I thought I needed the car to pull a boat...
 

3 summers ago I made a DIY bicycle trailer out of electrical conduit and a couple of small bike wheels. I've used it many times to move big and/or heavy things around by pedal power that I would have otherwise driven in a car:

http://www.metrompg.com/posts/photos...r-tranny-s.jpg

(130+ lbs: 2 Geo Metro/Firefly transmissions and other parts)

Bigger things like kayaks, however, still involved the car:

http://forkenswift.com/album/7-2-kayaks.jpg

(2 kayaks on the electric car)

No longer!

http://forkenswift.com/album/7-kayak-bike-trailer.jpg

http://forkenswift.com/album/7-kayak-bike.jpg

The hitch isn't particularly elegant, but it worked fine for the couple of kilometers I needed to go:

http://forkenswift.com/album/7-kayak-bike-hitch.jpg


Ultimately what I'd like to do is make a removable tongue extension that I can hook up to the tailer whenever I want to carry long loads. Ultimately it would handle better and could potentially carry bigger loads than this single kayak test setup.

Something like this:

http://www.photext.biz/9fae_1.jpg

There are all kinds of pictures of small boats being pulled behind bikes out there:

http://bikehacks.com/wp-content/uplo...0583156_am.jpg

http://www.tonystrailers.com/graphics/trayak_double.jpg
http://www.tonystrailers.com/kayak/juliebike.jpg

In Ontario I can see it. Around here, where I'd have to pedal most of a day to get to some of the places I'd want to paddle (or sail)? But it would be nice to have a lightweight kayak/sailboard trailer to pull behind a small car...

Very nice. I bet you got some funny looks riding around with that though.

True, James. I'm not far from water around here. Mighty St Lawrence! PS. there are really lightweight low capacity car trailers available.

Tim: I didn't really notice anyone ogling the kayak/trailer while I was riding, but I wasn't really watching for it. Buy you know what? I wouldn't be the first person around here doing this. I've seen a someone from the local paddling club pulling her kayak on a dolly behind her bike.

You know you are an Ecomodder if you add a boat-tail to your bicycle. ;)

( Seriously, how hard is it to turn corners ? )

Not hard. Just have to remember the trailer tracking inside on tight turns. I rode the inside wheel up a curb on one.

The neatest thing was doing a very tight u-turn from a stop. I essentially jack-knifed the kayak, and it stopped and started reversing away from the bike as I rode past it, then it stopped again and started going forward behind the bike once I'd gone past the 90 degree point. Bad description - you'd have to see it.

PS - boat tail on a bike - funny :D

RE: Jackknifing the boat "tailer"...

I understand exactly what you're talking about there. I visualized it perfectly, because I've done it with trucks quite a few times.

However, in a truck, the reverse duration is slightly less than it would be on the bike.

I'd say that rope chafed a bit!!

ollie

That bike trailer still amuses me. It's hard to believe how simple something can be, and still be functional.

I almost feel like I want to make a tube hitch for my motorcycle, and build a small trailer similar to this one for it.

This morning I saw this:
http://www.bikesatwork.com/hauling-c...e-trailers.jpg
and I thought: "Is that Darin, by any chance? Has he expanded his boat hauling business?"

I went through some links and found this site about bike trailers:
Bikes At Work
The site is very much in the spirit of this thread: using your bike to haul cargo which would normally go in a car.

Funny you should post that....

I needed to move my empty "pull-behind-car" boat trailer about 1 km a few days ago and toyed with the idea of doing it with the bike (because it only weighs about 160 lbs unladen).

http://forkenswift.com/album/21-trailer-on.jpg

But didn't. It's (a) too wide to get onto the bike path :D, and (b) I don't have a slow moving vehicle sign to attach to it to pull it on the street.

http://sellin.com/GCFR/_images/slowvehicle.jpg

A friend of mine used to use bikes at work trailers for hauling trash for a pedal powered trash collection company.
I have a video that I should figure out how to post of a friend of mine hauling a full size box spring and mattress (he made two trips) on his bicycle, no trailer but used an extra-cycle, a bicycle add on that moves the rear wheel back about 3 feet giving you room for large cargo bags and a large flat cargo deck, a little bigger then a skate board.

If you now add a bike rack to your kayak you'll be unstoppable!

Ha! I've actually seen a picture of something like that: someone bike-towing a canoe to the river, then putting the (folding) bike & towing dolly in the canoe & paddling downriver.