Widepath Camper Trailer

[Joseph C.]

http://www.widepathcamper.com/

I came across this from a Danish company on Facebook today. I think it is a class idea and very well executed. Its a folding camper trailer for bicycles that weighs just 40kg.

It has a bed that sleeps two which also doubles as two facing dinette seats, a folding table and windows with curtains. The openings seem to have rubber seals and they claim it has 300 litres of storage space when in towing configuration. It's very reasonably priced too at €2,000 especially considering its made in Denmark.

They will probably also offer a solar panel. It might be possible to put 200 watt or more of solar on the roof.

The only disadvantages I can see is that you would need mirrors with extensions to see behind and there doesn't seem to be a ventilation system other than opening the door. It could also probably do with a flexible opening for an EHU.

If they can solve the potential condensation problem I think they have a winner.

Edit: I see from reading their Facebook page that they working on an awning too.

[Eclectic]

It's pretty cool. Might be a little wide for most roads. I'm trying to figure out how they fold it up.

[amberwolf]

Looks like it's hinged in the middle, and the back just rotates 90 degrees over the front section. The wheels are under the front half.

[dogman dan]

Interesting folding design. But still a nice tall sail to tow when folded. I would have thought a better idea would be like current pop up trailers for cars.

They have a lower hard section, hard roof, and either a tent or hard panel sides when cranked up to full height to sleep. The idea is a low profile when towing, see over the top with your regular mirrors, etc.

I've often considered a similar low, long, and wide trailer idea, just as a platform for solar mostly, and about 10" of interior to stow both batteries and camping gear. Be nice to have about 3'x6' of panels cranking out power as you ride. And a nice big comfy tent when you camp.

The whole thing as low to the ground as possible, like no more than 14" tall to the top of it. Casters or skid plates on the corners for when you scrape on a bump.

[Ykick]

Stupid expensive but something like these pop up roof tents could be adapted to a trailer:

http://www.autohomeus.com/rooftop/AirTop.php

[The fingers]

At least spending the night on the roof might keep the snakes out of your sleeping bag, insect screen is nice also. No way could I even climb up there.
Give it wheels, a tow bar with a hitch and I'm off. A somewhat narrower version could still hold two skinny people riding tandem or one porker like myself, without hogging the entire river trail or bike lane.

[Joseph C.]

It's pretty cool. Might be a little wide for most roads. I'm trying to figure out how they fold it up.

The problem with going too narrow is that you completely lose function. Its a shade under one metre externally as it is. The average man's shoulders are probably between 55 and 60 cm wide and your elbows will stick out even further. As it is two people would probably sleep in a head-to-toe /toe-to-head configuration.

Any smaller and it can't be a two seater. Unless you're going up the mountains any main road outside of towns will have a wide shoulder.

Dogman, I think there was an Australian company that did a folding bicycle trailer. Google tells me it was The Midget Bushtrekka which was a one person tent sold both in Oz and the U.S. I think there was a defect with the axles.

The drawbacks of a folding tent trailer is that it is unsuitable for northern climates. It can take a cyclist several days to travel to their destination and several days to return. If you have wet canvas in bad weather you have to fold it up wet. It can get covered in mildew very fast. Once that happens it's largely finished. Though I suppose you could keep killing it with bleach but who wants to sleep a few centimetres away from a dead fungus?

The other problem is size if you go two person with the folder - and allow enough storage capacity to serve two people you will probably end up with a trailer that is roughly the same size as the Danish design. Again with the drawbacks of it being a tent.

[amberwolf]

Hmm...I can imagine a "solid" (non-canvas) design that would fold up into a pretty small space: narrow enough for regular bike paths, not very tall so to keep wind resistance down.

But it would be pretty complicated to manufacture, and would have a lot of non-duplicate parts. Could end up being a lot less sturdy over time than the Widepath. And it would definitely be heavier.


Essentially it would have panels that slid "into" each other, or "behind" each other, for all the vertical walls. You'd press buttons to unlock them (rather like a crutch or cane adjustment) and then slide them up or down for deployment or folding.

To make it narrower, a similar system would happen with the roof, floor, and front/back, and the support frame underneath.


It would not be really hard to setup or collapse, but it wouldnt' be nearly as easy as the Widepath or a canvas trailer.

it would also require a system of weather seals on every joint, and those would require replacing periodically.

So, not really a great idea. :/



What might be simpler, if a folding tent is needed, is a forced-air drying system built into it in such a way as to blow as much moisture out of it as possible, while it's folded and being towed. But I don't know how effective itwould be, and it would require a high-capacity power source of some type; it would probably use a lot of power.

[Joseph C.]

Hmm...I can imagine a "solid" (non-canvas) design that would fold up into a pretty small space: narrow enough for regular bike paths, not very tall so to keep wind resistance down.

But it would be pretty complicated to manufacture, and would have a lot of non-duplicate parts. Could end up being a lot less sturdy over time than the Widepath. And it would definitely be heavier.


Essentially it would have panels that slid "into" each other, or "behind" each other, for all the vertical walls. You'd press buttons to unlock them (rather like a crutch or cane adjustment) and then slide them up or down for deployment or folding.

