Type 2 Diabetic. Cyclist Flâneur.   Coffeeneur.    Errandoneur
A bike / map geek with a gadget obsession and a high-viz fetish.

Thursday, May 27, 2021

Bike Towing Boat, Alden 18 foot scull

I tried to build a bike towing arrangement to move my recently obtained Alden 18foot ocean scull from my house to the lake about a mile away.

For the back of the trailer assembly, I used a two-wheel cradle that's actually a boat dolly used to move the scull around a dockyard. I thought it would do well to carry the bike at low speeds.

For the front of the towing assembly, I used a Bob Trailer I already have, and cut up a box that looked a lot like a postal carton to cradle the bow. The Bob Trailer connects normally to my Surly ECR.

There were two problems. One, when the rear wheels catch any kind of friction or resistance, they tend to just slide off the stern. Not desirable.

Problem Two: the one-wheel bob trailer banks right-left as the bike turns. This induces a rolling force to the boat hull. The back of the hull is strapped into a two-wheeled trailer that follows the surface of the road. This flexy in the front, rigid in the back outcome is not conducive to keeping the hull in the trailer.

It completely failed the road test. But it looked good.

The next plan is to use a two-wheel kids trailer, that's independent of the bike frame banking, on the bow of the boat. Also I'll use some small railings to keep the straps from sliding off the boat.

Parts on order. We'll see.

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