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Beer Hauling Trailer Ver. 3.0

StuInTokyo

Maximum Pace
Dec 3, 2010
1,662
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Last year, 2010, in early March, actually March 16th, >> I posted up on another forum << (I did not know that this place existed) on building a trailer to haul my beer deliveries around. I was badly out of shape, at 301 lbs or 136kg, and I thought that getting back on the bike, even in a small way would be good.

A couple of minor and major revisions and now I'm ready for a Ver. 3.0 :D

Basically, the problem is that we took on a new customer, a good customer, should be worth some serious coin to the business. They order a lot of stuff six days a week, one of which is a 20 litre keg of beer. Most every day they order a 20L keg, a case of large bottles of beer, and 6 large bottle or sake/shochu mixed. I cannot easily fit that on the trailer without some stacking, which is not the best idea, as all of this stuff is heavy.

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You can see the problem, the trailer is too narrow by about 10 cm:confused:

I also wanted to deal with my ground clearance problem, the tail end hits the ground on several places around my deliveries going over curbs and such, I figure another inch or so will give me more than enough clearance, but not compromise my low slung stability.

cont....
 
Might as well make it wide enough for 2 of those 20l kegs!
 
Can you lay the red crate (sake) down, at least a little, on top of the beer crate? Or put the red/sake one infront turned sideways and the keg (somehow) on top? Or, get a couple three-bottle sake crakes, one to the side of the keg, the other laid down on top.
 
Might as well make it wide enough for 2 of those 20l kegs!

I thought about that, seriously, but the trailer then becomes almost as wide as my kei van :rolleyes: and the weight of two 26kgs of beer, one 27 kg case of bottles and a 19kg case of 6 1.8L bottle of sake... oh, the trailer weighs over 25Kg now too, to that is getting HEAVY :eek: 150kg/330lbs, not to mention a couple of kg of sugar, salt, miso, and often a dozen bottles of club soda etc.

The former liquor shop guy said he can count on one hand the number of times this izakaya ordered two kegs of beer in the past 20 years, so if it happens, I'll just have to make two deliveries.... good training :rolleyes:
 
Can you lay the red crate (sake) down, at least a little, on top of the beer crate? Or put the red/sake one infront turned sideways and the keg (somehow) on top? Or, get a couple three-bottle sake crakes, one to the side of the keg, the other laid down on top.

Yeah, I've looked at it every way I could, even asked my wife for suggestions and my daughter, but they also could do no better. Now I put the sake case on the beer but often I have these three heavy items, and another sake case with say on bottle of Mirin, and a bottle of vinegar, small bottle of sauce and a bottle of shouyu etc, also a dozen small bottles of club soda, and or Hoppy etc....

Nope, the trailer needed to grow a bit, so it did.....
 
Can you lay the red crate (sake) down
I think you're missing the point. Stu wants to BUILD!

Stu, I love the fact that your trailer has bilateral mamachari rear wheels complete with their drum + belt brakes. And the traffic cone-top red lights too. How have you linked up the brakes to your bike? And do you have the lights wired up to act as indicators?
 
.....

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I love my SawsAll :D

Once taken apart, I then figured that 59 cm would be good, I measured all the products I would take on deliveries, and just to be safe, I added another 2cm to make the new size of the carrying area 61cm, it was 49cm.

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some clamps, and some wooden spacers to keep things inline and I was ready to go.

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some of the bottom tube done. I put a piece of 3mm thick flat bar on each side of the tube, tacked it in place, then I carefully fitted a new piece of square tubing in there and welded it all up.

.....
 
I think you're missing the point. Stu wants to BUILD!

Stu, I love the fact that your trailer has bilateral mamachari rear wheels complete with their drum + belt brakes. And the traffic cone-top red lights too. How have you linked up the brakes to your bike? And do you have the lights wired up to act as indicators?

Mike, you are certainly getting to know me :D

I've not linked the brakes to the bike, that would be really nice, but boy I bet it would be fussy to get right :eek:

I've also not bothered with indicators, heck the vast majority of cagers don't use them, so I'm sure they would just ignore them on my trailer :rolleyes:
 
BTW, I'm welding with straight CO2, not the CO2/Argon mix, as I get CO2 from the L shop for free, many customers don't want the CO2 gas bottle to run out in the middle of a busy night, so they replace it before it is 100% empty, I can weld a lot with that last little bit. That being said, on this job I emptied three of those almost empty CO2 bottles :D LOTS of welding on this one. The welding looks rough, as the straight CO2 is nowhere near as splatter free as the CO2/Argon mix is. No matter, a 6" angle grinder takes care of the mess :D
....
 
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There it is mostly welded up, I have some minor stuff to add, some tabs for a few things and such, but that is the bulk of the job

As I said, I had a slight ground clearance problem but no more....

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That is over 4" of ground clearance, that should do me just fine :cool:

Next up.....

