the box on the frame temporarily and then sat on it. Nothing bent unduly so I jumped on it a little. Then I jumped on it hard landing with my full weight. The shock took up the impact and nothing got bent out of shape. I will redo the hitch to be more like Paul's I think. Right now I got sidetracked by a couple of other items on the honey-do list.

George

Good deal...it can be hard to really get a good feel for the strength of something just looking at photos :>

Regards,

Gregory Bender

[DakarNick]

[DakarNick]

Made some progress tonight. Not quite sure how the geometry will work but I'm designing as I build.

[tomatocity]

[QUOTE=DakarNick;19850973]Made some progress tonight. Not quite sure how the geometry will work but I'm designing as I build.



Nick, did you sleeve the swingarm tubing where the pivot bolt passes through?

How does an engineer (which I am not) calculate the correct angle of the shock?

BTW I do like your trailer a lot.

[DakarNick]

Originally Posted by tomatocity

Nick, did you sleeve the swingarm tubing where the pivot bolt passes through?

How does an engineer (which I am not) calculate the correct angle of the shock?

BTW I do like your trailer a lot.

Thanks for the compliment.

I'm sure there is a formula for shock geometry, how it correlates to weight, swingarm length, swingarm travel, etc. But I don't know it. Trial and error for me

The swingarm tubes (two on swingarm, and the trailer body itself) each have graphite-infused bronze bushings installed. I'll take a pic of them tonight.

[DakarNick]

All pivots use bronze bushings.

Here are some swingarm pics.





Horizontal pivot



Other pics

[tomatocity]

Good job Nick. Binding / Pinching shouldn't happen. I do like your trailer.

[thatboatguy]

I'm pretty much done. Just have to add a tail light and license plate bracket. My glider just fits into the box. :) I do think I'll eventually shorten the trailer and build a more robust hitch (as I previously mentioned).






George

[DakarNick]

Looks good, George!

I've made a bit more progress. Here are some pics.

[MrBracket]

Great work on the trailers guys! I do have a couple concerns to share, take them with a grain of salt, only my opinions. I did do a fair amount of testing when I designed my trailer however...

thatboatguy, in my opinion, your container is too high. This puts the weight up high and can cause some severe handling issues. This also eliminates one of the benefits of a trailer, getting the weight down low. Besides the handling issues, if you fall over, you'll have to raise all the weight up high in the air making it very hard to pick up your bike. Again, please only take this as an attempt at constructive criticism.

DakarNick, is that a bicycle wheel you are using? If not, ignore this concern. I too was attracted to using a bicycle wheel, some have used them with great success. I was attracted by the low weight. However, if you look back in this thread you'll see what happened to one of my first trailers. I broke the axle in the bicycle wheel. Granted I was on a 160 mile dual sport ride and I rode just as hard as I would of without a trailer. At that time I was carrying only some tools and two roto-pax one gallon gas cans. In my opinion, a bicycle wheel is just not up to the task for a dual sport trailer.

Again, only trying to be helpful and give constructive criticism. I'm in no way trying to dampen creativity, just offering lessons learned.

I'm very excited to see there are other "weirdos" like myself that like to pull trailers

[DakarNick]

Originally Posted by MrBracket

DakarNick, is that a bicycle wheel you are using?

Looks like it compared to those beefy 26" Downhill bike tires, doesn't it?

It is actually a 21 x 1.6 wheel off a CR250 and a 21 x 3.00 Shinko dirtbike tire.

[thatboatguy]

Concern noted and appreciated! Fortunately for me my trailer serves only one purpose for me. It carries my aircraft. Rucksack, harness and wing with risers weighs in at a whopping 30 pounds! I did entertain the idea that I could carry a Jerry Jug between the box and hitch but I have given up on that idea. The way the trailer is now, I was able to make it more compact in length with the wheel under and can do without a fender. Above is an early attempt at hauling the wing and my camping gear at the same time. As you can imagine, the weight is being carried much higher this way. I can now carry my camping gear in saddle bags and a much smaller box on the back rack.

George

[DakarNick]

Good work, George. I'll have to PM you about your wing!