Trailers for Trikes

[cscotthendry]

Hi All:

 

I thought I'd start a thread for ideas for trike trailers. I'm currently having one built and got ideas from several sources. I thought this would be a good place to share your ideas on what makes a good trike trailer.

 

I'll start with some of my ideas.

 

Fisrtly, weight. The lighter the trailer, the less fuel it takes to haul and the less tyre wear.

 

Secondly, I decided to have a full deck on the trailer and in keeping with the first goal, I decided to have an aluminium deck of the sort that they have on tray-back utilities.

 

Third, Wing racks. I chose to have the wing mounted on the trailer rather than the vehicle as it makes the trike transport self contained. If I take the trike on holiday and I want to go to the shops or out to eat, I don't want to be lugging the wing with me. Also, the added cost of racking on the trailer is less than and more asthetic than the racking on the vehicle. Finally, if the wing rack was on the vehicle, I'd probably leave it on even when I'm not trailering the trike and those things are pretty ugly on a vehicle.

 

Fourth, Tilt. I decided to go for a tilting trailer rather than ramps. The tilt doesn't add as much weight as carrying a set of ramps and is quicker and easier for getting the trike on and off the trailer.

 

Fifth, Winch. I decided to have a winch to get the trike on and off the trailer. Having the winch means not having to heave the trike on and off manually. Whenever you're heaving the trike around, there's the possibility of hurting someone or the trike.

 

Sixth, Wheels enclosed withing the deck perimeter. My brother-in-law says that he occasionally drags his trailer mudguards against things and suggested this solution. Also given that my trailer is 6 metres long and has a big turning circle, this is even more likely to happen.

 

Seventh, The trailer extends past the prop in the back. This might save a busted prop if I back into something.

 

Eighth, Stone deflector at the front. This is a simple and useful addition to protect my investment from rocks and stones thrown up by the towing vehicle.

 

Ninth, Open top. I decided not to go for an enclosed trailer for a couple of reasons; weight and ease of access. Also an enclosed trailer would require the wing to be carried much higher than I plan to carry it.

 

Tenth, Construction simplicity. The chassis design of my trailer is a very simple rectangular shape. The decking is just planks cut to length and bolted to the chassis. This helps to keep the cost and weight down.

 

Eleventh, Trike contained within trailer outlines. If I drag the trailer against something, I would prefer that the trailer cop the hit rather than the trike, so the trike sits completely within the boundaries of the trailer.

 

Here's some pics of my trailer chassis and the design model that I drew. I have this as a Solid Edge V19 file if anyone wants a copy, just PM me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[eastmeg2]

Hi Scott,

 

Very nice, and in red it should tow faster.

 

A couple of suggestions you may or may not wish to explore.

 

Carrying the wing up high on supports creates extra drag, which can become a drag if you're towing log distance with a 4 cylinder car.

 

I have seen one trike owner lay the wing along the bottom of his trailer. But you'd have to be careful it won't strike the rear of the towing vehicle in a tight turn and would probably want an extra waterproof wing cover to keep the road grime out.

 

While length is good for stability on the road, a shorter trailer will get the trike more into the slipstream of the towing vehicle. But if you're going to mount the wing on the trailer there probably isn't any scope for any shortening of the draw bar.

 

The other is that if you have a full set of travel covers for the trike you wouldn't usually need a stone deflector on the trailer, unless you're going to drive a lot of dirt road at highway speeds. A friend of mine did a Darwin trip towing his XT-912, covered many hundreds of k's of dirt road and his rear suspension struts now look a bit 2nd hand, though the rest of the trike is unmarked as it had it's travel covers on.

 

Wouldn't mind a copy of your trailer plans. Will PM you with my details.

 

Cheers,

 

Glen

 

 

[cscotthendry]

Glen:

 

Yes, well spotted about the red. Did you notice that my trike is red too? No one will be able to keep up with me in the air or on the ground ;)

 

I plan to carry the wing kind of nestled between the fins of the spats and the body of the aircraft and slightly angled towards the center going forward. I want to carry the wing as low as possible, but not on the deck of the trailer. This will get the wing behind the towing vehicle and keep the C of G a bit lower. Because my trailer is fairly light (< 350Kg all up) keeping the C of G low will be an issue as the motor of the trike sits pretty high above the axles of the trailer.

