Hello all,
I’m wondering if anyone here has ever made a bicycle trailer for towing a longboard to the beach. Summer is on the way and I’m looking for some ideas on how to make my own trailer so I can avoid paying $350 for one.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Joshmosh, post your email addy and I will send you some pics of mine. It cost like $5.00 per day to park at the beach in mine town durning the summer, so I use mine all of the time. It is not too neat looking but it sure works. I picked mine up a few years back but the company had gone out of busness since I got it. I carry up to 12 foot on it.
Bagman,
please post a pic or two here.
–4est
Thanks for the replies!
My email address is:
jdnelson@princeton.edu
Here, we have limited beach parking plus other hassles, so bike trailers are something that gets played with quite a lot.
I’ve seen 'em made with single wheels and double wheels, the best are done with a fairly wide-set pair of relatively large diameter ( 20"- 26" ) wheels as available from Northern: http://www.northerntool.com/ or salvaged off a garden cart. Bike wheels seem like a good idea until you have to start playing with attaching them - the cart-type wheels are set up for a 1/2" rod stock hub from the get-go while bike wheels are set up for the short axle that they come with.
The frame you can make from cheap, available conduit tubing ( though I have seen stuff like windsurfer boom tubes used) , use a conduit bender to get that right. If you have a light MIG welder then life gets easy. If you have a buddy who does auto body welding, that’s the kind of gear you need to do it. Or flatten and futz with the ends to bolt 'em together, as you may see on stuff like lawnmower push-handles. Trick is to bend in half-round concaves so that they fit together well and won’t shake loose in use. Use stove bolts with washers and lock nuts with that arrangement. A pipe cutter is great for cutting the stuff straight and even.
A bad sketch
The hitch to the bike rack can be very simple. You may want to keep the board attachment as low as possible to keep from having to make the trailer too wide - center of gravity issues. Pipe insulation makes great pads, bungees for hold-downs. Cross-bracing not shown, but it’s a Real Good Idea.
Best to lay out the geometry of it on a sheet of plywood before you start cutting tubing. What’s shown above is just a rough sketch, go with what works for you. Try to keep the board as horizontal as possible and bear in mind that the tradeoffs ( long trailer tends to block narrow bike trails on corners, shorter trailer with a lot of board off the back tends to swing to the outside on turns, long trailer more stable and heavier, short trailer more easily maneuvered but can be quirky, etc ) can be interesting.
Bear in mind that tubing is cheap - you can play with it some if it doesn’t work real well at first.
hope that’s of use
doc…
thanx for the stimuli been thinking about a trailer /dollly to get these giant boards back and forth a block to the beach,poly strength momentum positive yes weight does have difficulties…monkey mind says: windsurfer mast based design option…readily availiable material…engineers of necessity and technique dieing to coping saw the way to pedestrian bliss hows the tires for sand factor? saw some sand specific tires some time back what are those are those the garden cart tires?Wide tread wheel barrow Pneumaticx have lately been a thought…to achieve the weightless balance of the traditional wheelbarrow design is the noble goal , two boards rail mount on edge…perhaps carry/pull by nose under arm like the tail drag of yore… bikes require maintenence time I wish to spend elsewhere especially now that hand me downs have rust prone gears and do me dads that stop functioning just when you wish them to woik…Implify: would a Genie put up with satisfaction defered? yeah booms hmmm ambrose …sensing the approach of brainstorm…maybe a waterspout,…Jensen bent wood basswood and beech with red cedar accent lam…mmmmmmmm south east alaska spruce
Hee - yeah, or maybe some alternating strips of yellow Alaskan cedar and mahogany in a laminate bent around a form - it’d have to be more than half the board length so you didn’t get a couple of tailblocks in the navel, or maybe pull it, rickshah style… or just do a nice handle that’d glue into a mast section… glass the junctions and such, cut the round sections with a hole saw in a drill press for a good fit. The way of putting them on the rails is a great idea, the curves of the board let you put 'em lower and still deal with the bumps and dips on those less than manicured paths.
The cart-type wheels - http://www.northerntool.com/images/product/images/145123_lg.jpg for instance, you could also put wider and worn mountain bike tires on it for sand work. The bigger diameter wheel works well, you have to go with wide wheels if they are smaller diameter. They also make somewhat smaller ( 20" diameter) ones with plastic spokes if rust is a worry, they’re cheaper too. http://www.northerntool.com/images/product/images/155121_lg.jpg - love their blurb:
Great wheel and tire for a garden cart and other wheeled contraptions
‘contraptions’ - now there’s my life’s story in a nutshell
best
doc…
on the walk to the beach I visualized a tri pod three wheel to allow free standing…the handle on a universal telescoping to adapt to board long or shorter the tripod allowing for easy adjustment balance as fixed right away is a perfection that is mathamatical and beyond me at this point in my development especially with the 12’ factor third center wheel actuated with the handle for steering close wheel base for walking pivot turns and longer wheelbase for trailering bike style …wow tricycle frame take off handle bars and add pipe clamp to gooseneck to take mast…heh heh heh could we get r.Crumb to draw it or phillips or maybe the boys at donald duck for the Gyro Gearloose pages MMMMMMMMMMMMM tastes like cold cereal with out having to live thru the digestive nightmares funny how my mind makes it into a cartoon to validate the thought form on its way to realizing it … culturally an interesting facet or is this my exclusive slice of maddness…ambrose…If Gyro can do it it can be done
Thanks for all the helpful and insightful replies!
I think I have a great starting point. Now I just have to figure out the best way to hitch the trailer.
gudgeon and pintle…simple design functional to the max
Or even easier: no third wheel but a simple post, so when you set it down it stays put on a little angle, like a wheelbarrow in reverse, two wheels and one post. Swipe the length adjustment mechanism from an old adjustable windsurfer boom, spring loaded pins and pre-drilled holes, maybe two back to back for lots of adjustment. An A-frame in end-on profile, maybe, all of old masts stuck together.
doc…Where’s the shade of Rube Goldberg when we need him??
Sorry guys I can’t seem to get the pics. down to the point that I can post them.
Ambrose, if you can pick up one of those trailers that they hall kids around in behind a bike. Take a front fork off a bike and weld it to the connection bar of the kid halling trailer. You got what you are looking for.
This guy has some designs that are worth a look. He also sells hitches and other components to make your own…
If you want to go really low budget, here’s what I did when I was a kid:
Get some 2"x2" lumber. Make a “T” with the long section the length of your board plus a foot or two. Add a few cross members made from 2"x2"s and a shelf at the end of the trailer, and cover with carpet. Take some wheels from your old toy wagon and attach to a couple of feet of threaded rod. Attach the wheel assembly to the end of the “T” with some brackets. And you’re done. Total time to build shouldn’t be more than 1/2 hour. Total cost shouldn’t be more than $15.
http://drumbent.com/trailer.html
Here’s link to what looks to be a pretty decent and low budget bike trailer made out of conduit. These plans can be modified to accommodate a longboard or shortboard, in addition to allowing you to carry a fishing pole, cooler, beach chairs, or whatever else (within limit) you wan’t to carry.
There is a guy down the street from me who makes a board rig. Called Board Ride. It’s made from polished aluminum tubing, alloy go cart wheels, very trick. They are a bit spendy though. If I can ever figure out how to post a pic, I’ll put one up.
roleez tires for the sand do these things wear out fast on the pavement? they sure look cartoony…take em accross the creek and down on the beach thru the soft sand ho ho ho yellow … ambrose…whaddan option
