Wednesday 13 April 2011

Fatbike Trailer...



Tried out the `Fat` B.O.B Trailer the other night down the beach...
B.O.B stands for `Beast of Burden` which it definitely is now!
It was an older silver coloured B.O.B trailer with 26" yolk,
I have wanted to Do this mod for a while but was not sure how to fit a fat wheel,
Then bingo, i found a Kite Buggy Online Shop which sold 4" wide plastic wheels like you find on wheel barrows but it had bearings, they have a 20mm inside diameter and are 75mm outside to outside width,


So i used a pair of Hope Pro 2 front Hub reducers which slotted straight in...


So i bought a 28" (sometimes advertised as 29er) yolk and fitted that then got the Grinder out -:),
The fat wheel only fitted with the tyre deflated so the wheel fork would need opened out where it was joined onto the main trailer frame...


I bent both track ends together in the vice to do this, they are thinner than an average Bicycle frame dropout so a MM or 2 off the spacers allowed the quick release clamp to tighten properly...


Then i filed inside the ends of the cut tubes using the rounded side of a draw file to get a perfect fit to the frame tubes then using the grinder with a wire brush buffed off the paint ready for a clean weld...
Pre Weld pic...


At work the next day and `Big G` in the workshop next door to our shed welded it up a treat and i then gave the welds a quick coat of silver Smoothrite,
Back home and i had to swap around a Bobbin on one side of Axle Nuts to try to get the trailer Yolk centered, It isn't perfect but you cant notice it while pulling a heavy load...


So i now have a trailer that will take the fat tyre as well as the standard wheel,
and it will now also fit my Karate Monkey 29er, happy days...

So...does it work?, can you pull it through soft sand loaded?

Yep!...


I drove down to John Muir Park and did 3 loads of logs,
with the river Tyne Estuary here a lot of logs get washed into the bay esp after a spate so the wood is not too saturated with salt...


6 psi pressure in the ribbed tyre seemed just right...


3 loads in the car was about a weeks worth of firewood, gonna save some money next winter!
With the lighter evenings now to 8.30pm and getting lighter daily its time to do some `5pm films again`,
A lot of films i made were always early on Tuesday evenings, ideal as hardly anyone about, Been a while since i made a `point and shoot` film which are the most time consuming even with 2 cameras, secret is to mostly use one camera more than the other,
edit the main cameras segments then add in the other camera`s segments,
This film took under an hour to shoot then about 1 hour to edit, it had 59 clips!,
some folk ask how i can be bothered to make them, simple answer is i enjoy it,
I have the time and when you think about it a couple of hours out your life ain't a lot...

15 comments:

  1. Thanks Bruce, the trailer is great !

    Love the 'down the centre of the log shot !

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  2. brilliant mate, that's some rig you have there now!

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  3. Trailer looks great! And keep them videos coming, we certainly enjoy watching them!

    Cheers,

    Jeremy

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  4. Wow! That thing is absolutely awesome. Gotta love the DIY stuff!!

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  5. Damn Bruce that's the shit right there!!!
    Nicely done, nicely done indeed!!!
    Nothing better than the lovely BTU's!!!

    Peace

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  6. Thats one nice bit of kit, sent the video to my mate richard, who is always out and about looking for fire wood with his chain saws, trying to convince him to get a pugs, this just might do the trick.
    great vid.

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  7. Wow that is one bad arse trailer :-)

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  8. Hi, can you please give an update on how the trailer is going with buggy wheel. I am thinking of doing similar. Cheers Ron

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  9. Hi, Fat Bob trailer is still rolling sweet!, i have not posted it on the blog for a while so will get some pics and more film of it being used soon!

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  10. Nice work! ...wood heats twice lol

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  11. Thanks so much for sharing this! And what a great video. I have a Bob yak to modify, and am looking to use it on snow. Any experience using on snow?

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  12. Hi, I have never used the trailer in snow yet. I got it and modified it after the cold winters here of 2010/11 and sadly we have nod had a winter again with real snow here on the Scottish SE coast. Here`s hoping we get some this winter!!!

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  13. Ok thanks to your great instructions I am almost ready to go. Just ordered the new trailer fork for clearance. Found the kite buggy wheel. The issue I'm having is the rear QR. I have 190mm drop outs any suggestions on how I can modify a reg QR to attach the BOB nuts which the fork sits on? Thanks again for sharing your knowledge!

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