Solar camping trailer to recharge ebike while overlanding

[LockH]

Overlanding? I'd build me an american "prairie schooner" to pull:

... and paper the "roof" with strips of "thin film" solar cells:

Operating Voltage: 15.4 Volts
Power: 60 Watts
Current: 3.6 Amps
Unrolled (mm): 664 x 2186mm
Unrolled (in): 26.14 x 86 inches
Weight (kg): 1.816 kg
Weight (lb): 4 lbs

Seen here:
http://www.powerfilmsolar.com/produ...productID=276215&productCategoryIDs=6578,6580

(Others here may be more "reality-based".)

 

[amberwolf]

I'm entertaining the idea of a single wheel camper trailer. To get load off the bike I would want to place weight behind the wheel too.

If you put weight behind the trailer wheel, it lifts up on the hitch point, taking traction off the rear wheel of the bike, kinda like a big see-saw. If you're on a bumpy road, the trailer will keep lifting the rear of the bike up (pivoting the bike on teh front wheel's axle) and dropping it back down. It may not lift the bike off the ground, depending on the length of the see-saw's ends and where the weight is, but it may take traction off enough to cause handling problems. If the rear wheel of the bike is the source of motor/pedal power, and there's enough to lose traction and spin the wheel as it loses traction, then grab again as it drops back down, then it'll keep surging in forward movement, too, making it even worse.

Generally with trailers you want enough of the weight on the tongue to press down always on the hitch, but not enough to force the hitch downward to take traction off the front wheel (causing steering problems). It's a fine balancing act. It's worse if you have hills than with flat roads.

Since I haul heavy cargo, or wiggly dogs, I have to load them up carefully so the trailer is balanced right. I have a lot more leeway with this on my long, heavy bike and trike than I would on a normal bike, though, so you may encounter more issues (especially with a long skinny trailer vs a short wide one) than I would with the same trailer.

 

[dogman dan]

My trailer in progress now. The trailer will be 8 feet long, with the wheel to the rear. Once built, I can experiment with the wheel placement any time, including moving it to carry a particular load better. I'll have a series of wheel placements pre drilled. Likely it will end up with the wheel at 3' from the end, 5' up front. The plan is to load to at most, 100 pounds. 30 pounds of generator, another 60 of camping gear.

Looking for some positive tongue weight, but not tons of it.

Dark at the moment, pics will follow tomorrow.

 

[ddk]

My trailer in progress now. The trailer will be 8 feet long, with the wheel to the rear. Once built, I can experiment with the wheel placement any time, including moving it to carry a particular load better. I'll have a series of wheel placements pre drilled. Likely it will end up with the wheel at 3' from the end, 5' up front. The plan is to load to at most, 100 pounds. 30 pounds of generator, another 60 of camping gear.

Looking for some positive tongue weight, but not tons of it.

Dark at the moment, pics will follow tomorrow.

welp, you're gonna find out you need at least 20% of the trailer weight leveraged at the tongue to avoid any trailer sway... maybe. Not sure about bicycles and motorcycles but this "thumb rule" for cars/trucks/tricycles probably applies.
Good luck on your project.

BTW my 300W of panel measures 26" by 120" (10 feet)...

 

[joe81]

love your attitude guys. i wish i had some junk to play with and could weld..

as long as the mayor part of the weight is carried between rear and trailer wheel it should be fine at the bicycles rear. with the lateral axle of the trailer connection somewhere close to the rear wheel axle there can be little to no moment to lift the front wheel.

found one mono trailer - wheel nicely covered and large area over the wheel for bed and/or panels.. of course not ideal for bulky cargo.

 

[dogman dan]

Thanks for the tip about tongue weight.

It's coming together ok. Need another bmx fork, using the back half of the bike for one wheel temporarily ended up with one wheel pointed crooked. The wheel carriage will be bolted on, so I can adjust where the wheels are with a few min and a wrench.

The hitch is going to be a simple hole in the bar. On the bike I still need to weld a drawbar, like a pintle hitch.

The whole trailer so far. You can see in the background what it will carry first. An inflatable Yoda Claus. For the toys for tots bike parade in two weeks.

The box not started yet, but it will be built with two 4'x8' political signs. The whole thing should turn out pretty light, for an 8' long trailer.

 

[Cephalotus]

I'm entertaining the idea of a single wheel camper trailer. To get load off the bike I would want to place weight behind the wheel too. The only real disadvantage I can think of is some more difficulty moving the trailer when not connected to the bike. Yet I can´t find trailers that have been made like that. Any idea of what I might have missed?...

There are some high quality single wheel trailers from Europe. Maybe you can modify them.

I doubt that it will be any fun to carry significant weight behind the wheel though...

