Texas X Riders
Main Area => General Discussion => Topic started by: matap on August 02, 2017, 10:29:20 AM
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In 2018 I'm planning a road trip that will include going to the West Coast and I want to take my dog with me. With that said, pretty soon I will start a project to make a pet trailer.
I do need to start soon so I can build up my dogs resistance to riding in it. I imagine it will look something like the picture attached. I'm no stranger to building trailers so this should be fairly easy to build. I'll keep up with the build and post up my progress.
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What about Fifi? I assume she would go also. Will you make this trailer 1 or 2 bedroom???
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She would go to. Although she isn't doing so well but she is still fighting.
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That's awesome!!
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I would put a dirt bike suspension on that so your dog doesn't get chunked around in there on the bumps.
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I would put a dirt bike suspension on that so your dog doesn't get chunked around in there on the bumps.
Already did my research. going with 500# torsion axles. They are independent suspension and with an estimated weight of 180# trailer plus the weight added it should be a very cush ride. also he will get a few layers of 1" memory foam stacked at different weights to absorb a little more. He will also be tethered to the floor of the trailer to keep him from bouncing up and hitting the roof of the trailer should we hit a nasty unavoidable bump.
It will be so comfortable that I think even you Scott will want a ride in it one day.
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I would put a dirt bike suspension on that so your dog doesn't get chunked around in there on the bumps.
Already did my research. going with 500# torsion axles. They are independent suspension and with an estimated weight of 180# trailer plus the weight added it should be a very cush ride. also he will get a few layers of 1" memory foam stacked at different weights to absorb a little more. He will also be tethered to the floor of the trailer to keep him from bouncing up and hitting the roof of the trailer should we hit a nasty unavoidable bump.
It will be so comfortable that I think even you Scott will want a ride in it one day.
What is the suspension travel?
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Watch the time of year you head that way. It will be hot going through in Arizona
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I would put a dirt bike suspension on that so your dog doesn't get chunked around in there on the bumps.
Already did my research. going with 500# torsion axles. They are independent suspension and with an estimated weight of 180# trailer plus the weight added it should be a very cush ride. also he will get a few layers of 1" memory foam stacked at different weights to absorb a little more. He will also be tethered to the floor of the trailer to keep him from bouncing up and hitting the roof of the trailer should we hit a nasty unavoidable bump.
It will be so comfortable that I think even you Scott will want a ride in it one day.
What is the suspension travel?
It's adjustable meaning I can change the angle of the spindle in relation to the rubber axle. I just read the specs and you can adjust from +10 degrees to -45 degrees from horizontal. But average travel is gonna be about 3.250"
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Paul I saw this documentary about a month ago on individuals that put side cars on their bike for their dogs.
https://www.wired.com/2014/12/dogs-motorcycle-sidecars/
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Watch the time of year you head that way. It will be hot going through in Arizona
I won't be doing any kind of summer travel and most likely will take the high road. I'm planning late September to early October and probably will take a long time. My goal is to get to Yosemite with Pupley in tow.
If it doesn't happen in 12 months from now then it will be in 24 months. I have a lot of preparation and conditioning to do.
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Make the window on the sides clear so people can be freaked out by your dog staring at them while going down the highway.
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That's funny. And weird them out like he did you when you came over that one time?
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When we are rolling and as long as it's not raining the windows will be open anyways. also putting in a solar powered vent on top. it's gonna be like a 70/30 split. 70 will be the dogs part and 30 for luggage (mainly just a bag and soft yeti type cooler.
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That's funny. And weird them out like he did you when you came over that one time?
Your dog is creepy. :couch: :ohwow:
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The fabbing will be starting soon. all components to get a rolling chassis are enroot. Once that is done then I'll start designing the cabin portion.
I'm going to have two small windows on each side, rear window/door, solar powered vent and I'd like to somehow make the roof open up like a tool box. for when I'm loading it with gear.
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Great project :thumbup:
After your first trip, I'll give ya 50 bucks to haul my camping gear ;D 8)
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Great project :thumbup:
After your first trip, I'll give ya 50 bucks to haul my camping gear ;D 8)
It won't be big enough to hold a donkey
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Great project :thumbup:
After your first trip, I'll give ya 50 bucks to haul my camping gear ;D 8)
It won't be big enough to hold a donkey
Remember, Gumbo likes everything midget-sized. :couch:
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Frame is complete
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:thumbup:
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Can't wait to hear about the first trip ;D
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right now I'm gathering all the wiring, windows, door and miscellaneous things I need to figure into the walls. Once I've done about a good 100 miles of test it out alone and empty then we'll embark on a road trip. I kind of thought of hitting a national park or something but I'll probably start off close
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You are usually pretty through on research but there is a lot of info on MC trailers on the Goldwing forum. The tongue needs to be 1.5 to 2 times the length of the distance between the wheels measured from the axle and needs to carry a minimum of 10-15% tongue weight to prevent fishtailing. Also when towing get your slowing for a curve done while still straight. when you wire it, come over and help me wire mine, LOL.