 

I do have travel covers for my trike, but a bit of extra protection never goes astray. Oh, I forgot to mention that the stone deflector will be a steel frame with some heavy square fence mesh welded in and covered with something like shadecloth for the least wind resistance.

 

And my towing vehicle will be a V6 Rav4 (when I get it), so no power probs for the tow.

 

An extra waterproof cover for the wing sounds like a good idea, and maybe some covers for the struts.

 

Thanks for the input

 

 

[skeptic36]

Tool boxes

 

Hi Scott

 

What about a couple of boxes for tools, tyre pump, and spare parts. Mine has two, partly submerged in the floor so the trike rolls over the top. They need to be large so you can put your wing bag and trike covers inside while not in use

 

Here is a pic of my trailer (taken before I owned it). Sorry it doesn't show much but I'll try to get some better ones when I'm there next.

 

Regards Bill

 

 

 

[eastmeg2]

Hi Bill,

 

Maybe it's just the angle of the photo, but it seems you have a short trailer that carries the wing too.

 

Is that your car in the photo? I ask because I drive a Forester 2.5L manual.

 

Rgds,

 

Glen

 

 

[skeptic36]

Yes Glen,

 

It is about as compact as you could get. I haven't had cause to use it yet except to bring the trike home after purchase.

 

It is not my car that is the previous owner in the pic.

 

Regards Bill

 

 

[mechfx]

probably not exactly what you are looking for but I noticed the Airborne website has a trailer plan for download. hope that might help

 

Art

 

 

[cscotthendry]

Art:

 

I saw that trailer on Airborne's site and there's another one (with a better picture) advertised on Adelaide Windsports page. Those trailers gave me some ideas for a start. The main concept for my design came from a friend who is also being trained by my instructor. He bought a trike and it came with a trailer. He modified his trailer to carry the wing and he also covered the open chassis with checkerplate aluminium decking.

 

 

[Kev]

Bill,

 

I like the wing rack on your trailer. Thinking of doing something similar on mine. Until now, have carried wing on car, but now have new car and don't want to fit roof racks. any chance of some closer-up piccies?

 

Safe flying

 

Kev

 

 

[Tracktop]

Hi

 

The hardest thing I have found with loading a trike on a trailer is keeping the front down and the front wheel straight. very difficult if by your self

 

How do others manage?

 

 

[cscotthendry]

Ray:

 

If you look closely at the drawings and pics pf my trailer you'll see where I've mounted the winch. It's on a piece of RHS that is welded to the tilt frame so that the winch rises up with the frame. I plan to make a towing fork that grabs the front axle on both sides and which the winch will attach to, to drag the trike up onto the platform. By hauling the trike by the front axle and the winch being at deck level, I'm hoping that will prevent the trike trying to topple backwards when it runs up the incline. If that doesn't work, I'll try dragging it up by the tie down loop under the base tube at the rear. There may be an issue keeping it straight doing that though.

 

 

[eastmeg2]

HiThe hardest thing I have found with loading a trike on a trailer is keeping the front down and the front wheel straight. very difficult if by your self

How do others manage?

Hi Ray,

 

I've found with the XT that there is no problem with the nose coming up, unlike the earlier X series trikes that always tried to backflip whenever you raise the nose especially when it has a lot of fuel in the tank.

 

To keep the nosewheel straight when loading onto the trailer we have a very high-tech piece of gear to fix that. Cut two notches in an 18 inch (approx) long piece of wood. One notch goes over the passenger steering footpeg and the other notch goes over the front of the seatframe between the rear of the pod an the curved bit of the bottom of the seat frame. But, remember to "Remove before flight".

 

With the steering locked straight and ramps on my non-tilting trailer I find I can raise the nosewheel onto the centre wheel guide on the trailer then go to the back and by pushing on the prop hub push the XT-912 trike base onto the trailer by myself. Though I am 100kg.

 

Although I can lift the packed up 50kg wing by myself I always try to avoid it and get help as it's no good to have the entire weight of the wing supported at one point.

 

Cheers,

 

Glen

 

 

[skeptic36]

Bill,I like the wing rack on your trailer. Thinking of doing something similar on mine. Until now, have carried wing on car, but now have new car and don't want to fit roof racks. any chance of some closer-up piccies?

