Flat plates brazed on the surface likely not much use, there is a brazed angle gusset on the inside of each corner. The aange bracket will have more strutural strength depth wise as it is rather then sitting on the surface.

Flat plates brazed on the surface likely not much use, there is a brazed angle gusset on the inside of each corner. The aange bracket will have more strutural strength depth wise as it is rather then sitting on the surface.

 

Sags in use would easily be noticed; indicate broken welds, in which case you can always weld more on in various places - such as box section or flat bars over the rear corners?

 

[ATTACH type=full" alt="49127]49127[/ATTACH]

Edited October 10, 20223 yr by guerney

The great thing about aluminium is that it's so easy to work, therefore if the L plate welds failed, you could easily beat with a hammer, wider and longer L plates from 5mm thick ali in a strong vice, to weld to both inside and outside the right angles of the sub frame. Another possibility is drilling small holes through the L plates after welding to the corners, strengthening with pop rivets - a small hole first through the two box section walls and L plate, then a larger hole to get the popping part of of the rivet through the first side wall of the box section, then pop rivet the L plate and opposite side wall together. I was thinking of pop riveting a battery box frame together like that, but might use your ultra low temp welding rods instead, or as well as. But ultimately, adding more weight to the rear rack of my bike, is a bad idea.

Edited October 11, 20223 yr by guerney

I ended up with excess weld rods as the sellers dispatch dept messed my order up.

I orderd 5 braze rods so I could practice with the first one, however they didn't read my order correctly and sent out just one rod and a wire brush.

I jumped straight on the ebay message centre and had a grizzle to which the seller apologised and would pop the missing 4 rods in the post, in the end the package arrived with an apology and 8 rods.

 

Ebay sellers are quite rightly terrified of this sort of thing, and are fools to make such daft errors... I bet he's done it before and unnecessarily reduced his rating, as well as reduce his slim profit margin. You'll never catch me selling on ebay - too many buyers wanting to actually receive what they've ordered, with the certaintly of an ebay refund if they don't, or when they do and they don't like it, or simply want free stuff or partial refunds. It's seller beware on ebay...

A superb looking trailer sold to day on fleabay for £321 sadly it was collection only as the seller wouldn't post. Would have been an ideal second trailer for me for the shopping or diy store run.

A burley coho xc suspension jobby with a fat single wheel also came with the origunal rim/1.75" tyre . Extras all in the price was a fitted coho pannier frame , a pair of coho panniers , burley fitted lights .

Although max cargo weight is listed as 70lbs for a shopping cart/trailer it woul dhave been ideal as the cargo bay can fit some 70ltrs +.

When I eventually run down my doomsday prep stock of beans, I intend to use my Homcom for click-and-collect shopping runs. It would be better for this purpose, if it had rigid side panels. However, aided by it's side struts, a big white rubble sack tied at the top and then tied down, seems to do a decent job of keeping loose cargo together...

 

 

... so I might not enact my plan to add <1mm aluminium sheet to the sides. Will it pass the egg test? I might just buy more doomsday prep beans, or use the small Y Carry Freedom with a large 50litre multi-pocketed wheeled luggage bag with handle, tied down on the platform. The CF isn't ideal for shopping without a very sturdy large box firmly held down, and it has no suspension - no struts or side panels on the CF either, which makes it useless for large volume carriage of heavy roundish garden veg.

 

A superb looking trailer sold to day on fleabay for £321 sadly it was collection only as the seller wouldn't post

 

Will sellers never learn? Increasing the sales footprint could significantly increase the eventual selling price of some in demand products. Always gutting when another ebayer snatches something you want away. The Burley looks a very good quality item. The effective volume (34cm X 70cm X 24cm = 57.17litres, not including a bulge at the top, which could be another 20 litres or more) and weight capacity (officially 45kg [stated on manual] or 50kg [according to amazon listing] but capable of about 76kg - 90kg, in my experience) of the Homcom is larger, and although it doesn't have suspension for carriage of some very delicate shopping items, the wheel rims are very wide and would accommodate much wider tyres - I have 1.9" Scwalbe Blackjacks installed at the moment, which are a smoother carriage than it's original (and very low quality) 1.75" noname awfuls. 2.125" wide tyres for 16" wheels are available, but there may be wider, which I haven't yet found, or felt the need to search for.

