Scott-E
Vetter Aficionado
I found a nice 25" X 30" 2 wheel wheelbarrow on the side of the road waiting for the city's bulk trash and rubbish truck to pick up. All that was wrong with it was the two cheap plastic wheels that originally came with it. I brought it home and started working on it. It needed wheels so I built a couple using 20" bicycle rims, spokes, an a couple of wheelchair hubs from a wheelchair that I also found in a trash pile. Next I used 1" EMT conduit to fabricate the frame. It's light, cheap, strong, and it's zinc plated to resist rust. So far so good. I used it a few times for hauling grocery’s home. I had to pull a net over the top so stuff would not be lost on the way home. That became a pain as I could not stop at other places to shop for fear of someone taking my stuff while I was away from it. I fabricated a lockable top for it. I thought about the design for a few days and decided on the design shown in the pictures below. The first thing I wanted to do was design it so I would not need to put lights on it. Here in Alabama small trailers do not need lights as long as the tow vehicles lights can be seen by drivers behind it. My turn signals are also tail and brake lights. That's the reason I made the sides angled. They are 30 degrees which is also the angle of the Vetter Saddlebag doors on my bike. I like to think that Craig would have done the same if he had designed and sold motorcycle trailers back in the day. As for the use of Bicycle rims and tires, I spent a lot of time in the Philippines while I was in the US Navy. They use Bicycle tires on all sorts of vehicles without any problems at highway speeds. I have another trailer I pull with my bike. It's a single wheel design and uses a 20" bicycle wheel and tire as well. I've used it for many years now. This trailer is really easy to pull even fully loaded. Everyone also think it matches my bike. 4 keyed aline padlocks hold the top to the bottom half and a 5th keyed alike padlock locks the top in place when it's needed. When it's empty I just use a quick pin. If required I can easily remove the padlocks holding the top in place, load something larger than the top door, and lock it back in place. I used a "free" Coroplast political sign for the sides. He was a primary loser and abounded his signs.
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