Trailer I make for my colleague. Article on my website:
http://grzegorski.net/wiki/doku.php?id=en:moto:przyczepa2
Some "concept-stack" photo from article:
Damn, Bro, you're Very good. Excellent fabrication 🙂
Is it a trailer or a sidecar? Either way looking good.
As topic titke says "not a sidecar [...] 2-wheel trailer" :). I'm maniac of adding wheels to bike. Sometimes I ride 5-wheel rig 😀 Watch for photos and updates under link given in first post. I will post new photos and info in tuesday. Today I made a "hook", but my internet connection (by cell phone) something doesn't allow to send a photos.
Ha, you're a clever guy! Yes, we're all maniacs around here, some like yourself an myself more than others! Looks cool. I like your eye for 'style', it's similar to mine. I enjoy the same sort of looks of things, military, industrial, heavy duty, adventurer, functional etc.
There are some sayings in English, 'Form follows function' or 'Function follows form'. In the first case a thing ends up looking like it does because of what its use is and what it does functionally. In the second, the style and look of a thing is first and foremost, and then the function of what it does is secondary, and follows that form. I prefer build for Function first, and then trying to come up with a nice Form to clothe it in. Others build for looks first, but that way it may not perform its function as well, or at all.
So, you say 'Hook'? Does that mean the same as 'Hitch', that you built a trailer hitch for the trailer today?
Work safe friend!
Yes, a hitch, not a hook. In Polish, these two words are the same, "hak" (sounds like "hack"), because trailer-hitch in our part of worls is hook-shaped.
Some photos:
All elements 12mm 8.8 class steel, for 100kg trailer (in Europe you cannot tow heavier trailer behind a motorcycle). Theoretically it can withstand 1200kg (statical), so I should pull a 100kg trailer with 12G acceleration to break the hitch built from these materials. In practice, 2G cannot be done. I drilled "greasing tunnel" in the bolt, and threaded it at one end - you can see small screw that covers a hole in which grease can be added. It weakens the bolt a little, but it's only 1mm diameter. The big eyenut is locked with Loctite 270 and (not on a photo) with forelock, to prevent screwing-out.
And some bonus. Waterproof toolbox (as we call it - "breakfast box") on towbar. I mounted it using rubber elements (visible just under the box), so i remained waterproof. Tested with water and didn't leak. It comes from some military communication equipment.
Very interesting. Check out the military hitches called 'Pintle hook hitch', they are somewhat similar. Used for towing EXTREMELY heavy loads like towing artillery, tanks, huge trucks, you name it! Only drawback or problem is they sort of rattle and clank, banging around metal to metal as weight shifts, but again it's a different design. Works, that's all that matters!
At this link some pictures of Pintle Hook hitches:
http://www.tjtrailers.com/store/pintle-hooks-combination-hitches-gooseneck-hitch-plates.html
Note, that's for towing up to 100,000lbs trailer weight, or 45,000kg! Tough stuff!
In Poland this is called "artilery hitch". But it's heavy and noisy. And for bike it's too much "everythingproof".
My superior, the quartermaker at a pioneer company used to say "things here, mustn't be idiot proof, but soldier proof. They damage anything"
My latinos are somewhat simmular in damaging reasonably well designed stuff.
So I added to my sayings:
What cannot be adjusted, cannot be missadjusted.
Just remind Murfey's law. My water proof Velorex sidecar once fooled me when I crossed a river. it floated up and pulled me into the deep.
The water proof trailer might float up and take off Your traction from the back tire. So it would be a good idea to tell Your collegue first to check out the depth of a river he wants to cross.
Another disadvantage of a water proof box is that water shouldn't come in, but once in there (like a popped up bottle) it will not come out neither and mould and fermentation become serious arguments for his wife not to go camping again. (imagine spilled milk)
By the way. Levers have their week part. Don't think at a trailer hitch about static forces. vibration and slack will cause fatigue parts way faster then a static calculation will let you expect. (the anchour bolt of a container platform has to be changed in Europe after 1,5mm wear! In Costa Rica I better do not look too close when I am at a truck stop.) each bump will cause a hit in your eye bolts!