BOB Ibex

http://bobtrailers.de/index.php?id=bob-ibex


Tout Terrain Mule:

https://www.tout-terrain.de/anhaenger/mule/

Aevon STD 100:

http://aevon.de/fahrradanhaenger/std100-fahrradanhaenger/

Oxtail EX1:

http://www.oxtailbicycletrailers.com/trailers.html

 

[amberwolf]

It's coming together ok. Need another bmx fork, using the back half of the bike for one wheel temporarily ended up with one wheel pointed crooked.

Just a tip, but you will probably want to either orient those forks vertically, or add vertically oriented ones, to keep the wheels from "bowing in" at the top under load or in turns.

On the MK III trailer I built with horizontal BMX forks, it doesnt' take a lot of load to cause the wheels to bow in at the top enough to rub on the crate between them, even though there is a lot of space when it's unloaded.

Some sort of tie across the top of the forks (where the steerer tube used to be) to keep them apart would work too, but it interferes with load-carrying.


I've been planning to add both vertical fork over each wheel *and* the crossbar to mine, because of the really heavy loads I carry, but so far have been using the wider MK IV flatbed so much more that I haven't got around to the narrower MK III fixes.

 

[joe81]

Oxtail EX1:

http://www.oxtailbicycletrailers.com/trailers.html

nice variablity in wheelbase. also the idea of suspending front and rear just a little seem clever for long-term durability. hopefully the rubbers don't get too stiff in the cold.
the middle part looks like a designer's piece and too heavy for what it has to do though.

with a single wheel and one fat moped tire only. i think i can forego a suspension system at bicycle speeds, since it will be following the rear of my bike which is also not sprung. so i need to avoid the big bumps anyway.

sizewise my trailer will be somewhere in the american chopper class...
given the hight and length of the intended box issues during crosswinds have to be expected.. how bad? i'm afraid i have to try out..

 

[dogman dan]

Not going to carry enough weight to bow those wheels enough to care about. I don't plan to sleep in it, but might carry camping gear and a small generator, or solar. Mostly I just need volume to carry a better bed if I camp. I could not get good sleep on the backpack pads.

If I carried Barry, that would be a 150 pound load. If plans change, I'll build a second wheel carriage, using a beefy home made wheel dropout. This one more about how light can I make it. It's coming in at 28 pounds without the box. Hoping for less than 50

Kind of amazing, how much a light trailer weighs. My cheap imitation of the bob trailer is 15 pounds, even though it feels feather light. It's max capacity is about 30 pounds of cargo, above that it starts to really handle funny. It will be interesting to see if two wheels and all that length really does make it tow better. I think from my truck and trailer experience, that the long trailer is the best thing. I just need it to tow ok at 15-18 mph.

worst comes to worst, I'll have a great new wheelbarrow. Load it with my metal pipe stock, and roll it around the yard as needed.

 

[joe81]

i think it makes most sense to directly sleep on the nice surface you bring along anyway.
an a-frame rooftop tent provides also for nice tilting of panels:
http://www.instructables.com/id/rooftop-tent/?ALLSTEPS

 

[dogman dan]

It does make sense to sleep on it, but then you do need to add some weight, so you have a leg under all four corners. Two wheels on one end can cover two of those legs, but more likely you need the wheels more towards the center. otherwise, you might tip because you sat up, roll over the bike because you rolled over, etc.

This depends on the size and stability of the vehicle it's attached to, but I could see climbing in flipping a bike. Mines coming out only 25" wide this time, so a bit cozy to lie inside it.

It also depends what you carry for a tent. I've been experimenting lately with a teepee. Since I'm too weak to surf anymore, I thought of another use for 6 high dollar carbon fiber sail masts. They break down to 8' long. More likely, I have a larger tent that would easily carry in the large trailer. My big problem when I toured was not so much the weight of my camping stuff, but it's volume. The tiny two person tent is ok, but I do like a tent you can stand fully up in, have a real chair inside it, have a cot to sleep on, etc.

What I really want is on hold for funds. Once the house is paid off, I want a 34 foot rv. Drive it 60 miles, go for a 30 mile bike ride in each direction seeing each section both ways, drive it another 60 miles, till you ride across the continent. Charging never a problem, using the RV power. I have done this type of ride from El Paso Tx to Santa Fe NM. But I would prefer to have all the comforts of home each day along the way, rather than drive around so much on weekends. Yeah, I know this RV is a wasteful use of carbon, but hey,, I did my part big time. I never reproduced.

 

[joe81]

actually 3 legs would be just right.
for the single wheel trailer i have in mind. i think of adding two of those legs - interconnected - near where the bike is hitched to the trailer. so when lifted the rear wheel will be off the ground and the bike stable. then another point at the very end - adjustable in hight to make sure the trailer's wheel doesn't carry any of the load anymore and the bed is level.
in stormy conditions two clothes' lines from the top of the a-frame to the ground may be necessary for support against rolling it.


still dreaming of a 4x4 truck camper too. have no intention to settle down and reproduce.