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You are usually pretty through on research but there is a lot of info on MC trailers on the Goldwing forum. The tongue needs to be 1.5 to 2 times the length of the distance between the wheels measured from the axle and needs to carry a minimum of 10-15% tongue weight to prevent fishtailing. Also when towing get your slowing for a curve done while still straight. when you wire it, come over and help me wire mine, LOL.
Yeah. I purposely left the tongue longer right now so I can cut it back when complete to adjust for the distance and weight ratio. Right now as it stands it weights about 90 lbs. I imagine I'll add another 60-80 lbs when I put the sides up and include whatever else it needs.
I'll ride to your place for the 100 mile shake down and help you wire yours. Just not sure how far I am to complete but I'm putting my effort in to get it done before the end of the year.
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For some reason I want to ride with you when you do this. :drool:
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For some reason I want to ride with you when you do this. :drool:
Inside the trailer? or on your own bike? :stickpoke:
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Inside the trailer? or on your own bike? :stickpoke:
DUH! Inside the trailer of course.
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You'll need to check the weight , he maybe over the limit
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there ya go, test it out on Rocket before you risk your dogs, can't be to careful you know. :t
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there ya go, test it out on Rocket before you risk your dogs, can't be to careful you know. :t
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Great project :thumbup:
After your first trip, I'll give ya 50 bucks to haul my camping gear ;D 8)
It won't be big enough to hold a donkey
He said camping gear, not sex partner... :ohwow: ;D
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So the frame is complete. Painted and prewired. Started the subwall and these will be covered with an aluminum sheet and polished to resemble an old Airstream although the shape is more like a vintage 70’s Shasta.
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So the frame is complete. Painted and prewired. Started the subwall and these will be covered with an aluminum sheet and polished to resemble an old Airstream although the shape is more like a vintage 70’s Shasta.
:needpics:
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I tried to add some pictures last night but my phone and website were not cooperating.
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Oh my#
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Looking good. Love the pups
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I got a couple of windows coming in today so I'll get those outlined and cutout and fit up. For now I got the door window. I used a small 6" porthole that you find on boats. I like this because I can leave it open and not worry about Pupley jumping out.
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very cool
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nice
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I just cut out on each side for a window measuring 16" x 14". It has a permanently installed screen so I don't have to worry about my littlest dog jumping out.
Here you see the door just sitting in it's slot and the window taped up for display right now. so far it's looking good.
Next I move on to putting in the crossmembers and making a frame for the rear facing window. It also is a port hole but rectangular with an 5" x 11" opening.
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Damn, those puppies are definitely not going to get claustrophobic with all those windows
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Not at all. The top will be on a hurricane hinge which is nice cuase it's waterproof/rainproof but it can slide off easily. So when around town I can slip it off and they will have the whole roof open.
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Looking good Paul!! 👍
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So far I got all my windows cut out and started adding cross members for the walls and started working on the roof. I'm waiting on a 12v solar powered chrome vent. Will keep fresh air inside the trailer moving although it does have 4 windows but you can never be too safe.
next task are figuring out where my wiring is going and how to finish off the edges of the lower body and lid with edge trim so it looks good and is waterproof.
On a side note I may have to go back to square one on the axle position and move it a few inches further up. I feel my tongue weight is going to be about 8-10 heavier than I want...still under what the recommended should be but since I'll load the front with my gear and have a small cooler I want to make up the difference with that weight.
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doing a great job Paul
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at least 10% of weight should be on the tounge.
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at least 10% of weight should be on the tounge.
Yeah. I want to stay in the 10-12% range but right now based off my estimates I'm at the 15% mark with 30 lbs on the tongue.
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at least 10% of weight should be on the tounge.
Yeah. I want to stay in the 10-12% range but right now based off my estimates I'm at the 15% mark with 30 lbs on the tongue.
Feed the dogs more a few days before trips! Done! :t
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While I'm on the topic of axle position I actually think I'm changing the axles entirely that have an even lighter load rating and have an adjustable angle. a little more expensive but is definitely going to be the right axle. Should give me a lower center gravity.
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look like I got most of my walls and cross members in place. next to figure my wiring and pre-drill where needed.
new axles coming within the next 5 days.
next step is to skin it with the lauan paneling and maybe the aluminum exterior. getting much closer
Started this project in August placing the order for the suspension and frame. I'm hoping to have this done before BBT but I think I can make it happen.
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Pretty crafty work there :thumbup: Looking good ;D
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looking good :thumbup:
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Put those new axles in and man what a difference. These are the axles I should have originally gone with but my research was a just a tad short but at least I got them in before had a finished product.
The picture of the torsion axles show the difference. The one on top was what was on there. Old design that uses resistance torsion as opposed to new design(bottom) that uses shear torsion. This design upgrade allows for a smaller lighter axle since the metal and rubber are infused into the axle body (this shaved off 25 lbs from the overall weight). Another design improvement is the adjustable angle of the axle. The old design had a fixed 45 degree angle that would give but the exponential force would have to be greater to benefit from the suspension in turn the new axle I have it at almost a 10 degree angle so whatever it rolls over will actually give way better and it lowers the center of gravity. The last thing is the axles are rated at 75 lbs lower than the old design which just equates to a softer ride than say the 500lb one.
pretty clear difference and although it was triple the price of the first set of torsion axles it will be worth it in the end.
added a small bumper which was actually some kind of light bar that mounts to the license plate area of trucks. I just cut off about an 1 1/2" from the mounting plate and screwed it in to the frame of the trailer and bam, there you go.
