BMW trailer project

[jpmillermatic]

Do you have any regulations on towing over there like the ones we have here ? How much does it weigh in respect to the towing vehicle and what is it's loaded weight ?

There are basic regulations, yes...but I was surprised at how little inspection there was....Lights, tires and basically getting it to be road legal...(which may have little to do with whether or not it is road ready or road worthy)

At one place, our DOT....(MOT) you bring your paperwork and a check AFTER you get the trailer weighed at the nearest weigh station....yes, you tow an unregistered, unlicensed, uninspected trailer to a weigh station, get a slip of paper that says it weighs 800lbs in my case and THEN go get your plates THEN go get it inspected....

NOW, in all fairness....trailers weighing over 1000 lbs go through more stringent inspections and are required to have brakes...but I dont know of anyplace that tests or even visually inspects welding or construction ect....

My little car lists a tongue weight of 50lbs max...the trailer, if you do the math should have a tongue weight more in the 80lb range.....but I found a happy medium and quite often am heading to a local car show or something so do not load it heavily anyway....

As for loaded weight, I arbitrarily told the DMV that its max weight capacity was 500lbs...so a total of 1300 lbs gross max weight is on the paperwork...I DO NOT plan on ever loading 500 lbs in that little trailer and towing it with the wagon....but if I got caught overweight...there would be stiff fines.

Been getting the interior cleaned up and painted with bed liner to keep the rust at bay and want to get the front corners shaped and finished...then I can paint this little guy!

JP

 

[Big Mick]

Nice job so far, I like the idea of fitting a wooden frame, so's you can turn it over. In the UK the maximum loaded weight of an unbraked trailer is 750kg or 1650 Lbs.
I'm pretty sure your Beemer is good to tow that much without trailer brakes. My Citroen C3 can legally tow 680kg unbraked and that's much smaller than yours.
+1 on having the bike rack on the tongue!!

Cheers. Mick.

 

[jpmillermatic]

Thanks, Big Mick...yes, its 1000lbs over here for trailer weight....and that is getting pretty heavy....but the Bimmer seems to be doing fine thus far....

I will have a few pics to show you guys soon....Ive been making some steady progress on the trailer though life has definitely gotten in the way of any serious progress!

I was able to get some bedliner on the inner doors and floor boards, run my marker lights permanently, reinforce the tonneau cover frame where it was flexing, got the cover to sit nice and flush with the doors and cut grooves in the door panels for the top latching mechanism to lock in place. (now the top does not want to open up on the highway!)

Today, I went down to my buddies sign shop and fabricated a trailer wiring plug mount under the bumper that ties in with the receiver hitch. I bent one piece of aluminum and made a box for the plug with an arm that attaches to the hitch...once its painted you will barely be able to see it!...It, of course, took way longer than anticipated.

hope all is well!

JP

 

[jpmillermatic]

So here are those pics I promised you guys....

First one is the reinforcement I added to the tonneau frame: (Ill be adding a liner underneath to clean that area up...)





the next one shows where I needed to notch out the rain gutter a bit so the top would sit nice and flush..I also added grooves in the inner door panel so the top now locks onto the body...this helps on the highway especially when the top wants to lift up!....



Here is the interior light....it pulls out about 6 feet and reels back in...pretty cool!



finally, I built a plug housing for the trailer hook up from aluminum sheeting...now I dont have to route the wiring between the rear hatch door and the bumper which really did a number on the paintwork on the bumper!



thanks for looking!

JP

 

[jpmillermatic]

Took the trailer up to NH for a little fundraiser. The trailer became part of our display. We host 1 of 26 summer camp cabins that are "re-themed" for "Halloween Town"...Our cabin's theme is Harry Potter and the trailer played the part of 1/2 a car that was magically sticking out of the outside of the cabin....

Unfortunately, I dont have pics of that yet...but here we are getting ready to unload the props, costumes, backdrops, tools, ect.....

that little trailer holds a lot of stuff...if you pack well, that is!

I made a sepia toned image




Im getting ready to re-configure the tonneau top mechanism to a linear actuator which will take up much less room and keep the top secure from wind gusts when the top is open.

Got the foam today for the front corners and will get going on shaping them this weekend...

JP

 

[jpmillermatic]

Back on the trailer project as its 60 degrees here in NY!!!...unbelievable. yesterday I was skiing, and today...well...not so much!

I have begun closing in the front corners and decided to finish most of it in metal. Its good practice for me in shaping metal and very rewarding when you get it right!....It does illustrate what you can get away with using very basic tools...and how much I could use a few metal shaping tools to help speed the process and get things better that I every could with my basic approach....(english wheel, shrinking tool, ect....)

anyway...here is the cover for the front of the door...its just screwed in place for now. I carefully shaped it, then welded the pie cuts so the edge of the metal matched the door profile.

its pretty close...and I can grind the metal to shape the rest of it....




Hopefully I can get some more done before the frigid temps return on Tuesday!

let me know what you think!

JP

 

[jpmillermatic]

Hey, guys

Ive been looking for a trailer hitch cover for the E91 to no avail...so I made my own from some aluminum stock we had lying around at the frame shop






what do you guys think?

JP

 

[jpmillermatic]

UPDATE!

So its finally time for an update...I have not had any time at all to work on the trailer as we are building a garage next to the house and it eats up huge amounts of time...plus, I have nowhere to work now!....But I did manage to get a few things done as we are headed up to NH again for our annual pilgrimage...I remounted the mountain bike rack so it now is U-bolted to the trailer frame...I had it on the roof last year and didnt stop worrying about it the whole way up....plus, its a hassle to get the bike up there, get it secure and not scratch anything...Now, its right near the ground, mounts quickly and will be out of the majority of the wind, ect...



Heres the front fork mount...(Ill be getting a lockable one for the trip)...



and I did manage to start cutting the carpeting to rough shape...but even that looks much better than the bare floor....



I hope to get more body work done in the next couple of weeks and smooth things out for final primer....

thanks for looking


JP

 

[jpmillermatic]

Hey, gang...

finally started on the front corners of the trailer. I decided to go with a foam shape and maybe a fiberglass outer shell. I used expandable foam from the DIY store, cut out some cardboard panels to retain the gooey stuff while it cures, and taped it all together. One can was enough to do both sides.

Its an experiment all the way, so I invite your suggestions and comments!

here are a few shots.....









Thanks for looking....all the projects on this site are looking great!

JP

 

[Spot the welders dog]

I was thinking you could have made the voids into little storage compartments, but looking back there doesn't seem to be that much space, maybe for a bicycle pump

Nice project: will be nicer still once it's in colo(u)r

 

[Bear]

I have just read this from start to finish

wow what a great little project. Now i wonder if the mother in law would notice if the back half of her car was missing

 

[jpmillermatic]

Ha!...Im sure she wouldnt, Bear....I would go for it!

a bit more progress this weekend...

I began shaping the foam and discovered I had make a mistake or two in my approach....I tried to contain the foam as it expanded with masking tape...this prevented the foam from curing under the tape which created large air pockets in that area...the rest of it looked pretty good, but I have to go back in with a bit more foam, then I can seal up the surface in prep for the fiberglass.
I have not decided whether or not I will actually make molds of the surface which is twice as much work or simply cover the area with fiberglass or make it from steel and use the foam as a buck, Ill still have all that foam and other material underneath and im not sure thats such a good idea...its not automotive foam, or high density stuff meant for potentially wet weather.....Ill do some more research and let you guys know what I decide.


thanks for looking!

JP

 

[jpmillermatic]

Yeah, Spot....good idea with the storage thing...I could have put hinges on there...but there really is not much room inside...

JP

 

[jpmillermatic]

It doesnt look like much of a difference...but I was able to fill in all the gaps in the foam, cut and file it down and begin to refine the shape a bit...its beginning to make sense to me...but i realize I have a ways to go yet...
I may continue with sheetrock compound and then move on to paint.






thanks for looking!...any advice is appreciated..anyone ever do this kind of thing before?

JP

 

[jpmillermatic]

Hey, all

We hosted a couple of AT (Appalachian Trail) through hikers with a couple of hot meals and overnight accommodations and used the Bimmer and trailer to take them on and off trail....
My buddy's kid and his pal have hiked over 1500 miles so far and have another 800 left before they reach Katahdin Maine....pretty cool.....




The trailer held their fairly ripe backpacks and hiking shoes...the back seat was covered with a comforter!.....






It was a great visit and they have awesome weather, at least for a couple of days! They should be well into CT by tomorrow evening.....

JP

 

[Solo]

Schöne Anhänger aus bayern Sie erstellt haben. Wirklich! Nice work.

 

[jpmillermatic]

Hey, gang

yes, the bimmer trailer project lives on!...I am planning a tonneau cover opener. Ill be using a linear actuator with a 6" stroke capable of lifting 300lbs or so...



I found a treadmill frame at the "recycling center" that had an incline feature and its own 120v actuator, but I wanted to stay with the 12v theme for the trailer.




If you look at the arms with the wheels attached, Im wondering if I make them longer, does this change the geometry at all and allow the actuator to work less while lifting the top?

thanks for any advise you may have or ideas...

JP

 

[jpmillermatic]

Hey all,

I have gotten closer to working out the details with my tonneau cover lift assembly.



The hinges will mount to the door hinge posts on the trailer. I need to lengthen the arm assembly out from 24" to 52". Ill do that by sectioning in more steel from the frame. Ill mount the actuator bracket in the center of the arm so that it pushes up and extends the arms to a 90 degree angle...though I should not need all of that travel.

I am planning on mounting the actuator just above the old transmission tunnel which is what that lower bracket and frame piece are for....


thanks for looking!

JP

 

[V6BOY]

Just seen this project very cool I have to say,seen a really good one done on Vauxhall cavalier SRI years ago.

 

[jpmillermatic]

So Ive been going through one or two variations on each piece to get them to work well, fit right and look good. Ive also been trying to save some weight as much as possible.

Here is the set up with the actuator and brackets, ect...

t

Right now I only have everything clamped in place but the hinge works with no binding or rubbing anywhere and it looks like Ill be able to tuck the lifting arms right up next to the inside of the doors.



I used the metal from the treadmill frame and made the bottom bracket as minimal but as sturdy as I could...its plenty strong! the welding went well too...its been a while but after a few sloppy welds, it started coming back!...



thanks as always for looking, guys!

JP