 

[dogman dan]

36" (one meter) wide should prevent the rolling over problem pretty much. Mine is turning out 24" wide, wheels only about 30" apart. Trying hard to make it very low, very narrow. Wind drag on it is going to be a real problem.

 

[joe81]

I'm still thinking 19" mono-moped wheel (24" bike size) + coffin hovering above it.

that's quite a surface area and with high leverage for side winds when riding and even worse when the a-frame is set up.

..but smaller wheels or three-track rig I guess will be annoying on dirt roads..

 

[amberwolf]

How about a "retractable" wheel?

For towing position it stows up inside a well to keep the trailer low for better COG.

For usage position, it pulls down out of the well (which folds away to cover the hole), and locks so the trailer is all just above the tire so you could lay directly in there without avoiding the wheel well. A kind of jack could be made as part of the trailer swingarm to do this, and if you wanted you could even use this as a way to do suspension for the trailer.

Or it could pull out further so it is behind the trailer to clear it for the same reason, but this would be a lot harder to deal with while the trailer is loaded.

 

[joe81]

How about a "retractable" wheel?

For towing position it stows up inside a well to keep the trailer low for better COG.

For usage position, it pulls down out of the well (which folds away to cover the hole), and locks so the trailer is all just above the tire so you could lay directly in there without avoiding the wheel well. A kind of jack could be made as part of the trailer swingarm to do this, and if you wanted you could even use this as a way to do suspension for the trailer.

Or it could pull out further so it is behind the trailer to clear it for the same reason, but this would be a lot harder to deal with while the trailer is loaded.

yeah. i imagine it's neat with a two wheel trailer + twist axle where the wheels are outside. loosen the axle and it sits low and stable on it's rests..
but i wouldn't want to climb under it and take the wheel out daily. and now i made up my mind to build a stiff suspension - at least for now..

 

[amberwolf]

I woulnd't wanna climb under it either, which is why I'd use a jack of some type

 

[dogman dan]

I did consider using an inflatable dolly wheel, like a non rotating caster, so I could make it 36" wide, with wheels underneath. Of course, that small a wheel might not roll so great compared to a larger spoke wheel.

If It was to be towed by a more powerful vehicle, like your ( AW's) dual motor trike, I'd be more tempted to make it a much larger house on wheels. I keep thinking of build the same thing, but make it have a 6' long cargo bed.

Might end up doing that anyway later, just for something to do with the junkpile in the yard. Can't really do much touring anyway now, because I'm chained to the internet job, and there is no good wifi in the boonies of NM. Wife retires in 6 months, but my countdown is still more like 3 more years.

 

[craneplaneguy]

Somewhat on this subject, while in Moab this weekend, I saw several interesting rigs set up by people who needed to carry their bikes AND a place to stay. The vehicle of choice right now for this app is (right after the ubiquitous Subaru/tent combo ......the Sprinter van, by Mercedes. I saw a half dozen of those, home made converted. A Arizona friend has one for sale right now, one of the newer AWD ones, 2 years old, bought new by him to haul his solar gear (he's a installer). I don't know what he wants for it, probably 20-30+K? I didn't see any e bikes, that I know of anyway.

Also, on my drive back yesterday, outside of Vale Oregon, on the side of the road (looked like a crappy choice for a camp site to me), I got a brief glimpse of "something." It was a large tent with what seemed to be a bike towed trailer apparatus of some sort parked nearby. I was going 60, and negotiating a curve, with an oncoming truck, so I was busy.....but this was obviously some kind of mobile campsite. Hardcore (or desperate maybe), as it was in the 20's that night, it didn't look like a fun way to travel, at least this time of year. I thought of slamming on the brakes (oops, I mean putting the PIP into regen....) and going back and gawking, but blew it off as it would have seemed too snoopy. I saw no sign of any solar gear, that would have jumped out at me.

 

[joe81]

...because I'm chained to the internet job, and there is no good wifi in the boonies of NM. Wife retires in 6 months, but my countdown is still more like 3 more years.

your chain sounds like great freedom to me.. would love to have an internet job. working from anywhere in the world... ...and even in an area that is of interest to me anyway... *dreaming*
life is too short and uncertain to count it down...

@craneplaneguy
i suffered owning a converted sprinter for 3 years. happily got rid of it. converting a van is still great idea if you are living where it's not cold in the winter. but mercedes is very cheap and crappy engineering.
we have still another sprinter in the family and i worked at mercedes. they are made to fall apart after some years of service.