To make it narrower, a similar system would happen with the roof, floor, and front/back, and the support frame underneath.


It would not be really hard to setup or collapse, but it wouldnt' be nearly as easy as the Widepath or a canvas trailer.

it would also require a system of weather seals on every joint, and those would require replacing periodically.

So, not really a great idea. :/



What might be simpler, if a folding tent is needed, is a forced-air drying system built into it in such a way as to blow as much moisture out of it as possible, while it's folded and being towed. But I don't know how effective itwould be, and it would require a high-capacity power source of some type; it would probably use a lot of power.

I can't comment on your folding design as I have difficulty imaging it. I do think you are onto something with the crutch buttons. You could split the trailer longitudinally in the middle and have them fold into one another, one side or hemisphere (if a non-circle shape like a brain can have hemisphere so can a non-circular trailer ) would have to be smaller than the other. A sealed overlap would prevent rain egress couple with the correct slope.

The problem though isn't the externals but the internals. Having a fairly wide dinette set up would be harder to achieve. The question is would the narrower wheelbase affect the stability of the trailer when it is unfolded? I know the design has stabilisers but it also uses the wheels too. In such a small, compact design changing anything has a knock-on effect. I couldn't understand when they made the table so small. It took me a second or two to realise that you would have difficulty sitting down if it was the full-width.

Another way around the wet canvas issue would be to use the new hydrophobic coatings. You could apply the applications every time you go camping. Although I'm not sure about the costs involved.

[arkmundi]

The great idea is solar-eBike-camping, a dream of mine now for the better part of a year. I'm inching my way towards that and yea, a rig of some kind on wheels, as light and aerodynamic as possible and relatively easy to pop-up&down. Don't think there's any special magic beyond the pure magic of lithium-ion rechargeable batteries which are rather special in the universe of human invention. The problem I've been working on and solved is an inexpensive & easy trailer hitch to pull a Burley Travoy type pack:

I had a nice luggage bag on wheels that I pulled out of the dumpster and used for travels. Then I tried to pull it on my eBike with partial success, but too unstable and the small wheels just didn't work too well. So pulled the wheelset from from Asome trailer and rigged to it and that worked great. But the hitching method not so, so experimented around and am now on version 2.1 and its gotten a lot better.

Then its just a light weight back-packing tent and a round of camping gear, most of which I have since the days I did those sorts of things. And a nice sleeping pad and bed roll. Strap it all on and am ready to go.

But my little 500watt Heinzmann just not enough pull, as nice as that little motor-that-could is. So upgraded to a MAC 10T. But hey, while I'm at it, why not a full upgrade, so put that on a Trek Shift 3 so I have a "comfort" ride. And since its 48V, let's build a new pack of A123 AMP20 prismatics. But while we're in buy-it and upgrade mode, make that a 40ah pack for the extra range..... the ongoing-saga.....

.... so, the original and great idea is solar-eBike-camping. Once my rig is complete, only my ambition for the outdoors is the limit. I'll be heading back to Texas hill country, God's true country next spring to visit family and my nephew has said he'll join me for part of my trek. But the really-big-trip is in view now, the entire length of the East Coast Greenway from Maine to Florida. Not trying to set any records and do it with speed or anything like that. Just a long leisurely trip on the Atlantic coastline from town-to-town and sight-to-sight. Laptop loaded with maps. And maybe, just maybe, getting Starbucks support. Yea, I wrote corporate asking. We'll see.

[The fingers]

I saw a gentleman with the Burley trailer on the bus this summer. Quite similar in design to my Bag Boy golf bag walking cart that I picked up at a thrift store many years ago, seemed easy to use and high quality.

[dogman dan]

Of course I would not think of how it would work in northern climate. I was just looking at it from a riding in the wind point of view. Here we do have wind for sure.

Doesn't have to be canvas, I just thought collapsing it down low makes more sense than making it less long. And, I also would rather have a large tent than a tiny hard shell in most places.

Mostly, I just thought that leaving the thing as large as possible on top would be good for carrying solar.

[arkmundi]

Of course I would not think of how it would work in northern climate.... Mostly, I just thought that leaving the thing as large as possible on top would be good for carrying solar.

But that doesn't make a lot of sense from an energy collection & expenditure point of view. While there are a lot of folks posting threads about their solar eBike experience and lots of different configurations possible, my own calculations suggest that a decent, in time solar charge is going to require a lot of area, of the order of 20' x 8' of a high efficiency >20% panel to make it possible to charge up on a daily basis AND ride. That further suggests collapsing that into the smallest possible and lightest possible package while travelling to reduce the expenditure of that stored energy. Last thing you want to do is increase either rolling or wind resistance. My plan is from 4-6 hours charging mid-day when the sun is highest with that in tow, stacked flat, the flexible or roll-up version. Ride time is early morning, a goal of 100 miles a day, which at 25mph average can be done in 4 hours. Also leaving the afternoon free to roam & explore.

