Dean found that walking to different parts of trails that required maintenance and carrying tools took way to much time out of the day, and sometimes when you only have one day a month do to trail work time is of the essence. Dean felt that pre-made retail bike trailers where not cost effective, So he decided to design a bike cargo trailer that he could attach to his mountain bike and that would allow him to carry the tools he needed for effective trail maintenance.
Luckily Dean had the know how, the materials and the tools to get the job done. Using his MIG welder, conduit bender, grinder, metal chop saw, drill and a few various hand tools Dean got to work. He purchased 1/2″ and 3/4″ electrical metallic tubing with material costs coming in under 30 in including tubing and hardware, and a 26″ MTB wheel. His bike was unable to accommodate a dropout hitch position so he chose to design a seat-post hitch system. Interestingly enough Dean said that the seat-post system lended to more bike/trailer wobble under load, but if that’s you only option its still works well. The seat-post hitch also proved to be one of the more challenging design aspects of he trailer. Dean used 1″ flat-bar, 1″ square tubing and a 1″ EMT connector inside the square tubing to accommodate the clap shimmed with 1″ PVC.
Dean expressed the importance of keeping both halves of the frame and dropouts aligned. the 3/4″ EMT was mated at the welds with a 7/8″ hole-saw to cut the round tube for a tight fit. Dean said it was a fun and rewarding project and he plans on refining and changing the trailer as he uses it. Dean thinks one of the first modifications he foresees is adding more tubing to the lower frame work to carry more tool lower and closer to the axle for improved stability. Awesome trailer Dean and good luck with those water bars. Here’s another DIY conduit trailer that we talked about previously, Dannys DIY Conduit Creation.
For a method for carrying tools on a BOB Trailer, have a look at the last image on our post Interesting BOB Uses Part 2.