 

Safe flying

 

Kev

No probs Kev, I'm going to try to get there in the next week or so :thumb_up: (it's in the hangar at the airfield).

 

Regards Bill

 

 

[Tracktop]

Please tell us how it goes and what works best with the winch thanks Scott

 

Thanks Glen the wood sounds like a quick easy fix. I have always used a borrowed trailer so prep effort before loading hasn't usually been more than find something to tie it down with.

 

I can push it up from the back but as you say a fair bit of effort is required and by pushing at the back it stops the nose trying to rise.

 

 

[mechfx]

Finally found the pics of my old setup. Was a converted boat trailer, just removed all unneeded bits and had 3 pieces of aluminium checker plate folded into trays and ramps. Was very light and seemed to handle not too badly.

 

I had a shoulder injury at the time so lifting 50kg around was uncomfortable. You cant tell from the photos but the ladder frame holding the wing was on a pivoting mount from the front nudge bar.

 

I would unbolt from the back edge, swing the frame (and wing) onto the ground at the rear. (half the load was then still held from the front)

 

Walk around the front and disconnect the frame from the pivot (half the weight now supported by the ground at the back)

 

You could then wheel the wing and frame(wheels stay connected to the frame) to the setup area, remove the wing and take the frame back to the car.

 

sounds a bit complicated but it worked well.

 

This probably doesn't help at all, sorry.....:)

 

Art

 

 

 

 

[tassytriker]

Hello

 

Have a look at these picts.I made a cradle and roller setup(using boat rollers) reasonably in expensive and quiet simple to build and a ten year old could put the trike on the trailer:clap:

 

Just lift the front up strap it in the cradle and winch it on!

 

Gary[ATTACH][ATTACH]9351.vB[/ATTACH][/ATTACH]

 

 

 

 

[cscotthendry]

Gary:

 

Cool bananas! What keeps the little trolly centred on the runners? Can you post a pic of that detail please.

 

The engineering of that wheel holder looks very professional.

 

 

[eastmeg2]

Nearly thought that was my old trike for a moment, but the yellow X (versus blue) and the oil injection bottle say it's not.

 

 

[Tracktop]

Nice pics and ideas - keep em coming

 

 

[tassytriker]

Hello

 

Underneath the wheel trolley is a nylon block just slightly narrower then the angle frame,

 

it is attatched to the wheel trolley in the centre via a cuple of spacer come tapping blocks it all works very smoothly havent got a detailed picture from under at moment but if you dont understand my description ill take one and post.the trailer came with my trike but i modified it extensively and tidied up in general.I put a lot of thought into making it a one man operation,havent completely finished wing rack yet,the front upright swivels 360deg and can be lowerd i just need to set up some gas struts on it and fine tune :stirring pot:

 

gary

 

 

[crusty]

Controlling trike nose on trailer

 

Re keeping nose down there is a couple of options,

 

* Mount winch directly onto the keel of the trailer,

 

* Install lug or something similar to hold the winch rope/strap down at keel level.

 

I actually just tied a strap around the keel of the trailer with the tow lead through it, worked a charm, both winching on and letting back off.

 

 

[cscotthendry]

Hi all:

 

Here's the latest of my trailer's progress. The deck is on and now I need to get the wing rack, stone deflector and wheel restraints made.

 

 

 

 

[Kev]

Ray,

 

Loading the trike is no problem, as the nosewheel castors. To stop the nosewheel cocking when unloading, I use two straps around the passenger steering bar to secure it in the neutral position.

 

No answer for keeping the front down other than do it carefully. I don't use a winch, but push it on/pull it off from the prop hub.

 

Fly safely

 

Kev

 

 

[skeptic36]

Kevs trailer pics

 

Hi Kev,

 

Here are the pics you requested (I hope, this is the 3rd attempt) The front support has a quick release pin which when removed allows the pole to rotate which allows the wing to be lifted off the rear supports and lowered onto a small trolley then lifted off the front support and wheeled around by 1 person. The U sections all pivot and the rear supports T section pivots as well to allow perfect alignment.

 

Other features worthy of mention are, the frames at the front for fixing the fuel cans to, the toolboxes recessed into the floor and the deep channel for the front wheel which eliminates the need to tie up the steering for either loading or unloading

 

 

 

 

 

[Kev]

Thanks Bill,

 

Bonza pics.

 

Safe FLying

 

Kev