The M.O.A.T.

Joined
Oct 19, 2012
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2,384
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Wakefield, UK
The Mother Of All Trailers.
Ok, a bit of over-use of the superlative there and can't hold a candle to some on the Indian sub-continent where they stack bulk loads 15 feet high but possibly about as big as anyone in the UK is ever going to need - I present to you a 300L trailer:-









A £40 garden storage box...
...with a cheap socket set UJ and a pair of 12mm thru-axle wheels I picked up on ebay for the princely sum of a tenner including the slicks and inner tubes. All cobbled together with some 200x100x2mm stainless plating that cost me sub £14 ready cut, again off ebay.
The box is fairly rigid on it's own so I forwent the usual chassis and am relying on the box itself to act as a monocoque. Should easily get a full week of family shopping in there!
 
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Radical Brad

Garage Hacker!
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Mar 13, 1999
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6,078
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Kakabeka Falls, Ontario, Canada
Nice one!
Out here I could run hay from the field to the chicken coop with that, or bush up tot he campfire.

Reminds me of the trailer I made for the original marauder... recycled u-joint from an old socket set!

5049

Brad
 
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Joined
May 31, 2013
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South Benfleet, Essex, England, UK
Looks like a splendid result.
Do keep us all posted on its usefulness as time goes by.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2012
Messages
2,384
Location
Wakefield, UK
An update.
After a few uses it became clear that the way it attached to the bike was inadequate leading to the trailer walking side to side and I parked it for some time. Necessity* has had me digging it out again and modifying the mounting to a central one.


The slicks that came with the wheels were perished so I found a replacement pair in my pile. I also found a strap useful. The way the lids are lipped means one keeps the other down and when that one is securely down it adds a LOT of rigidity to the box. This week it shifted a full family shop with plenty of room to spare. All in a damned useful bit of kit.



* The necessity is I'm under Doctors orders not to drive for a month so pedal power it is. Picked a great month for it:(
 
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Joined
Oct 24, 2021
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7
Nice build! How much weight did you put in?

Suppose it might work well with styrofoam but might be challenging filled with beverages....
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2012
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Wakefield, UK
Unsure of the exact weight but essentially 3/4 of a trolley load and 12l of pop and 7.5kg of spuds. £120 worth at lidl prices. It would have completely filled a Fiesta mk7 boot.
 
Joined
Feb 7, 2008
Messages
4,575
Location
Nottinghamshire England
Popshot

Nice , how do you stop everything crashing around inside it ?

I have just added this to Tilt#6



Sounds like I am carrying the instruments to a one man band inside about 12" from my ears , that is despite putting cardboard boxes inside to compartmentalise it and using bubble wrap around the tools carried.

Paul
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2012
Messages
2,384
Location
Wakefield, UK
It's the correct size for the large trolley sized bags that most supermarkets sell. It takes 4 full bags, 2 ahead of the axle and two behind, with pretty much no spare room width or length wise. Here it's just got three bags worth in and still very little gets thrown about. It probably helps that I'm only a half mile from Lidl but I can't hear any crashing or banging on the way home.



You could try a small strap or more around the tools to bind them together to prevent them bashing at each other. Maybe a thin layer of foam on the base of the box?

I suspect that a trailer like this is possibly softer on it's contents because the mount to the bike acts like a spring to absorb some of the loading it gets. There's also the obvious difference that I'm shifting relatively soft shopping that will take a jostle without making much noise and this is likely the single biggest factor.
 
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Joined
Feb 7, 2008
Messages
4,575
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Nottinghamshire England
Popshot

Seems I built a problem into mine , I have fixed it , however I have been robbed of any further building and testing time by being struck down with a lurgy 😢.
I used a cheap camping mat between the box and a plate it was bolted on ,all the mat did was compress with no bounce back at all, so box rattled on it's mountings DOH !

Paul
 
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