 

For a cheap trailer, the Homcom is pretty epic. But you won't like the wheels [mention=9614]Nealh[/mention] - noisy bearings, need truing (which I haven't done because it doesn't have brakes, so why bother? Besides, it's only ever going to be travelling 10mph or slower when fully laden), horrific quality tyres and inner tubes. The price has increased by a couple of tenners since last year:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HOMCOM-Folding-Trailer-Bicycle-Storage/dp/B078W39W37/

 

 

I would have bought this for shopping, but it doesn't have the other's side struts:

 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HOMCOM-Two-Wheel-Bicycle-Trailer-Removable/dp/B08HS73BMY/

 

I've just bought 6m of 25mm wide red and orange reflective tape for mine, ideally applied after it's painted fridge bright white Hammerite, and possibly a layer of this reflective laquer spray:

 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reflect-Light-reflective-lacquer-spray/dp/B000O5248M/

 

burley fitted lights

 

I was thinking of soldering the two now unused 5W Junstars headlights (will be made red for use either side at back) plus side and front lights, from the ebike battery to the Homcom via a spare handlebar switch (it wasn't the switch I ordered, but better - the second switch is two-way three position, presumably for indicators; dual position on the switch #2 - flick left for bike rear red only, flick right for trailer lights plus bike rear red light, middle for off).

 

 

Trouble is, I'd need to find a suitable waterproof connector for when I'm not hauling - saw some waterproof Andersons which might fit the bill. A mod for next harvest, methinks - bought 10m (I'll probably never finish it, but it was a bargain) of self-amalgamating waterproof tape... and a ebay seller of self-adhesive marine heat shrink sent me 2m "Free", after originally palming me off/selling me short by 1m - I wont be buying from him again.

Edited November 11, 20223 yr by guerney

There has been mention of fitting sides to the open frame trailers, ali sheet etc.

Another potential light weight material is corrugated plastic board, 2 or 3 mm thick. Estate agents signs are made from it, though I believe it is illegal to use those, they are the property of the sign company. It would be very norty to paint it so no one knew! I have some black recycled plastic corrugated sheet, it came from a building site, windblown to my garden! I haven't lined my trailer sides yet, awaiting a Round Tuit, maybe Santa will oblige.

There has been mention of fitting sides to the open frame trailers, ali sheet etc.

Another potential light weight material is corrugated plastic board, 2 or 3 mm thick. Estate agents signs are made from it, though I believe it is illegal to use those, they are the property of the sign company. It would be very norty to paint it so no one knew! I have some black recycled plastic corrugated sheet, it came from a building site, windblown to my garden! I haven't lined my trailer sides yet, awaiting a Round Tuit, maybe Santa will oblige.

 

That's a good thought - I'll cycle around some run down areas in search of loose for sales signs lol. I may enquire at the printer's - estate agents might use one of the locals. Perhaps they'll sell me a big blank sheet? I know many have laser cutters, used on other signage.

 

Turns out this aluminium sheet is 0.5mm X 310mm X 615mm 170grams, at £5.40 per sheet, and I'd need several, but it's too soft... I imagine it'll pock and bend like crazy in use... although probably not enough to be totally useless as fold out and fold away sides (on ziptie hinges).

 

I'll root around my local building supplies stores in search of some light cheaper and stronger material, perhaps PVC corrugated panels used in conservatories? Might be too heavy. My local hardware store cuts 4mm to 20mm plywood to size, which is another candidate material... but that would have to be heavily weatherproofed.

 

I was also considering cutting sides from a suitably strong bamboo screen.; adding extra string to keep it held together - probably too heavy. It'd be a roll when not in use.

 

Chicken wire? Again probably too heavy, and a bit stabby to handle.

 

I may just stick with the big white rubble sack...

Edited November 11, 20223 yr by guerney

There has been mention of fitting sides to the open frame trailers, ali sheet etc.

Another potential light weight material is corrugated plastic board, 2 or 3 mm thick. Estate agents signs are made from it, though I believe it is illegal to use those, they are the property of the sign company. It would be very norty to paint it so no one knew! I have some black recycled plastic corrugated sheet, it came from a building site, windblown to my garden! I haven't lined my trailer sides yet, awaiting a Round Tuit, maybe Santa will oblige.

