Trailer for a bicycle - fun and convenient! How to make a caravan for children to a bike with their own hands?

A bicycle is a long-time invention of mankind, in itself is a unique device. In order to expand its functionality, people began to apply additional structures, and they include bicycle trailers. A trailer for a bicycle helps to solve some problems during transportation.

What is the use of a bicycle trailer?

• The trailer allows you to significantly increase the number and weight of the load, while the bicycle does not cause any damage during the movement, because the whole weight is redistributed to the trailer itself.
• Trailers are very convenient for transportation of children, the trip will seem comfortable and easy.
• Dimensional loads can also be easily moved if the bicycle is equipped with a trailer.

A tourist single-wheeled bicycle trailer easily allows you to carry cargo when traveling even along narrow paths, it's easy to move along rough terrain with it.

A bicycle trailer for a child has more rigorous design requirements than simply transporting any goods. Such trailers should be equipped with seat belts, shock absorbers. Everyone who constructs a structure on his own must remember this. Industrial children's bicycle trailer necessarily passes a tough test, not inferior in importance to the automobile.

Kinds

The most commonly used two-wheeled trailers, usually the design for the transport of children or freight.

Single-wheel models represent a flexible tandem, so to speak, an additional seat that has an independent drive, a chain drive to the attached wheel. Such a trailer moves fairly obediently along a straight stretch of the road, but here at the turns there are difficulties: the rear wheel begins to drag, and not roll.

Another model that occurs much less often is when the trailer is attached to the front. The bicycle does not drag the trailer behind it, but it pushes it. This design is more complicated, and it is not easy to manage it.

How to make a trailer for a bicycle

In the summer time, many people change the stuffy uncomfortable transport to an easy and easy-to-manage bicycle. To travel was fascinating not only for adults, but also for children, many use a trailer for transportation. Buying a construction costs money, so many craftsmen invent it in their own way. So how can you build a bicycle trailer with your own hands? We describe the simplest method.

What basic materials will be required for work?

• Three tubes 2 cm in diameter, each three meters long.
• Bushings.
• Copper basket or MDF sheet (from which you can build a basket).
• Two lock nuts.
• Thread cutter.
• Wheels.
• Shock absorbers.
• Seat belts.

Sequencing

When the material is prepared, you can safely, without doubting the success, get down to work. The basis of the trailer will serve as a frame. To create it, you just need to prepare the drawing in advance. A pipe will bend over it. Take a large sheet, draw on it the shape of the future frame, it is better if it is an oval. On the lines drawn, bend the pipe.

One such curved tube will serve as a bottom for the trailer, from the other curl the back like a sleigh. Two of these elements need to be soldered together. At the edges of the frame, solder the bushings in places where the wheels will be fastened. Install the wheels themselves.

The next step is to set the bottom. Now you need a copper basket. Instead, you can take a thick sheet of MDF, but the minus of this material is that it quickly gets wet. For the bottom it is better to use moisture resistant materials, for example, laminated plywood. The side walls can be made from a thick tarpaulin or from thin wood panels.

If the trailer will serve to transport children, install shock absorbers. Equip comfortable seats with seat belts.

Connecting to a bicycle

Solder to the trailer a metal tube, with which the construction will be attached to the bicycle. In addition to the trailer structure itself, it is necessary to make a unit connecting the trailer with the bicycle, the so-called drawbar. You can make it from an inch pipe and metal plates. Pipe to bend into L-shaped. In place of the angle solder the metal plates, insert a bolt between them, which will play the role of clamp. Perpendicular to the upper one, install the lower bolt, it must cross the hole in the pipe and connect to the lower collar.

Do not forget about the towbar. On the bike must be present in the trunk. One hinge part is installed on the drawbar, and the second - on the trunk.

In such a simple way, a trailer for a bicycle is built with your own hands. He will be able to serve you in family travel for the transportation of children or for moving small-sized loads.

Exploitation

The trailer for a bicycle is not complicated at all. Anyone who has tried to use it can confirm this. When riding on a horizontal surface, the trailer stuffed with children is not felt at all. He does not restrain movements, does not interfere with management, maneuverability.

Just remember that the trailer itself is wider than a bicycle, so do not forget to leave more space when turning or when traveling in narrow places (between trees, along paths). Note that when turning, the bicycle trailer is moving along the inner arc. When you leave the hill, the bike is accelerated by the trailer, but the problem is easily solved by slow braking.

There are problems when driving on a loose ground or uphill. Of course, this is due to the weight of the trailer, because it weighs, together with the load, whatever one may say, at least 50 kg. And yet with the trailer to go a little easier than if you carry the same weight on the trunk.

Of course, it's much easier to move along the asphalt with a trailer, but you can safely say that the bicycle trailer is also convenient for driving on dense dirt roads, paving stones, grass. With this design, you can even overcome shallow ruts, because the gap between the bottom and the road is not so small. The risk of overturning is absent, even if on a rough road in places one wheel will be above another.

The problem for the movement is the free flowing. The bicycle, together with the trailer, buries too quickly. It's hard to overcome obstacles, be they logs or ditches with a trailer. On narrow paths, riding is also extremely inconvenient, the bicycle hardly fits into turns and touches everything that sticks around.

In general, a trailer for a bicycle is a great help. Having thought the route in advance, you can have fun and easy to go on an interesting trip with the whole family.