Building a motorcycle trailer
Thread Starter
2nd mouse gets the cheese
SuperBike
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,697
From: Beaverton, OR
Building a motorcycle trailer
Hi all just wanted to share my current project. I have been developing a motorcycle trailer to hopefully market here down the road. My friend and cohort in crime are making a trailer we hope will work better or at least look nicer than some of the current ways people haul bikes. I decided to try my hand at an independent suspension design that will hopefully go to solve the over sprung tendency of normal utility trailers. Anyways this is what I have so far. I plan to continue building then test this thing out in a week or two. I also am going to try and make it look old school surfer era in its aesthetics.
Thread Starter
2nd mouse gets the cheese
SuperBike
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,697
From: Beaverton, OR
I know, its on the back burner... kinda hard to work on the daily driver. We are moving into a new home (to us) that will make it so the wife can drop the kids off to the sitter then I can commute via two wheels and not feel bad when the bus is under the knife for a number of months.
Senior Member
SuperBike
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 1,090
From: Big Lick
I think it's a cool concept, but I can't see big marketing opportunities because of the cost factor. With the suspension setup like this, it'll make for a high end hauler. Many of us are too cheap to spend that much. 
Thread Starter
2nd mouse gets the cheese
SuperBike
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,697
From: Beaverton, OR
Well, the idea was for a higher end trailer anyways but we are still going to try and keep the cost around $1500 which in my opinion isn't too expensive for a new nicely sorted trailer. Feel free to throw in any ideas or criticism after all it is a trailer for enthusiasts. We also are developing a more standard leaf spring version for around a grand I will have pics of that soon. Thanks guys for the input it means a lot to me.
Senior Member
Back Marker
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 189
From: Winnipeg,MB,Canada
Very interesting design, it would definitely help with the overall bounciness that is inherent with a leaf sprung trailer(especially unloaded). The only thing that i see that may be an issue is your control arm to spindle pick-up points and knuckle design. Welding tube to tube that way can fracture, with the up and down loads that it would see. I've helped build some arms for some local stock car guys and what would be strong as hell and reliable would be to fishmouth the tubing at the pickup point, use solid steel rod (1") welded at a 90 degree angle to it and drill and tap for a heim joint. The cost would be higher but you would never have to worry about failure. As for the knuckles, I just finished a dune buggy steering knuckle that used trailer spindles and we built them out of 1/2" plate with a hole drilled in the center to the spindle o/d and welded them on the inside and outside edges. Incredibly strong, and then you'd just weld on your mounting points to the control arms. Just my 2 cents, all and all, it's a pretty slick setup!
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