TC1 Interesting comments
Ah yes. Rabbit hole. That is a good description.
Remember, the title of the thread is all about experimentation. That says it all. I've simply documented my experimentation here. In my original purpose for the thread it was intended to only be that - the documentation shared on the forum. Whether or not it generated any discussion wasn't really the point. There are many other threads over the past couple years if you do a search under my username that all tie back in to this overall project. However, when I had a specific topic to discuss I took that discussion to its' own thread. The thread here is just the compilation of the project as it progresses, nothing more nothing less.
That, of course, has brought some discussion and interest, which is welcomed, of course! I'm glad it has stirred some brain cells to vibrate, maybe bang in to each other harder than intended, but move none the less, in others as they make their way through.
You made the point about the adjustable flanges while leaving a fixed frame. That is a good point. For the reasoning I have behind it in this particular design with the framing I'd like to toss out there a major root to this whole project - a trailer that a guy had when I ran in to him on my Ohio to Erie trip in '21. I can't remember if I ever posted these in here as some background. Either way, if I did here they are again.
Note the outer "rail" on the outside of the wheel.
The guy who had this trailer, and made it, went through several other "designs" over several years. He is a nomadic type person. On the outside the vast majority of society would consider him "homeless" or a "bum", however after spending some time with him on a 0 day (no mileage - we hung out in camp for a day) I got to understand him better. He chooses to be "off the grid", as he put it - that is, away from what we consider normal society. That leads me to the trailer design.
He is a carpenter by trade - and still, at the time, was doing that type of work every once in a while to recharge his finances. The trailer design was built out of his carpentry trade. He is not one to work with metal and do machining, etc. He also, from living "out there" so much, has to rely on more simplistic materials that he can work with on-the-go. That brings up the "hardware store" options - like the perforated metal and all-thread.
Now lets look at the wheels. Again, going after "simplistic" materials/sources - he chose to use kids type 20" bike wheels. He was able to find a lot of these on his travels with discarded bikes around dumpsters. With needing to make use of both a front wheel and rear wheel, and any variation therein, the mount for the axle needed to be adjustable as no 2 wheels may be the same dimension.
There is where the all-thread and perforated metal comes in with his set up. The all-thread allows him to bring that outer rail in and out to compensate for the axle size.
In thinking through my design - this adjustable outer rail really made an impression on me. He definitely gave it some thought and came up with a great solution to his scenario.
If you look at my current design with the adjustable flanges - look at the square tube frame.
What I was up against is I had the material available to me. I had better tooling and machining available to me. So when I worked through the design I tried to find a way to balance the outer frame rail strength/rigidity while easing up on fabrication.
If I chose the route of having a "floating" outer rail like the guy's trailer I took the pictures of above - that would require a method of allowing that adjustability while still keeping the strength/rigidity. That was a complicated scenario and one I didn't want to spend more time hammering through.
So I considered the option of having a rigid outer rail and adjustable flange. That still took some work, but I think in the case of keeping the fabrication effort thinned down and having the outer rail strong and rigid - in this case the fixed outer rail I think is the way to go.
There are any number of ways to skin the cat, so to speak. In my new design from the ground up will I use it? I am not sure. I do want the adjustable width ability. What I am not sure on is how much. The current hubs are 100mm. If I stick to front hubss what is that range? 80-120mm? That would have to be detailed. A smaller range would be easier to work with.
As to the tire pressure - thanks for the article. I will give that a look-over. Tire pressure at the moment is around 70-80 so not the full 100. But that isn't a scientific point - just what I got to (pump I used won't go above 80 with me bouncing on it with all my weight - I have a higher pressure pump available now).