Trailer from scrounged shopping cart

maniac57

maniac57

Old, Fat, and still faster than you
Heres what I'm thinking...

This looks more balanced for heavy stuff...

I'm leaning towards the second layoutwith 20" wheels mostly because I have two forks I can use to mount the wheels properly. I'll just weld the fork to the cart.
 
Those old shopping carts also make a pretty good makeshift charcoal grill when you turn 'em on their side...........lol!
 
One note is that will be heavy trailer empty.
Good for not tipping over but you best make sure you have really good bike brakes if not trailer brakes if you plan to load it, really, ever been pushed through a red light intersection jackknifing in a 2 1/2 ton truck towing a 4K pound fork lift when it's surge brake failed?
No fun, and it would be less fun on a bicycle because the trailer would just keep going and take your bike for the ride.

(after a few moments of thought)

I can't think of any reasonably priced way to put brakes on that trailer, not if you want to un-hook it often, sorry, but just consider how you are going to stop the thing in your plans as it would be a bummer to wreck with a load behind you ;-}
 
I've pulled a trailer before. All it takes is some common sense about speed and stopping distance. And it's surprisingly light so far. I'd guess about 15-20 lbs.
No problem with my brakes. I can lock the rear wheel at full speed sitting on the seat and I weigh 250lbs.
As far as a child seat...I'm thinking about building a rail setup for using it to tow another motorbike sometimes and building a removable seat for it to be used as a people hauler also. I have several people interested in a trailer that can haul adult people, so its worth looking into.
 
Last edited:
Here's my grocery cart hauler. Won't hold much more than a six pack of Coronas, but who needs anything else?

Tom
 

Attachments

  • Grocery Cart Rack, 2.jpg
    Grocery Cart Rack, 2.jpg
    240 KB · Views: 169
maniac57 said:
I've pulled a trailer before. All it takes is some common sense about speed and stopping distance. And it's surprisingly light so far. I'd guess about 15-20 lbs.
No problem with my brakes. I can lock the rear wheel at full speed sitting on the seat and I weigh 250lbs.
As far as a child seat...I'm thinking about building a rail setup for using it to tow another motorbike sometimes and building a removable seat for it to be used as a people hauler also. I have several people interested in a trailer that can haul adult people, so its worth looking into.
Click to expand...

I'm interested in the payload capacity. It would be fun, I think to start making these bikes pull some serious loads. :D
 
dodge dude94 said:
I'm interested in the payload capacity. It would be fun, I think to start making these bikes pull some serious loads. :D
Click to expand...

I figure 100-150 lbs should be doable without too much problem here where I live. (flat)
I have a customer who wants to taxi people from parking to the forum for NBA games and wants me to build him a trailer to tow with the motorbike I built him.
Maybe sacrifice some top end with a 50 tooth rear sprocket.
 
maniac57 said:
I figure 100-150 lbs should be doable without too much problem here where I live. (flat)
I have a customer who wants to taxi people from parking to the forum for NBA games and wants me to build him a trailer to tow with the motorbike I built him.
Maybe sacrifice some top end with a 50 tooth rear sprocket.
Click to expand...

That's not bad if you can manage that. Anything more and you'd need more engine and braking capacity. A medium-sized 4 stroke might be good for that.
 
Yeah. He wants to pull two adults and I'm not feeling the HT doing this very well...unless its geared to climb trees, but its worth investigating if I get orders for the trailers. They use bicycles to transport people all over the world, why not here too?
 
maniac57 said:
Yeah. He wants to pull two adults and I'm not feeling the HT doing this very well...unless its geared to climb trees, but its worth investigating if I get orders for the trailers. They use bicycles to transport people all over the world, why not here too?
Click to expand...

Two adults just at a light 150lbs is still 300lbs, plus trailer, plus operator weight, plus bike weight.
You're looking at, what, close to 600lbs? 550? lol
HT ain't gonna do it well at all me thinks.
 
2door said:
Here's my grocery cart hauler. Won't hold much more than a six pack of Coronas, but who needs anything else?

Tom
Click to expand...

I like I like Tom.............!

I bet I could get a 6pk of Miller 64's and a 6pk of Redds Apple Ale in that cart...LOL! dance1

Speaking of Miller 64's the one I just had sure was good.... 93 in the shade here in central Texas today so a cold one was really good when I got home from a ride to town today.

By the way that is a very nice clean looking bike you have there Tom, really nice!
 
mapbike said:
I like I like Tom.............!

I bet I could get a 6pk of Miller 64's and a 6pk of Redds Apple Ale in that cart...LOL! dance1

Speaking of Miller 64's the one I just had sure was good.... 93 in the shade here in central Texas today so a cold one was really good when I got home from a ride to town today.

By the way that is a very nice clean looking bike you have there Tom, really nice!
Click to expand...
Shan,
Sent you a PM about that bike. Enjoy.

Tom
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top