The hitch a former employee put onto his motorcycle for his trailer I like a lot. It is a steering ball head tightly fit into its conus shaped reciever. No slack at all and good articulation with a lot of resistance. You get them used in any car repair shop and all you need is a round file and some prussian blue for to make up the reciever eye. Good lubrication is included.
Igor, good luck with Your projects.
Sven
Waterproof things are only for not too heavy rain. Fortunately my colleague isn't an idiot. He only doesn't have his workshop at the time (and probably next 2-3 years). I have really heavy trailer for my motorcycle, it can carry other motorcycle. After 2 years of use nothing has worn, because of use of such rubber pad. Absorbes bumps very nicely. I did only 20 km without this pad and I though that whole world tries to hit my hitch. No more riding with non shock-absorbing hitch. In colleague's trailer I made whole "hitch and its neighborhood" from 20% bigger parts. For dynamic operation with max 100 kg I used parts that are destined to lift up to 800 kg things. And rubber pad between bike's part and trailer's part.
As I work in mining I know that nothing is miner-proof. We have the saying: "anything operated with wrench smaller than 24mm, is nanotechnology and in mine it will damage itself without touching".
SW<24 = Nanotechnology, good laugh. for somebody who had to repair stuff from a 56m long press line down to dental tools.
Just an idea for you. In mining you have to pump abrasive mud so the tube bows wear out a lot. I did use old neumatics in the bows of neumatic dust ducts as internal liner. the rubber lasts longer then the iron.
Sven
If you give M12 screw to average miner, he will damage it trying to screw it, using 1m pipe to prolong wrench. Hence the saying. We make density meters in which magnetite mud is pumped. Rubber dies almost as fast as steel. The only material that survives is rubber-like polyurethane mix, formed just inside pipe.
Now you guys are talking about stuff from my world! Manufacturing machinery and also mining were a large part of my life too before I got hurt, working as a millwright and industrial electrician. Last project was running a surface placer gold mine in Arizona, fairly good machinery setup but old technology. However in some cases, old technology is the best technology - because it's tried, tested and proven to work!
First rule is to 'Build it Stout' . In reference to someone using a 1m pipe as a cheater on a wrench, I built stuff PLANNING for someone to use a 2m pipe, plus 3 guys pulling on the cheater pipe! Our American bolts/fasteners are Grade 3 [minimum hardware store quality], Grade 5 [quite strong, read specs], and Grade 8 [SUPER STOUT! Well over 186,000 psi tensile strength at 3/8"]. Wherever possible I use Grade 8 if there's any serious stress factor, grade 5 minimum for anything low stress. That is, for Grade 5 range of stress I use Grade 8 bolts, and for Grade 3 range of stress, use Grade 5 bolts, the next stronger.
"In colleague's trailer I made whole "hitch and its neighborhood" from 20% bigger parts. For dynamic operation with max 100 kg I used parts that are destined to lift up to 800 kg things."
As you guys know, it's not just the one part to worry about: worry about all associated or connected parts [the neighboring parts] too! Say if you have a hitch rated at 800kg, but the trailer axle is held on with little 6mm u-bolts, you got troubles coming! That's where design must see the WHOLE PICTURE! Many of the failures we see are from people designing individual components, very nice little pieces, but not figuring on the TOTAL STRESS involved in a finished product - FAIL!
Just a thought, but with that pipe for pumping magnetite, have you ever tried using a woven wire mesh cloth, of twisted-strand stainless steel mesh, cast into the interior of the polyurethane inner pipe liner, which is cast into the iron pipe? The wire mesh cloth could act as the initial barrier or liner against wear, as if it's a pipe itself, with poly holding it in place and cast iron pipe outer to withstand pumping pressures.
I'm speaking of braided stainless steel mesh screen wire, rolled up as a tube, inserted into inside of iron or flexible pipe, then cast in place with polyurethane or whatever plastic as a liner to hold it in place inside the iron pipe. If you used an inner spindle or heavy rod/bar to wrap wire mesh around, all inserted into iron pipe, then cast in the polyurethane or plastic between mesh and inner iron pipe wall, when spindle/bar is removed the wire mesh becomes the primary wear surface inside pipe. Should be much stronger and if flexibility is needed the mesh will flex quite a bit.
