Boat tail project based on a single wheel trailer...

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by American Viking

That looks slick Phil, but I'm not talking about a trailer based on motorcycle parts, I'm talking about a trailer to carry 2 motorcycles behind a car.
I have a big flatdeck single axle trailer that sticks out from behind my car.
The rear ramp probably adds more drag than you boat tail trailer.
That's what I'm trying to replace.

John,do you have a photo of the Jetta and trailer (loaded with bikes)together that we could look at? There may be a way to shrink-wrap a body around the bikes which would help streamline the combo.

[BamZipPow]

Originally Posted by American Viking

Bam, Just a question.
You still intend to use this trailer as a cargo hauler right?

I've been looking at a few single wheel trailers to construct a two motorcycle hauler from, and naturally have been having thoughts about reducing the drag.
The first issue I keep running across, is how high the trailer deck is. That might not be an issue for you with your truck, but that seems to be going the wrong direction for someone working with a normal car.
Have you (or anyone else here) thought about building a lowboy frame version, where the center of the trailer is nothing but a backbone frame, suspension and the cargo space is split and hung to either side?

I will eventually move back to a useable cargo space (max 300lbs) but right now I'm just playing with the trailer to see how viable it is to build a tail cone/boat tail from this single wheel trailer platform. I'm currently at a standstill due to the weather and not wanting to go outside to play with the trailer. I'll eventually git the motivation to git back out there.

The issue I see with going with a low frame setup fer a single wheel trailer is the pivoting wheel. The length of the trailing wheel to the pivot point is the radius and will need enough clearance fer it to swing around. You'll also need to factor in the height of the wheel setup plus the load carrying capability. If yer rear wheel/hub setup is large enough to support the weight of both motorcycles, you would only have to worry about the pivot diameter of the wheel set.

I found this piccie of a single wheel low boy from Swivelwheel.com when they made it. I don't think they make it anymore...but I would've loved to have played with this one instead.


Swivelwheel.com does make a dual swivel wheel setup but it's pretty pricey, isn't recommended to be towed by anything less than 10,000lb dry weight/30' in length, and doesn't come in a low boy version. It does have up to a 1200lb load carrying capacity.
http://www.cruiserlift.com/swivelwheel58.html

[freebeard]

American Viking -- It looks like the trick is to put the pivot point for the tailing arm at the back of the deck or box, then you only have to deal with 1/2 the turning circle. The height is still there, though. Maybe you could pair up 2ea 10" wheels instead of one 13" wheel on the single pivot. With a little negative camber like on the front of a farm tractor.

Which would be less problems, carrying one bike facing forward and one to the back so the handle bars don't interfere or putting them in a V so the handle bars will clear but the back is narrower?

[BamZipPow]

From Swivelwheel.com's flyer...

We receive calls every month or so to build a system to handle two full size motorcycles. This load could be up to, or over 1800 pounds. Problem is, there is not a fifth wheel trailer out there that would handle the associated weights. That is something that we have no control over.

[American Viking]

Originally Posted by aerohead

John,do you have a photo of the Jetta and trailer (loaded with bikes)together that we could look at? There may be a way to shrink-wrap a body around the bikes which would help streamline the combo.

I don't have photo of the trailer behind the Jetta, but I have a shot of it with one bike on it behind the Lincoln. here it is;


To those that suggested reversing one bike, that would only work if two details can be worked out.
1 The trailer has a complete body, so that none of the bikes expensive plastics get damaged by air flow in the wrong direction.
2 Both bikes are loaded by rolling them up front wheel first, with the trailer hitched to the car.
It will also make tapering the width of the trailer that much harder.

I've had a couple of issues with the latest version of AutoCAD running on this computer but, now I'm back to working the trailer design.

[aerohead]

Some thoughts about the photo:
*As low a body as you can stand.
*The roof moves away (hinged or parallelogram)for loading/unloading,then lowers and latches for road.
*The roof has 2-blisters (ala Abarth roof) to minimize frontal area,just clearing the bikes when latched.
*Bulbous nose
*Sideways canoe fairings over the fenders
*bellypan if you're so inclined
*Any plan-taper that you can get away with on the upper body,above the fender elevation.
*If the back of the Jetta has the Kamm type roofline,it would help kick the air over the trailer.
*If the Jetta is a notchback type car,you might make a faux-Kamm device to kill some of the void between car and trailer.