 

This as sides? It'd be light.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121968161412?hash=

Cracks to easy and uv deteriorates it over time.

The local tip is a good place for free stuff , I saw someone throw a few decent sheets of the thin 2/3mm correx out form I assume packaging.

Polycarbonate twinwall is what you need. Offcuts from a conservatory roof perhaps, but not hugely expensive new.

The local tip is a good place for free stuff , I saw someone throw a few decent sheets of the thin 2/3mm correx out form I assume packaging.

 

I like free. Have you looked a Freecycle? It's mental. People would rather give it away, rather than book a tip visit, wait, pay a fee and pay for fuel and make time.

 

It amazes me what people simply throw away. My Dyson DC14 I found chucked in next door's skip, the only issue being a easily repaired damaged power chord - it's still providing sterling service dragging unbelievable quantities of dirt from apparently clean furnishings, 10 years later.

 

Polycarbonate twinwall is what you need. Offcuts from a conservatory roof perhaps, but not hugely expensive new.

 

That's a good idea, and one which I had considered some months ago - at the time it was too expensive on ebay and the problem of stuff falling out of the sides didn't materialise, so I forgot about it, because the big white rubble sack solved the issue of large round-ish garden veg rolling around (and it's hi-viz). But for shopping hauls, some side panels of some sort may well be wise to install. Could be too fancy for my local hardware shops to stock, but I'll look further afield if this issue bugs me enough.

 

Another light weight and very cheap possibility, is to line the insides of my large white rubble sack with Poundland self-adhesive vinyl floor tiles - just one horizontal row all the way around would stop shopping items from sticking out between the lower side struts. I could then glue those to another large white rubble sack inside the first, to those tiles. I could later add a second tier of vinyl tile lining, if I anticipate making larger shopping hauls. Might be too flexy, and a bit brittle (especially in the cold) - could break a bit with heavier shopping items, but bonded in between the sacks, things would remain inside the trailer.

 

I also could also bond a layer or two of the spare 6mm thick coin patterned rubber sheet I have stored in the loft, to the platform, adding a little shock absorption. But it's heavy stuff.

Edited November 11, 20223 yr by guerney

I like free. Have you looked a Freecycle? It's mental. People would rather give it away, rather than book a tip visit, wait, pay a fee and pay for fuel and make time.

 

It amazes me what people simply throw away. My Dyson DC14 I found chucked in next door's skip, the only issue being a easily repaired damaged power chord - it's still providing sterling service dragging unbelievable quantities of dirt from apparently clean furnishings, 10 years later.

 

 

 

That's a good idea, and one which I had considered some months ago - at the time it was too expensive on ebay and the problem of stuff falling out of the sides didn't materialise, so I forgot about it, because the big white rubble sack solved the issue of large round-ish garden veg rolling around (and it's hi-viz). But for shopping hauls, some side panels of some sort may well be wise to install. Could be too fancy for my local hardware shops to stock, but I'll look further afield if this issue bugs me enough.

 

Another light weight possibility, is to line the insides of my large white rubble sack with Poundland self-adhesive vinyl floor tiles - just one horizontal row all the way around would stop shopping items from sticking out between the lower side struts. I could then glue those to another large white rubble sack inside the first, to those tiles. I could later add a second tier of vinyl tile lining, if I anticipate making larger shopping hauls. Might be too flexy, and a bit brittle (especially in the cold) - could break a bit with heavier shopping items, but bonded in between the sacks, things would remain inside the trailer.

 

I also could also glue a layer or two of the spare 6mm thick coin patterned rubber sheet I have stored in the loft, to the platform, adding a little shock absorption. But it's heavy stuff.

Any large diy store will likely have the 10mm thickness, which gives good stiffness. Can be cut with a normal wood saw if too big to transport whole.

Any large diy store will likely have the 10mm thickness, which gives good stiffness. Can be cut with a normal wood saw if too big to transport whole.

 

It certainly looks strong and light enough. My hesitation with solid panelling of any sort is noise - the Homcom is already quite noisy. Also securing to the sides permanently is something I'd like to avoid, because it wouldn't always be necessary for all haul types. I'll try my white rubble sack and vinyl tile sandwich first: quiet, cheap, light, unassuming, and easy to remove quickly when needed... plus there's no need for a tarp, if it isn't raining.