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Looks good, and appears to be approved by one of its occupants.
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looking good!
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You might seriously look into patenting this. It is an incredible piece of work. There are many people who have animals and MCs and it might be a nice form of supplemental income for you.
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You might seriously look into patenting this. It is an incredible piece of work. There are many people who have animals and MCs and it might be a nice form of supplemental income for you.
You know I might. Once I'm done and if someone seriously asked me about making them one I feel confident enough to build another and charge the appropriate price for it. Other than what a 1970 Shasta Airflyte looks like on the outside I'm not following any write up or detailed instructions on how to build one of these things. There are, albeit, very few dog trailers out in the market but nothing like this one that I have seen around.
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Pretty soon I will have an update on the Pup-trailer. I had some setbacks on polishing portions of the aluminum skin. I hate learning curves but at least I learn. I would say it's probably 75-80% complete.
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just copying from post I already created
10" rectangular port hole window. plenty of lights and a small bumper.
My next pics will be once it's complete.
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You must be losing (or gaining) weight while you're working.
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Impressive job!!
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You must be losing (or gaining) weight while you're working.
Huh?! :stickpoke: wrong thread maybe?
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You must be losing (or gaining) weight while you're working.
Huh?! :stickpoke: wrong thread maybe?
Look at your last picture again CLOSELY. :stickpoke:
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You must be losing (or gaining) weight while you're working.
Huh?! :stickpoke: wrong thread maybe?
Look at your last picture again CLOSELY. :stickpoke:
Man.........I looked, I don't see anything
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You must be losing (or gaining) weight while you're working.
Huh?! :stickpoke: wrong thread maybe?
Look at your last picture again CLOSELY. :stickpoke:
Man.........I looked, I don't see anything
The scale... ;)
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Oh ok. I get it now. I was actually using that scale as I was assembling the trailer frame and body. Weighing each part individually and writing it down. My very close estimated weight on the trailer is between 175-185 lbs. Which was my target. Max weight I'll be putting inside is an additional 75-85 lbs maybe. that's basically the dogs and misc stuff that is designed for backpacking so it's lightweight.
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Last night I starting with the wiring of the wireless WIFI camera. Basically it's just a small rear view car camera. smaller footprint than a tic tac box. It's wired so that even when the bike is off I can still leave the camera running and of course it has a switch to turn it off. Here is a screenshot. the arrow is the just the apps back button to the main menu. it's angled because it's not mounted yet. I was just checking all the wiring and functionality of it.
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I can't wait to see the video of your dogs getting air in that thing.
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I can't wait to see the video of your dogs getting air in that thing.
You have no faith............This suspension was designed for trailers this light. Check out road dawg trailers. No bounce down the highway and my trailer is a little heavier than what they have.
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So I finished the trailer last week and have been taking the pups everyday except Wednesday for a ride. They seem to be taking a liking to it or at least they are not contesting it. Yesterday, I took, sans dogs, the trailer on a speed test. I had already been up to speeds of 40 mph around town but it was time to bump it up a little. So I ventured out to the great beyond....I-10 and just increased my speeds in increments of 10 mph all the way to ..........................75 mph sustained and it tracked true and straight. I don't really see myself going more that 70 but I wanted to test it out.
Anyways, I will post pictures soon enough or you may just have to wait until BBT to see it in person. I'm waiting on a drone I ordered to get some cool aerial shots and then I want to put together a short video from start to finish.
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So I finished the trailer last week and have been taking the pups everyday except Wednesday for a ride. They seem to be taking a liking to it or at least they are not contesting it. Yesterday, I took, sans dogs, the trailer on a speed test. I had already been up to speeds of 40 mph around town but it was time to bump it up a little. So I ventured out to the great beyond....I-10 and just increased my speeds in increments of 10 mph all the way to ..........................75 mph sustained and it tracked true and straight. I don't really see myself going more that 70 but I wanted to test it out.
Anyways, I will post pictures soon enough or you may just have to wait until BBT to see it in person. I'm waiting on a drone I ordered to get some cool aerial shots and then I want to put together a short video from start to finish.
Do you have one of those drones with a sport mode that follows you around?
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Do you have one of those drones with a sport mode that follows you around?
Yes. I will. I should have it delivered in a couple days. I bought a DJI Mavic Pro. has all those features plus some.
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Hey Paul, saw several pics and a video (on FB) of you in Sattler this weekend towing Pupley and Penelope. Wish we had known, we would have loved to see your set up.
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Hey Paul, saw several pics and a video (on FB) of you in Sattler this weekend towing Pupley and Penelope. Wish we had known, we would have loved to see your set up.
Where did you see the video? Yeah I meant to call you guys but with us being all over the place and seriously limited internet and phone service I just got frustrated trying to do anything on my phone. I will definitely have it with me during BBT