[American Viking]

Originally Posted by aerohead

Some thoughts about the photo:
*As low a body as you can stand.

That's why I was thinking of developing a two wheel inline chassis, so that I could cantilever the Channels to either side and keep it as low as possible.

Originally Posted by aerohead

*The roof moves away (hinged or parallelogram)for loading/unloading,then lowers and latches for road.
*The roof has 2-blisters (ala Abarth roof) to minimize frontal area,just clearing the bikes when latched.

I thought about the two curve roof similar to a zagato design, split down the middle so that each bike could be accessed separately

Originally Posted by aerohead

*Bulbous nose

Well the shape would have to have some compound curves to handle both the two curve roof and a bullet nose. I was thinking of trying to keep it squared below the trunk level and only rounding the portions above the Jetta's trunk.

Originally Posted by aerohead

*Sideways canoe fairings over the fenders

If I go with the inline swiveling wheels, then I won't need the side fairing and also won't have to worry about the track. The current trailer can weave if the road is very badly rutted, So I had give some thought to narrowing the trailer. I can't go much more narrow for tire track than inline.

Originally Posted by aerohead

*bellypan if you're so inclined

That's definitely a thought.

Originally Posted by aerohead

*Any plan-taper that you can get away with on the upper body,above the fender elevation.

Well the only way I see to have a taper is to either narrow the heck out of the current trailer, or build an inline design.

Originally Posted by aerohead

*If the back of the Jetta has the Kamm type roofline,it would help kick the air over the trailer.

*If the Jetta is a notchback type car,you might make a faux-Kamm device to kill some of the void between car and trailer.

I plan on filling the space between the trunk of the Jetta and the nose of the trailer as much as possible, that's also driving me to think swiveling inline. The Jetta does not have Kamm rear as you can see here.



The more I think about this the more I come back to building a fixed mount swiveling trailer and here are some other reasons.
1. fixing the swiveling trailer to the Jetta's Bosal hitch will eliminate issues with the long gooseneck tongue on my current trailer. I won't have to cut corners off the trailer and reposition the hitch to close the gap between the car and the trailer.
2. I won't have to figure out how to narrow the trailers wheel track.
3. I won't have to deal with the ramp/gate.
4. With the near vertical opening of the Jetta trunk, I should still be able to access the trunk with the trailer hitched.
5. the trailers overall deck structure will not be need to be as long as the current one.

Off to burn a few hours on AutoCAD.

[American Viking]

Originally Posted by BamZipPow

From Swivelwheel.com's flyer...
"We receive calls every month or so to build a system to handle two full size motorcycles. This load could be up to, or over 1800 pounds. Problem is, there is not a fifth wheel trailer out there that would handle the associated weights. That is something that we have no control over. "

Wow, just Wow.. I wouldn't want a 900# motorcycle, never mind 2 of them.
My VFR full of fluids is 540#, My good friend's Concours is 670#. What the heck do they consider a "full size" motorcycle??

As Swivelwheel points out - its not the tires of the trailer that is the problem, its the load on the hitch.

[BamZipPow]

Started working on the trailer again...

Buttoned up the front. Will have to either tape the gap where the trailer wiring comes through or cut a hole at the bottom of the panels and move the panels closer together in the middle.



Installed a support bar in the rear and centered the license plate. I'll have to wire in a separate license plate light so the license plate will be lit up properly at night since the left light cluster contains the license plate light.

I still have to cut down the rear Coroplast and then start framing up the lid to match the transition from the aero cap. I know I'll have to build up the front of the lid about 8-10" higher in the front to make up the difference between the top of the bed and the trailer.

I'm thinking about dropping the top of the rear down to the new support bar which means I end up cutting the sides down as well. Since the tub isn't in place any more, I could bring the sides in the rear closer to the trailer frame, too.



Maybe a transitional belly pan fer the trailer if I have some time to address that area, too!

[BamZipPow]

Been thinking some more...I'll disassemble the sides and flip the rear support brackets 90° so I can lower the top of the rear panel some more. I'll go ahead and pull the rear stabilizer bars since I don't think I'll ever need those again since I've been locking the single wheel in place when I wheelbarrow the trailer around. Pulling the stabilizers off should drop some more weight off the trailer, too.