It certainly looks strong and light enough. My hesitation with solid panelling of any sort is noise - the Homcom is already quite noisy. Also securing to the sides permanently is something I'd like to avoid, because it wouldn't always be necessary for all haul types. I'll try my white rubble sack and vinyl tile sandwich first: quiet, cheap, light, unassuming, and easy to remove quickly when needed... plus there's no need for a tarp, if it isn't raining.

If you're lucky, you'll find some sticking out of a skip and be able to experiment for free.

 

Cable ties for impermanent permanent fixings.

 

And add Screwfix to diy stores as sources, although to order usually rather than off the shelf.

If you're lucky, you'll find some sticking out of a skip and be able to experiment for free.

 

Self-adhesive vinyl tiles are only (perplexingly) £2 (instead of £1) for 9 at Poundland. Their price increase beyond £1 is totally unacceptable, I should complain to trading standards, as it's contrary to all reasonable expectation given the name of the shop. I could wipe the floor-tile glue off and use a better glue. And/or simply use zipties, after drilling holes in the corners of the tiles, stiching the tiles in between large white rubble sacks.

 

Cable ties for impermanent permanent fixings.

 

Useful little things - I keep several handy all over my bike. My original plan was to use thin aluminium sheets daisy chained together with zipties, and secured to the sides with reusable zipties for easy removal. Would have been easy to fold away for storage. If I use double-walled polycarbonate sheet, I could glue 6mm rubber strips to the bars to secure them tightly against, reducing side rattle, and they'd be bouncing on 6 or 12mm rubber on the platform, which would reduce rattle on the platform, so it's deffo a viable plan.

Edited November 11, 20223 yr by guerney

Cable ties for impermanent permanent fixings.

 

I've done many a late night "Arrgggh! I've run out of milk for my tea!" 24 hour garage run, using ever present zipties to dangle plastic milk bottles to the handlebar.

If you're lucky, you'll find some sticking out of a skip and be able to experiment for free.

 

A small vinyl roll offcut from my local carpet shop, might work out even cheaper than Poundland.

For next year's transport of pumpkin harvest by bike trailer, I'm going to cut this shape from the large roll of 6mm rubber sheet I have in the loft, with the central square for the base of the big white rubble sack, the sides will drawn together when inserted. The bouncing about did cause damage and usher in a rapid decomposition of two of them this time - and there was a lot of bouncing due to my unknowingly dragging a bike trailer with a flat tyre for 12 miles. Pumpkins are denser than most shopping, so I expect the combination will keep that inside the trailer too.

 

I've just found this video detailing how to make cheap flat sheets from PVC pipe, which could form cheap trailer sides, or boxes for electronics:

 

 

[mention=9614]Nealh[/mention] - are there anti-vaxers in your hives?

 

US government approves use of world’s first vaccine for honeybees

Hopes of a new weapon against diseases that routinely ravage colonies that are relied upon for food pollination

 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/04/honeybee-vaccine-first-approved

Spotted a Giant Halfway in the flesh last night while waiting for a train, the owner was a MB fan and we had a enjoyable conversation between stops... but his face dropped when I told him I'd read forum reports of the the Halfway sometimes snapping halfway. Black frame, 1.5" narrow Marathon Pluses... told me of his escape by canal path from London - it didn't snap halfway the entire time or since.

Edited February 3, 20233 yr by guerney

‘Bees are sentient’: inside the stunning brains of nature’s hardest workers

‘Fringe’ research suggests the insects that are essential to agriculture have emotions, dreams and even PTSD, raising complex ethical questions

 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/02/bees-intelligence-minds-pollination?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

‘Bees are sentient’: inside the stunning brains of nature’s hardest workers

‘Fringe’ research suggests the insects that are essential to agriculture have emotions, dreams and even PTSD, raising complex ethical questions

 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/02/bees-intelligence-minds-pollination?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

A comfy trailer = happy bees. They will thank you.

First tow last Sunday with the modified sub chassis on the CF and all went well along with the better hitch arrangement , the combo is all set for another season of beekeeping and getting my stuff from A2B and back again.

With the stiffer base board /chassis attachment there is now no flexing of the base so the straps can't slacken to allow slight cargo shift.

 

As the original pics of the sub chassis have disappeared here they are again.