Mountain bike carts?

[Ridge Ghost]

fillthefreezer: Nice looking setup!

 

[Floorguy]

I have a kid carrier that I plan to mod. My wife's friend gave it to us for the little one coming in under a month. Figure next summer it'll haul a kid and next fall...

 

[luke moffat]

i can text you a detail pic of the hitch if you want.
View attachment 11724


edit:
i think were into the trailers about $70 plus my time

Those are very nice setups indeed!!! You ship to AK

 

[bikerdavet]

I'd ship this to AK for you Luke. Not nearly as much work as that bike. View attachment 11729 It's a dandy for hauling just about kind of animal. Tight squeeze for a grizz though.

 

[fillthefreezer]

Those are very nice setups indeed!!! You ship to AK

id build you a hitch if you bought a cart. just need OD and height on seatpost and if your bikes a 26 or 29. theyre pretty crude, and kinda noisy but weve got about 50miles on them so far without issue

 

[Mike7]

I have been doing the bicycle trailer hunting/camping thing for a while, and several years ago ended up building my own trailer because nothing out there really fit the bill for me. I had seen a couple of old timers up a closed road once, who were ex-Boeing engineers with these cool trailers that looked like an airplane fuselage/frame that they built out of aluminum tubing. They halled in a canvas wall tent with those trailers along with the furnishings. Well I am not an engineer or much of a welder, let alone knowing how to weld aluminum, so I had to make my trailer out of stuff from Home Depot...but my homemade trailer is far better than the others on the market that I have tried for hunting.

Fillthefreezer, I too would be very interested in the detail of your hitch...those look pretty cool. My hitch is a seatpost hitch as well but made from snowmobile belts of all things. I will post pics later with a description if anyone is interested in possibly building one themselves. Someone with some better skills (i.e. weld aluminum)could certainly build something lighter and more expensive than mine that gets the job done even better.

I have all of the trailers mentioned above and they all have pros and cons in my opinion:

The Bob trailer --good for scouting and single track, good for running to the supermarket, sucks pushing up hills on trails or even steeper roads for that matter with heavy loads starting at only 40 lbs, not good control coming downhill on the bike with heavier loads and good potential for breaking an axle.

Kids aluminum tubing based trailers-- very light, poor ground clearance but very stable, not great for carrying out meat although I would trust those hitches that attach to frame corner infront of axle much more than those attaching to the axle, time consuming to change from one bike to another, can only lay bike down to one side if you have to jump off the bike fast to take a shot, very cheap (easy to pick one up at a garage sale with wrotten tires and/or fabric to convert into a hunting rig).

Homemade -- you can use higher spoke count wheels like used on X-Games bikes that will easily support carrying out an entire elk or more, you can use a flexible seatpost hitch which I personally prefer if not carrying kids, you can customize the dimensions to your needs and to allow the trailer to straddle ruts/go over rocks/fit between brushes encroaching on the road/or carry and secure certain waterproof cargo containers of your choosing.

 

[jljmonky]

Just a thought... the local Amish use heavy bike trailers pretty regularly, I will do some research in the area and see what I can find out.

 

[fillthefreezer]

here go boys

 

[jljmonky]

Here is a decent link. Not quite as cheap as some of the others discussed but weight capacities are good and construction seems solid...

http://www.bicyclecart.com/standard-cart

I found a local Amish bike shop I will try and stop in next week and see if they deal in anything used or if their prices are different...

 

[Mike7]

Thanks, interesting hitches fillthefreezer & jljmonkey. These guys here apparently make a good seatpost hitch as well for their trailers...I've never called to try to get a hitch separately without the trailer though. http://www.blueskycyclecarts.com/
I'll post my homemade hitch tonight if I get a chance.

 

[Manosteel]

Mike7 would love to see the write up on the bike cart you made. While the kid cart I have is fine, I wouldn't mind making it more robust and less sketchy looking as it is now

 

[endorice]

I'm following this thread with great interest. I am also thinking about a cart for next year's hunting season. I was thinking about modifying a game cart I have, just like fillthefreezer did (nice job, btw).

Not cheap, but here is a nice articulating mount on Amazon that I'm contemplating.

 

[E-2]

here go boys
View attachment 11736
View attachment 11737

fillthefreezer Do you think it would quiet the setup if you put a piece of expandable tubing over the joint to minimize metal contact? Or is the whole cart setup noisy.

I really like the game cart idea because for about the same weight as the baby cart you could haul 500lbs with hard rubber tires. For me that is 2 whitetail. the cart is cheaper and quicker than me buying a kifaru and packing the deer. plus I can haul my hunting partners at the same time.

 

[fillthefreezer]

its the cart thats noisy. the joint is smooth. the bearings are not very well fitted to the axles, clankity clank. the hard rubber tires were part of the reason i put up with the noise.
ill see if i can find the pic of my kifaru loaded with half a bear on the front and a cooler on the back of my cart.