[The fingers]

A 20'×8' trailer would be very problematic towing with a bicycle due to width, but so would a 40'×4' due to excessive length. How about two 20'×4' panels, one low to the ground an another say at 6 feet above the first so as not to shade it most of the time. If the panels tilt and the rig is parked so as to maximize collecting some benefits could be realized. Low slung batteries underneath might help keep it from tipping, but handling could still be a problem due to the length and weight of the trailer.
The trailer could be parked to charge itself or be plugged also in while the bike is used for errands with its own on board battery. Upon return, (if its still there), hook the trailer up and go until stopping for the night to charge both by plugging in.
Interlocking sections of solar panel could be morphed into a camper shape at night shortening the LOA, returning to trailerable solar duty in the morning.
Cost, money no object. Better get AIG to underwrite, use sponser Starbucks to plug in and provide caffeine, Mac Donald's to give free food, AAA flatbed to tow when it breaks down. A government grant might also be in order.

[Eclectic]

If you are in a climate zone where you have to live in a trailer, a small hard sided habitat like Widepath would be nice but I think you would be stuck at 10-12 mph (20kph).

Here's one for Dogman

bike4-600x479[1].jpg (39.95 KiB) Viewed 4285 times

http://tinyhouseblog.com/tiny-house-con ... e-shelter/


Then there's the guy @ Burningman



A couple more interesting ones:

1321977318_52820[1].jpg (42.99 KiB) Viewed 4285 times

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin ... d_id=56244

Love the helmets on the couch in the back

moving-by-bike-trailer[1].jpg (34.24 KiB) Viewed 4285 times

Jeff seems to build interesting trailers

air-stream-bike-trailer[1].jpg (49.17 KiB) Viewed 4285 times

http://www.commutebybike.com/2011/10/11 ... er-camper/

Then there is Brian Campbell

motorhomebikeFullView[1].jpg (65.23 KiB) Viewed 4285 times

http://bikeportland.org/tag/brian-campb ... rhome-bike


But I think this is the best one

[grindz145]

That thing looks rad. 80 lbs is a very practical weight for towing with an ebike.

[The fingers]

http://www.slabcity.org/
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slab_City#/search
Nice rigs. Slab City here I come.
Off grid living, lots of solar collecting days, only 4 miles to town.

[Joseph C.]

Available for pre-order now with a base price of €2,000. I do hope they work on making the door more robust.

http://www.widepathcamper.com/prices.html

[dogman dan]

Love the tandem bike towing the airstream.

Some of those ideas do look practical for another kind of camper life, I recall seeing signs all over the Mission Bay area in San Diego, that said something like, "you can't park here all night". So the hippie/bums with a school bus had to go someplace for about 4 hours each night. Then at 4 am or something like that, they could park in the lot all day again.

Anyway, size and weight of it, wind drag, etc make a lot less difference when it's just moving it a few miles a day. Touring a long ways, like 50-100 or more miles a day, a much more difficult thing with a big hard shell.

But for slab city, burning man, etc a perfect solution.

[Joseph C.]

Love the tandem bike towing the airstream.

Some of those ideas do look practical for another kind of camper life, I recall seeing signs all over the Mission Bay area in San Diego, that said something like, "you can't park here all night". So the hippie/bums with a school bus had to go someplace for about 4 hours each night. Then at 4 am or something like that, they could park in the lot all day again.

Anyway, size and weight of it, wind drag, etc make a lot less difference when it's just moving it a few miles a day. Touring a long ways, like 50-100 or more miles a day, a much more difficult thing with a big hard shell.

But for slab city, burning man, etc a perfect solution.

I think the solar option is very poor. They could have put a 100-watt flexible mono-crystalline solar panel on it for just over €200. Let's say you get 50 watts from it on a sunny day, over eight hours that's 400 watt-hours. You could double it to two panels and 800 watt hours. That gives you a lot more options.

If the trailer becomes very popular I'd imagine they could could do two hundred watts peak solar, a kw/hr lithium battery and usb/12 volt sockets for about €1,600 at a weight penalty of an extra ten kg (50kg total). 70kg all-in, isn't that much of a weight penalty on an electric bike going at slow speeds of 25 kph.

But a ten-watt panel and 130 watt-hours of battery for €600 isn't great. Much better to have a built-in EHU than you could plug-in at campsites that would power appliances. In Ireland and much of the UK it is illegal to camp on public property anyway thanks to travellers.

[arkmundi]

++1 to solar eBike camping tour... http://unifierfestival.com/ in Tolland, MA

[dogman dan]

Don't think they were aiming on solar doing more than keeping the phone charged. For sure, at least 100w panel would be needed to keep an ebike topped up enough for that "can't park here all night" ride each night.

Another thing I forget as I look at this sort of thing, scoffing. Not all the world has 70 mile gaps between places you can even get a drink of water. Or, Like in parts of Southern California, 70 miles just to reach a place where parking at night might be allowed. In most of Europe at least, just moving camp 10-20 miles every day or three would be quite nice. Just stay out of the mega cities.

[jimw1960]

40 kg is about 90 lbs. If you are going to tow that much weight, you could just get a lightweight Burley trailer, pack a tent, camp table, chairs, cooler, stove, and air mattress. This would weigh much less than 90 lbs, be more aerodynamic, and cost much less than €2,000.