musicman

I took the air coupling hitch idea and made a change to it. Instead of welding two bars to the caster, I cut out a bracket from a piece of aluminum I had in the garage. Then I riveted the caster to it. The bolt holding the fitting is temporary, it doesn't fit, and there won't be a wing nut either. I'll also use 4 hose clamps. Total cost: $5, $7 tops (after I get the clamps)

musicman

Oh, and it will be painted satin black

oldfool

Very nice

TexasHermit

How will you attach it to the bike? Also how will you keep it from scratching the purty paint job?

musicman

4 hose clamps, and a cut up inner tube. That should do the trick

Nightshade

One thing I'd change ou your very well done design. I'd replace the wing nut with a self-locking
nut to keep some idiot from stealing the wing nut and disabling the hitch.

musicman

Yup, like I said, temporary. I just wanted to hold the fitting on right now.

HandsomeRyan

The bracket is a thing of beauty but do you have enough heal clearance with the hitch being that far forward? My size 12's barely clear my hitch and it's got to be 2 inches back from where your sits.

Nice work though!

musicman

Hmm, never thought of that. Guess I should've. Can't check it right now, the paint is drying. If it doesn't work, I'll just get another $1.50 wheel, and make another bracket. I wear size 14 shoes, so that isn't a good sign. There's a glitch to being 6'3"

musicman

it's good!

musicman

Here's the finished product. I wrapped the flanges in some automotive grade double sided tape I had, and wrapped that with a piece of rim strip. Then I covered it all up with some blue electrical tape. The double sided tape is thick and spongy. I didn't do anything to protect where the clamps grab the frame, gonna repaint someday anyway. I also tried to mod the caster in with some jb weld, but that didn't work very good.

musicman

Oh, and I used nylon spacers next to the air fitting, they work real well

HandsomeRyan

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

Juggler2

Very well done, thought out and fabbed! My only concern is the pop rivets. I'm thinking alot of substantial loads will cause the guys to fail. I'd have rather seen you use stainless steel bolts with lock nuts.
Keep an eye on these guys, that sax + case, and whatever else will add up weight wise. Every bump or pothole will strain those aluminum pop rivets.

Again nicely executed hitch!

musicman

I'll make another one later, this one just has to work for a little while. I'll keep an eye on the rivetss

HandsomeRyan

I nominate this thread for "sticky" status.

larry_llama

Iam wary about side loading these caster bearings. Am I nuts? I built a caster-based hitch but I'm constantly worried that the down force and back force are in completely the wrong direction for a caster that's meant to be loaded perpendicular to the plane that the bearings are on?...

HandsomeRyan

Heavy duty swivel castors have a sort of side load even when used as they were intended. Because the wheel is offset from the center of the downward force one side of the bearings is pushed up while the other side is pushed down.

Outside of that- these castor brackets are manufactured by stamping the 2 pieces together with a multi-ton press. I think they are strong enough to handle whatever insignificant load that the forces of a bike trailer can prodce. I wouldn't say you are nuts, just cautious.

larry_llama

ok i'm going out to buy more then ;-)

my current setup uses a kid's trailer a s a donor. it's nice and fast to connect to the bike but the hitch is plastic and the hinge looks like it's just a piece of rubber. I suppose a caster is stronger than that rubber piece (which I am constantly worried about breaking when i lay my bike down with trailer attached)

thanks!