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... yep, fenders, I have done some deliveries in the rain, and those wheels throw a LOT of water. The near fender is done, the other one is just sitting there, you see I ran out of wire..... :eek:

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.. I knew I should have ordered a big spool, but I thought this little one would do.... well, after one fender set done, I was right out of wire :eek:uch:
 
Here is a good picture showing how much the trailer has grown.....

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that is the old floorboard.

My next idea is to make some signage on the trailer sides, something like this.....

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That is just cardboard, but I bought some of that board that looks like cardboard in it's construction, but is plastic. I will attach it to the trailer with some zip ties and a couple of bolts/screws. I'm only going to put the name of the liquor shop with our logo and a area.

Once I get some more wire, I'll finish up, then I'll use it for a week or two and if I'm happy with it, I'll paint it.

Cheers!
 
Wow...

... that kicks. To bad you don't deliver to my house! My brother builds his own trailers and bike/boat racks to haul all kinds of stuff. I will send him this link, he will be impressed.
 
Wow, I am really impressed :pray: (and v. jealous of your workshop :cool:).

For the brakes, you could set it up as a tandem-style drag brake using an extra thumb shifter
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Plus the cable quick release couplings that are used with S&S coupler travel bikes
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That would allow you to connect/disconnect the brakes when you take off the trailer.

I know you said you didn't need extra brakes, but go on - it would be ace! It would make a handy parking brake too.

AW.
 
Actually if he is using Air-Oil disk brakes he could have a splitter on the back brake that would allow 1 lever to control the trailer and rear breaks!
 
Wow, I am really impressed :pray: (and v. jealous of your workshop :cool:).

For the brakes, you could set it up as a tandem-style drag brake using an extra thumb shifter
Plus the cable quick release couplings that are used with S&S coupler travel bikes
That would allow you to connect/disconnect the brakes when you take off the trailer.

I know you said you didn't need extra brakes, but go on - it would be ace! It would make a handy parking brake too.

AW.

Good idea on the spare shifter as a drag brake, never thought of that!

The brakes I have on the Mamachari are my parking brakes now.

So far the brakes on the Mixer 8 are working well enough for the hills I have, the main thing is to not get going so fast to start with:rolleyes: if I keep my speed down, then there is no problem.
 
Actually if he is using Air-Oil disk brakes he could have a splitter on the back brake that would allow 1 lever to control the trailer and rear breaks!

Boy that would be sweet :D it would have to disconnect somehow, but I'm sure it could be worked out.

I'd need to get two front wheels with discs and make the frame accept the calipers..... boy that would be sweet! I think if I ever got to that point, I'd just build a whole new trailer.... maybe buy a spool gun for my MIG and build it out of aluminum :rolleyes: :D

I can dream can't I...? :angel:
 
How about out of Toracay Carbon fibre with a 1k weave?
 
I know a guy in london who used disc brakes on his furniture hauling machine, carrying up to 250kgs. He couldn`t solve the problem of spoke breakage due to the braking forces going through the spokes, from the hub to the rim/tyre. I suggested magura hydro rim brakes which solved it. Although pad wear is more of an issue with the rim brake.
Fine work btw.
 
I know a guy in london who used disc brakes on his furniture hauling machine, carrying up to 250kgs. He couldn`t solve the problem of spoke breakage due to the braking forces going through the spokes, from the hub to the rim/tyre. I suggested magura hydro rim brakes which solved it. Although pad wear is more of an issue with the rim brake.
Fine work btw.

Wow, that is some serious weight, 250Kg, got any pics of his set up? :D
 
I got the trailer out of the Dungeon for it's maiden flight today!!

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I've not done the sign boards yet, that will come later.

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The first delivery, it was a bit light, and in about 10 seconds I stopped and moved the load around, that full keg of beer at the back was lifting my rear wheel off the ground if I was not sitting on the bike :eek:

One thing that I did was to move the wheels forward about 10cm, this is because the trailer is heavy on the front, due to the tongue, by moving the wheels forward, I think I can load the trailer with a neutral balance, more easily. One other problem that cropped up is that the strap I'm using to tie stuff down does not work so well any more with two items side by side at the back, so I'm going to put two sets of hooks, so I can put two straps side by side....

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... of course I'll leave the front to back strap as well, this will give me more options.

It all went well today, not a heavy load, but heavy enough, I could feel that the trailer was heavier, but that is OK. I'll do a few more mods, run it as it is for a week or so, then paint it. Painting it is a big job, I have to set up a paint booth in my enclosed space, and it is not fun. Maybe I'll take the frame of the trailer up onto the roof and paint it up there :D I'll have to get a nice sunny day, with no wind

I saw a sign on the back of a kyubin truck today, saying the truck was natural gas powered (or LPG...?) and it also had the idling stop thing, so it was not doing a simple "Delivery/配達中" but an "Eco-Delivery/エコ配達中" :rolleyes: I figure that I can put a sign on the back of my trailer saying "Healthy Delivery/健康配達中" (kenkou haitatsuchu) or maybe katakana would be better...? Might be really strange Japanese..... :rolleyes:
 
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