More trailer tidbits

[cactusjack]

I thought those of you interested in building a trailer might benefit from some of my research...

Sears Xcargo 20 cu ft cargo carrier is on sale in today's newspaper ad for $169 (reg $199)

I was at Dick's Sporting Goods yesterday and they have a really nice 18 cu ft cargo carrier for $199. It's the Sportrack Aero A90275. This one seems heavier duty than the ones they sell at Sears or Pep Boys.

Harbor Freight Tools has their smaller trailers on sale in the stores, but they just raised the online prices $20. The 8" wheel trailer is currently $145 in the store and $219 online, the 12" wheel trailer is $184 in the store.

[mrfuni]

Thanks for the update Cactus Jack.
Saw you lurking on the Delphi MC Trailer Towing site.
So which way are you going to go?
Joe

[cactusjack]

I'm not sure. I painted the trailer parts this weekend. Sometime during the week I am going to assemble it. Then I'll start looking. None of the Sears stores in the area have the Xcargo carrier in stock, and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay $90 to ship it here. I'm in no hurry, I may wait and see if the one at Dick's goes on sale, or I may go the diamond-plate truck box route. I do want to get it assembled and wired so I can take it to the DMV and get it licensed as soon as possible. I ordered some LED lights to replace the cheapo HF lights that came with it, so those are a week or two away. I may just install the lights that came with it for registration/inspection purposes, and swap them out when my new ones arrive.

I'm getting some 15" STT thinline LED lights for the rear, and some 2-LED marker lights for the sides.

[lw]

X-cargo on the cheap. . .

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/for/766140555.html

[cactusjack]

Originally Posted by LW

X-cargo on the cheap. . .

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/for/766140555.html

Thanks, LW. I've actually gone and looked at a few locally I found on Craigslist.

[oldbikers]

CJ I put a car top carrier on mine and didn't like it at all had to bend down to far to load it so I bought a heavy box from wal-mart and put it on long ways and after looking at it if you don't cut the trailer down yo can put 2 of them on back to back the best part is it was only $46.00 so 2 would only sit you back $92.00 plus tax and hold a lot more than the car top carrier. and a lot stronger

[cactusjack]

You wouldn't happen to have a picture of that setup, would you?

[skimo]

You could use a plastic box something like this

http://toolboxes4less.com/titan-poly...ge-chests.html

Delta use to make one similar that sold at wally world for about 50 bucks.

http://www.deltastorage.com/index.cfm

[oldbikers]

CJ you can go here and see the pictures of it I was going to narrow the trailer or as I said put another box on and mount them back to back. But I had this trailer on the day Bea fell off and I had folding chairs on each side of the box so it worked well and pulled great I won't say I couldn't tell it was back there because that would be a lie but it did pull as well as the $1500.00 trailer I had made for my goldwing.http://s295.photobucket.com/albums/m...dbikers/Trunk/

[coloradontexas]

I see alot of ideas for the box, but what about the trailer itself? Homemade, Prefab?

[cactusjack]

If you have the tools, time and know-how, you could build your own trailer. Most folks who build their own trailer use a ready-to-assemble kit from Harbor Freight Tools or Northern Tool. They have these small utility trailers with a 4' long deck and either 8" or 12" wheels. Weight capacity is about a half ton, which is way more than you'd ever pull with your bike. I paid $145 for my HFT trailer and painted it black to make it faster.


This is the trailer assembled according to the instructions. Once I get it licensed next week, I'm going to lengthen the tongue, and narrow the deck by about 6" and replace the original lighting with LED lights I bought for it. I am also going to remove the smaller leaf from each spring to soften the suspension. This is all pretty much standard practice. Then I will mount the cargo box and add the lights to it.

Today, I am wiring my Nomad for the trailer light connector.

[coloradontexas]

how are you going to narrow the deck? How much wider is the trailer than the outside of the bags on the bike? How the knowledge and equiptment to make trailer from axle up, just lookin for easier ways!

[cactusjack]

Originally Posted by coloradontexas

how are you going to narrow the deck? How much wider is the trailer than the outside of the bags on the bike? How the knowledge and equiptment to make trailer from axle up, just lookin for easier ways!

I think I measured 53" across the outside edge of each fender. I'm not sure of the width across the saddlebags, but I am going to narrow the trailer as much as I can keeping in mind the cargo box that mounts on it.

To narrow the deck I'm going to disassemble the trailer and use a chop saw to cut an equal amount off of each end of the 3 crossmembers. I'll have to drill 2 new holes in each end of each crossmember, Then I'll take the axle to a machine shop or welding shop and have them cut the same amount out of the center of the axle and weld it back together and reinforce it. Then I'll re-assemble the thing and work on getting the box mounted.

I will also move the middle crossmember about 12" forward to the next set of frame holes, effectively lengthening the tongue by that amount. That should put me in the ideal ratio of tongue length to trailer width (tire centerline to centerline). the tongue should be 1.5-2 X width. A 36" width would dictate a tongue length of 54"=72", for example. A longer tongue makes the trailer a little more well-behaved and reduces "tail wagging". Hey, I don't take credit for this stuff, just reporting what I've read.

Thanks for the compliment, AG. It was miserable out in my garage today. Hot and muggy.

[Yellow Jacket]

The most important thing to remember about tail wagging or whiplash:

Make sure that the center of gravity of the load is in FRONT of the axle.

No matter how well designed the trailer, if it's loaded improperly you will have a problem.