 

[Mike7]

Homemade Meat/Camp Hauling Bicycle Trailer (No Welding Required)

Hopefully you all can see the pics okay as they're taken with my cell phone. It is snowing here above 2,500 ft so it looks like the bicycle trailer will be hanging in the garage until next year. I will probably be able to get out next weekend for a little muzzleloader action so I will probably be getting down the pulk at this point. Anyway, this trailer has a base of scrap 1/2" plywood, frame of ventilated angled metal from Home Depot, 1" thin walled stainless steel pipe for the trailer tongue (I got free and used because much lighter than conduit), eyebolts for gear and tote tie downs, U-bolts to attach stainless steel tubing to trailer base/bed, completely water tight tote from Cabelas, and hitch made from old snowmobile belts and tempered steel bolts. I used angled steel instead of aluminum for the frame because there was some concern that with rough roads the steel washers/bolts attaching the wheel to the trailer frame might wear at the softer aluminum decreasing durability...I am not sure if this concern was well founded however. I built the trailer about 7 years ago and I don't see where the washers/bolts securing the wheels have moved and rubbed on the steel frame anyway. An aluminum frame would be lighter, especially if using something lighter than plywood for the trailer bed.

Key trailer features in my opinion:

1) Wheels set 60% of the way back from the front of the trailer to allow for 10% tongue wt when loaded evenly.

2) Easy rolling super strong high spoke count aluminum wheels which I ended up buying new from bike shop for $25/each and by far the most expensive part of the trailer. I was told at the bike shop if I remember right that each wheel had something like 300-600 lbs capacity.

3) Waterproof lockable container lid that sheds snow and rain, and doesn't leak into the container when opened.

4) Thick walled steel pipe inserts placed into the first few inches of the stainless steel tubing for the hitch so there is no way that the tubing can be crushed when hitch bolts are tightened down. Oh, that's right, the stainless steel pipes of the tongue are secured together with duct tape.

5) Snowmobile belt hitch loop snug but still loose enough that it can be quickly placed on any bicycle with a quick release seatpost in just seconds. Also, belt is double layered giving the hitch some form but still flexible enough to give a smooth ride when pulling the trailer over bumps and allow one to easily lay the bicycle down on either side while trailer is attached.

6) Plywood bed is 28" wide x 60 " long allowing it to fit between brush growing onto the road outside the old tire tracks, but allows the wheels to be wide enough to straddle tire ruts. Size also allows 1 full military duffle bag to be secured behind container/tote and two infront of container.

7) Hitch built to accomodate a 26" rear mountain bike wheel. After I built the trailer I moved to a 29er mountain bike so I had to make an adjustment by fashioning plastic pipes as seen with the repair kit below, that slide onto my seatpost below the hitch effectively raising it a few inches. This works great especially since the trailer was slightly lower in the front on my 26" mountain bike and is very close to level on the 29er.

8) With heavy loads plan for this flexible hitch like this to be pulled down some by the weight. Also, if using rim seated brake pads, have over 50% pad left when you take off on your hunting trip, if you plan on going downhill for more than a few miles on your way out with 150 lbs or more on the trailer. It is easy to bring some extra brake pads. I haven't carried out a heavy load with my newer bike with disc brakes, so I have no idea how long they would last in this situation...but in general riding for me they seem to wear far more slowly.

 

[Mike7]

Trailer Repair Kit: I have never had to use it, but have carried the "Fix-a-flat" stuff for the past couple of years...because if that stuff would keep me from having to change a tube/flat when riding out on a dark rainy night, well then it would be well worth it. To change a tire with this trailer design means rolling the trailer on its side and removing one piece of the frame to get the wheel off. I have the wrenches to do it, but what a pain that would be especially in nasty weather with a fully loaded trailer.
"

 

[Mike7]

I see that I screwed up the cell phone pic download somehow and the pics are size small. I'll try to get my regular camera out this week and take a couple of better pics of the hitch and spacer used for going from a 26" to a 29er if anyone is interested. The great thing about this trailer for me and for people like me with limited mechanical skills and tools, is that it is mostly materials from the local hardware store that anyone can put together with enough time. Oh, and I think you can rent a pipe bender from Home Depot to do the trailer tongue once you make all of your measurements, but in my case, my father-in-law already had one to help do my trailer tongue.

 

[slvrslngr]

Whatever trailer you end up using, be sure to keep your speed down when coming downhill. A fully loaded trailer will really push you around and the effect is magnified when your speed gets up. Well maintained brakes are essential when using a trailer.

 

[fillthefreezer]

Whatever trailer you end up using, be sure to keep your speed down when coming downhill. A fully loaded trailer will really push you around and the effect is magnified when your speed gets up. Well maintained brakes are essential when using a trailer.

this is part of the reason i prefer seatpost mount, my trailer with 100+ on it is very stable even in corners around 20mph, travis1984 will vouch for this as well.

 

[Travis1984]

We took some corners full bore in those things with a half a bear in each cart and they didn't even feel close to doing anything bad. We had a half a bear and all our gear in each cart.