[Sidecarnutz]

Here's what I've been working on the past week in my spare time. I needed a purpose built lightweight trailer to haul my sidecar rig behind a car. Had to keep it minimalist as I am towing behind a Mustang and not my truck anymore!

Got a HF trailer kit and a set of steel ramps to weld onto the bed. Cut the trailer down to just 6' long and let the ramps hang off the back a bit over a foot. Welded a winch on it this morning.
Once the Hurricane passes I can put the cable & hook on the winch and test load the trailer to see where the balance point is so I can weld on some simple wheel chocks.
Then I can add some low side rails made of 1" square tubing to act as tire guides and add some torsional strength to the frame. Put a spare tire mount on it and it's all set! Once done the cost will have been about $450. Plus my own sweat equity.

Pic

I figure the money I saved doing this myself just paid for the Miller arc welder I bought earlier this Summer!

What do you think??

 

[SA58]

Looks nice! ...but a real man would just drive the side-car :twisted:

 

[BrotherJethro]

Earlier this summer I also bought a HF 4x8 trailer to pull my KTM behind my Honda CRV instead of driving my pickup 1500 miles. Got 23+ MPG instead of 15. I figure with the gas money I saved, I paid for the trailer on the first trip. (BTW, gas was $5.29 at my destination. :shock: )

Great little trailers, but I worried about it anyway all the way there and back.

Sidecar: Does it still fold with the extra stuff on it? I really like the folding capability

And SA58, you're right, a real man probably would ride the bike, but what would I do with my wife and 4-year old, and our bicycles, and the cooler, and the DVD player, and...

(Not to mention that 1500 miles is about the lifespan of a dual sport tire)

Worst thing about the trip? I went to Kalifornia, so I had to leave all the AKs at home!

 

[Sidecarnutz]

This isn't their folding model. I have a friend who had one of those, Too flimsy for my taste. It cracked and broke stuff on trips too.

I bolted this one together with a impact wrench. Then I went all over it welding up all the joints and added some reinforcement gussets in key points. I won't have to worry about this one coming apart.

The sidecar rig is underpowered for hiway use two up with luggage. And droning all day on hiways isn't what I enjoy. So we like to trailer it to a Rally and then ride all weekend to explore the area with our friends. Then trailer it home.

My Mustang normally gets 28 mpg hiway. My truck used to get 16 mpg pulling a loaded cargo trailer. I don't know how much the trailering will lower the Mustangs mpg, but it has to come out ahead of the truck! I figure we'll just cruise along at 55-60 in 4th gear. That should be good for trailering.

 

[brownstown]

You did good...Very nice job.

Everything looks real clean..

 

[INFANTRY]

I too saw that HF kit and was thinking of doing the same for my bike w/ side car. I just need to get my welder out and get, but the parts and get moving. Too many years of waiting on this project. :roll:

 

[Sidecarnutz]

I just spent the whole afternoon testing the rig on the trailer and found the balance point and then set the forward wheel chock to get the tounge weight right. Welded on some 1" square tubing for the side rails/tire guides. Except for welding on some tie down points, the welding is now done. The little hand winch does a nice job of pulling the rig up onto the trailer. One person and load and unload it. But it is easier if a second person is there to keep the handlebar straight.

Pics:

 

[INFANTRY]

very clever, nice work. :wink: