Trailer build

I recently brought home a 2006 with 7,000 miles, but it’s still sitting, awaiting a visit to the shop May 13 for state inspection, installation of new IRC tires, change brake fluid and a total rebuild of the front forks.


In the meantime I installed the butt rest to back rest kit and a new seat holder dampener. I ordered and received a new GBoost belt which I’ll install soon, and I’ll do the motor and final drive oil change prior to it going in the shop. (I’m not willing to mess with the brake fluid or front forks myself.)

Received a trailer hitch for it too, found an unused one still in the original box on eBay for $125. They’re $310 new from Denray. Also picked up a small motorcycle trailer to start building a mini “foamie camper” similar to the photo below, to pull behind my Swing.


And figured out a viable diy swivel hitch for the trailer based on a Helm swivel hitch, from these photos I found online. I still have to grab the $30 parts at Tractor Supply, but it looks quite easy to assemble. The threaded neck of the Category 1 tractor top link swivels 360• in the body of the top link, and connects to a category 1 top link pin in place of the 1 7/8” ball:

Another Canadian company, it turns out, is already manufacturing a small trailer the exact same size and shape of the one I had envisioned.

Its designed to be towed with motorcycles and subcompact cars. However their trailer is 400 pounds and $20,000.


When mine is done it will be less than 200 pounds and total cost around $800.

I found a fairly decent Chinese motorcycle trailer on Facebook Marketplace to build mine on, titled and registered, for $300. Its much more substantial than the comparable Harbor Freight trailer, and around 95lbs with the original trailer hitch. I bought some 2x2 steel square tube to extend the tongue several feet to accommodate this design.



I posted about this idea over on the ADV forum, and received a lot of good feedback. One of the primary considerations brought up was the “wind sail” effect I might run into with the design above, especially towing with a maxi scooter, and of course the need to keep the weight of the trailer as low as possible.

So I’ve decided to modify my original design, and use some of the arched roof panels I already built for my prior planned Foamie camper. That design, called a vardo style, required arched roof panels. Arched panels are made by cutting multiple parallel kerfs in the xps foam board with a jig saw or circular saw, putting foam glue in each kerf and securing it with ratchet straps, then laying the whole board in the proper shaped form and weighting it down till the glue cures. Applying the interior layer of glue and fabric helps keep the arch in shape:

I’ll use these arched panels to create a mini foamie camper that’s a cross between the type above, and a design one of the guys on the foamie campers forum in Louisiana built with an arched roof and front end, similar to an AirStream. He said it tows exceptionally well and had survived several hurricanes as the wind just blows up and over it, while neighbors’ campers were destroyed.

I can still maintain the front to rear height difference that makes this Canadian design more aerodynamic, even while using these arched roof panels.

The manufactured version of this camper has a rear entry door:

I found a used 38”x50” Rv door on Facebook Marketplace for $75 for the rear entry, and picked up two small RV windows from the same seller for $20 a piece.

Since I’ve decided to use up the roof panels I’ve already formed into arches, I can make this build a little bit wider to maintain the interior space. I’m not limited to the 48” width of these panels I had originally planned for my final width now, so I’m probably going to make this 54” wide.

I’m using 3” xps foam insulation panels. This is definitely overkill, since I could do it with 1”, but it’s R15 insulation value and it’s what I found relatively cheap on Facebook Marketplace. Plus structurally it’s many times stronger than 1”.

So my exterior width will be 54” and interior width 48”. Exterior length including the 3” foam will be about 80” externally and 75” internally. The rear wall with the 38x50 door will be framed with 2x4 and surrounded by the 3” xps foam.

For the floor, I found some great door cutouts of rigid insulated panels used for building mobile bathrooms and bathhouses. It’s 1” of polyurethane foam insulation sandwiched between 1/4 plywood which is coated with rigid but thin white fiberglass. 1/2” plywood strips run longitudinally for reinforcement. I paid $10 each for four of these 36x76 cutouts:



Unfortunately this stuff, while exceptionally strong and well insulated, is HEAVY!

So I’m probably going to skeletonize the bottom layer of plywood/fiberglass in an effort to drastically reduce their weight.

I need 54” for my floor width, so I cut 9” pieces of the panels to join them together on each side to make a 54” floor. One panel was actually 82” inch long, while the other were 78” so I used it as the central panel, as the front end of this Foamie will be arched for better aerodynamics.

I put several 2x4s through a planer to take them down to 1”, the thickness between the layers of 1/4” plywood and fiberglass coating on these panels.

I routered out 1.75” of the polyurethane foam insulation between the ends of the panels with a die grinder bit in a drill.



Then I applied some contractor adhesive to the 1” thick boards and clamped them in place between the sides of the panels.

I applied more adhesive to the remaining 1.5” of wood and slipped it into the wider panel and held it in place with clamps, so I’ll end up with one solid 54” wide panel for the floor.

I got the diy version of my swivel hitch completed today.

The Heims swivel hitch is $200:


I assembled mine using a Category 1 tractor top hitch and a 3/4” bolt, angle grinder cut off wheel and hand drill. $30 for the parts at Rural King.

Instead of turning on a bearing, it simply swivels on the threads inside the top hitch.

Here is it assembled on my Denray Silverwing hitch, which does have small eyelets underneath for the safety chains. It will be bolted inside my 2x2” tongue:

Laying out the cross supports. I lengthened the tongue several feet with 2x2 box steel and I’m using the original tongue as the forward cross support to anchor the whole structure. Once I get the cross supports bolted into place I’ll mount the floor, then start with the “foamie” camper structure.

I set the floor on for size (the front curve isn’t finished) and to decide how much to take off the tongue length. I’m thinking one to two feet. Thoughts?

Complete the trailer first and measure total weight using three scales one under each tire and one at hitch by moving the hitch scale it will help to determine tongue weight. You want some tongue weight otherwise it will affect handling of scooter. My 2 $. What amount I'm not sure, Googled it 40-50LBS max.
Research it.

Mech 1 twa wrote:

Complete the trailer first and measure total weight using three scales one under each tire and one at hitch by moving the hitch scale it will help to determine tongue weight.  You want some tongue weight otherwise it will affect handling of scooter. My 2 $. What amount I'm not sure, Googled it 40-50LBS max.
Research it.

Thanks Mech. I’m going to stick with 10-15% of total weight for tongue weight. I’m hoping the trailer comes in at under 220lbs and I can keep tongue weight under 25 lbs.

This guy lays out a pretty good explanation of determining tongue weight:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u3FYBHKnXvU&feature=emb_logo

Good video balancing trailer with gear is important also all that little stuff adds up quickly to total weight.
Keep building I want to see finished trailer.

Mech 1 twa wrote:

Keep building I want to see finished trailer.

Me too! (I’m out of state for a couple days but my mind keeps “building” even if my hands can’t.)

After taking a break for a couple weeks, I finally got back to working on the trailer. The cross pieces were bolted to the frame, and floor is completely finished and bolted onto the cross pieces. The diy Heims swivel hitch is assembled and mounted into the 2” box steel tongue, and the trailer wiring is all finished.

The side walls go from 18” tall in the front to 5’4” tall at the rear. I made the slant up towards the rear a little more than I had originally planned and I think lowering the front wall from an original plan of 24” to 18” will (?) make it a little more aerodynamic while keeping the side profile lower overall.

I cut out the first arched piece of xps foam for the front of the trailer and pieced together the first side and did a test fit.

The front piece is 18” tall at the sides and arched towards the tongue, but it also had to be arched up in the middle to meet the arched roof panels. Marking that arch and making the cut turned out to be simpler and easier than I feared. I’m using my saber saw with a long sharp and smoothly serrated Bosch blade made for cutting rigid foam and it cuts cleanly through the xps foam as well as the cotton fabric I have on the inside of the arch as the first layer of pmf.

The side wall wasn’t cut down to length yet when I test fitted it and took these photos.