 

[dogman dan]

Arent they all ? I have looked a lot at box trucks, but a used u haul is very worn, and the prices jacked up.

For just me,, a box truck and satellite wi fi would do er. But the budget just isn't there yet, and I want to take the wife and dogs. Did I say I make a lot of money on my internet job? I don't. I get paid by the chat. Some days, I get no chats.

But it's still a perfect job, as my health slowly returns. When I started, I had to be able to work from a sickbed. But now that I am out of the sickbed, being chained to the internet is far from perfect. The smart phone doesn't cut it, I have to have fast internet to do the job. So I'm chained to my home modem. No different from any other 9-5 job. Weekends too short.

Once I am not working though,, I do plan some longer traveling. My health will be even better in 3 more years of recovery. ( that will be 10 years since the west nile virus hit me) By bike, by RV, by my Subaru,, something better than sitting in a room. I worked construction all my life,, sitting in a room is not my first choice for work.

For now,, lots of day trips only or overnights, if I'm comfy enough with the bed I can carry in the new trailer. Overnights limits me to about a 60 mile radius, where there is desert, and more desert, followed by some desert. The mountains are too far to bike to on a weekend.

Here is is as of this morning. 23" wide usable space inside the box, which should get done today. Box will be 16" tall. The forks are 36.5 inches wide, so to get this inside a house, I'll have to tip it sideways. Oh well, not cruicial, but I did think it was going to be an inch or so smaller.

 

[craneplaneguy]

...because I'm chained to the internet job, and there is no good wifi in the boonies of NM. Wife retires in 6 months, but my countdown is still more like 3 more years.

your chain sounds like great freedom to me.. would love to have an internet job. working from anywhere in the world... ...and even in an area that is of interest to me anyway... *dreaming*
life is too short and uncertain to count it down...

@craneplaneguy
i suffered owning a converted sprinter for 3 years. happily got rid of it. converting a van is still great idea if you are living where it's not cold in the winter. but mercedes is very cheap and crappy engineering.
we have still another sprinter in the family and i worked at mercedes. they are made to fall apart after some years of service.

That's interesting to know about the Sprinter. I had something called a Hanomag in the mid 70's, a similar size, German made, and configuration to the Sprinter. 4 banger diesel, rear duals, etc. I did a real nice camper conversion on it, and lived in it full time for 3 years. It carried my two hang gliders on the roof, plus I had a a rack on the back for my Honda 90 cc dirt bike, and enough fuel for a 1200 mile range, it got 22 mpg. So, when I see the Sprinters I get all nostalgic and think of selling out everything I own and hitting the road again full time. Then I calm down and forget about it, until I see the next one. Thanks for
the wake up call. I'll stick with the plug in Prius as my mobile camper and e bike hauler.

DD: Have you considered a cheap and readily available hollow core interior residential door for the trailer, or is that what I am looking at? Hard to beat them for torsional rigidity and lightness, and they are very stiff. Any lumber yard with a door shop, will have a stack of damaged ones, cosmetically damaged, that can be bought for 5 bucks or even free.

 

[ddk]

... I want a 34 foot rv. Drive it 60 miles, go for a 30 mile bike ride in each direction seeing each section both ways, drive it another 60 miles, till you ride across the continent. Charging never a problem, using the RV power. I have done this type of ride from El Paso Tx to Santa Fe NM. But I would prefer to have all the comforts of home each day along the way, rather than drive around so much on weekends. Yeah, I know this RV is a wasteful use of carbon, but hey,, I did my part big time. I never reproduced.

having a bit of experience with this...
I traveled more like, 600 miles between bike rides but basically did just that, ride +/- 30 or so miles or more.
You can use anything for an rv... kinda. Personally, I've found a shower, toilet and fixed bed* to be invaluable and if you're traveling with another person, there are times when the RV can never be big enough. (those times)
You can get by on the cheep by purchasing a 15 year-old RV. but expect to spend at least $10k in repairs and tires. But at the right price ($5-6k) this can be worth the effort. Otherwise you're looking at $30k+ for a decent used rig that needs minimum repairs... and never forget you're buying a (usually) hardly-used truck. It costs a lot to run these things down the road but it's still cheaper than other modes of (continuous) travel. Plus you get to travel with your bike(s)
I carried two bikes with extra batteries so I could just about ride all day, with return trips back to the RV to exchange packs and recharge the used packs.

* a fixed bed is something you don't have to set up at night after a long day's playing.

 

[craneplaneguy]

I may have another road trip coming up with the Prius/Montague combo, to Mississippi this time, business related, airplane business anyway. I find myself looking forward to it, rather then dreading it, knowing I'll have the bike with me to fill any down time and microexplore (new term) interesting places along the way. Way cheaper then commercial air travel and much less aggravating.