New trailer for hauling wood
 

I am building a trailer for hauling wood out of the ravines to heat our home.

We have been hand carrying fire wood from downed trees to the top of steepest part of some or our woods. From there we have been loading a plastic tobaggon and dragging it behind our dirt bike. We have moved over a chord of wood this way this summer. With the slope that we have to climb skidding a full load of 100-120 pounds is all that the bike and rider can handle.

Several years ago I built a trailer to tow behind my bicycles. It is made from two bicycle forks cantilevered and a tube hooking them together. It has a 24x30" 1/4" plywood deck. I haul groceries with the bicycle and have towed it behind my honda 150 dirt bike to move salt blocks around the farm. It has been too light duty to move wood.

I decided to make a heavier duty trailer that could carry wood or a deer carcass. It is made from 3/4" square tubing, Not very heavy but I think enough for the slow speeds intended. It's outside size is 36"x55.5" with a deck of 27x54. The materials are what I have on hand.

Here is where I am at.
http://www.veloliner.com/trailer/bigtrailer91411.JPG
I am going to add another cross brace between the bicycle wheels right near the drop outs.
http://www.veloliner.com/trailer/bigtrailerdropout.JPG
Then I am going to weld in a cattle panel to form the floor. Cattle panels are made from 3/16" welded steel mesh with about 4" spacing. It should have a load capacity of about 250 pounds and could be pulled with some load by a bicycle but for moving wood we are going to use the dirt bike.

http://www.veloliner.com/trailer/bigtrailerhitch.JPG
Here is the trailer hitch a spherical rod end. It allows enough movement and works well on the small trailer. The hitch fits in a C shaped bracket with a bolt going through vertically
http://www.veloliner.com/trailer/trailerhitchcrf.JPG
Here my small trailer is hooked to my dirt bike. Note I have moved the trailer tongue to the other side although the trailer can be flipped over

Pretty cool. I made a trailer for my bicycle that can carry a 10' kayak. Any chance you could get a shot of the motorcycle and trailer together?

I'd add diagonal bracing instead of another cross-brace.

I don't think that basic frame structure or those wheels will support any amount of weight, especially if you hit any bumps when loaded.

Neat idea, but for carrying any amount of wood I think you'll need a heavier duty structure and stronger wheels.


Jay

Thanks for the comments.
Diagonal bracing might be better but would make the floor more problematic. The cattle panel floor will add a great deal of rigidity It is 4 gauge about 5mm thick steel wire, every 6" or less there is a cross wire that is welded. I plan on cutting them to fit then weld every end into the inner frame. I have a dozen of them on the farm. The trailer is mig welded together.

357, yep the trailer is a light duty unit. Two hundred pounds of wood isn't that much to look at and probably won't fill the trailer for more than one thickness of wood. The motorbike can't pull that much weight up the grades. If the trailer pulls apart or otherwise looks distressed it will be modified. I made the slots for the wheels full length so that I could put in 4 wheels but thought that I would try it with two. Figure that each wheel has about 1/3rd of the weight on it. Mountain bike wheels should be able to support close to two hundred pounds at slow speed. I will better be able to assess the rigidity once the panels are welded into the floor.

I made something similar and based it on a Garden Way cart .I welded small brackets to the frame and bolted plywood on as sides .They stiffened the sides up tremendously without adding much weigh.I also used used BMX bike wheels, they're much stronger than road bike wheels.

Here is my bicycle trailer. I have hauled 60 pounds with it, behind both my bicycle and off road motorcycle. It consists of two bicycle forks with a single piece of conduit spacing them apart at the front. Some tabs hang down to hold the 1/4" plywood deck. Conduit is not that great as it is very thin walled of a steel that is meant to be bent.
http://www.veloliner.com/trailer/bicycletrailer.jpg

Both of my trailers can fit front bicycle wheels from the old 27" to 349's (about 15")

I have been looking over an old garden cart to rebuild. The trailer looks good enough since the wheel axles are supported on both ends. A couple cross braces of 1 in. L under the frame would help. The tire pressure should be in the 25 - 35 psi range in puncture resistant tubes. Sides panels to keep sticks out of the spokes are good.

I made the first run of my wood trailer today. I just got the "floor", a cattle panel put in it yesterday. I had some mowing to do at my office so I hauled my mower on it with my fixed gear bicycle. Yesterday I pulled the trailer up the road a bit with a 130 pound load and it pulled fine but twisted my trailer hitch that had worked successfully with my small trailer.
I welded on two 7/32" steel rods to reinforce it. Note, the bike and trailer are not lined up in this photo.
http://www.veloliner.com/trailer/modbigtrailerhitch.JPG
My motorcycle hitch is much more robust.

http://www.veloliner.com/trailer/bigtrailerfirstrun.JPG
The time over 5.5 miles was 25 minutes. Usual without the trailer is 20 minutes.

With the trailer hooked to the motorcycle it is going to be flipped over, lowering it 2"

Had the first trial of a heavy load being pulled my a motorcycle. Two of us could barely lift the rock.

http://www.veloliner.com/trailer/big...bigloadnet.jpg

Had the first trial of a heavy load being pulled my a motorcycle. Two of us could barely lift the rock.

http://www.veloliner.com/trailer/big...bigrocknet.jpg

It weighed probably 175-200 pounds We moved it from the creek bottom to the house on the hill, about a 1/4 mile away.

Last Sunday we moved 6-8 loads of wood. The wood had been sawed down 3 years ago and we cut up the wood to be hauled out of the woods. It is going to heat the house with it this winter. I hand split the wood that afternoon. It was wonderful to split.

http://www.veloliner.com/trailer/woodtrlrnet.JPG
I inspected the trailer afterward and the cattle panel which made up the bed was a bit stretched down but the frame was still perfect.

Sure beats spending ~1500 dollars to heat with gas (LP is 2.61 a gallon) or other fuel. The wood was just going to decay anyway. When we cleaned out the flue this fall after one year of heating we got very little ash or creosote. Little ash is a good thing.