who makes these ultra-light trailers/wheels and are they highway legal?

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by Squidly-Diddly, Jul 6, 2020.

  1. hoytedow
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    Ah, the can of Bean's is iconic!
     
  2. dinoa
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    dinoa Senior Member

    If you're considering bike tires and rims, they're not designed for side loads
     
  3. upchurchmr
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    upchurchmr Senior Member

    Conestoga wheels didn't go 60+.
    They were useful for bridging unpaved trails.
    They didn't have modern bearings. Different situation.

    Mini's had small wheels - has anybody reported wheel bearing problems
    Having known a guy who rallyed them I never heard any problems.

    Simple comments don't always mean what is implied
     
  4. A II
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    A II no senior member → youtu.be/oNjQXmoxiQ8 → I wish

    No, just bumpy and high rolling resistance, to avoid that was the reason for the Citroën 2CV and the Conestoga's to go on big wheels, and because the Bible said so . . :eek:
     
  5. hoytedow
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    Lacking modern bearings is a very good reason to have large wheels. It can cover more ground in 1 revolution which means the moving parts rub against each other at a slower rate. Even Conestoga axles needed grease.
     
  6. A II
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    A II no senior member → youtu.be/oNjQXmoxiQ8 → I wish

    Yes, but the bearings have improved since the Conestoga times in the late 1700s and early 1800s, so that's no argument nowadays.
     
  7. Rurudyne
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    Rurudyne Senior Member

    Lacking modern suspension is a good reason to have big wheels too.

    Aside: though modern I think of the futures of all those people in Smart cars with their small wheels, short wheel bases and stiff suspensions on pothole strewn American roads in almost the same way I think of riders of early choppers who can now hardly walk at all....
     
  8. A II
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    For the latter they've invented the soft tail . . :cool:
     
    Last edited: Jul 7, 2020
  9. philSweet
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    philSweet Senior Member

    Um, I don't get it. The Yakima trailer weighs 150 pounds and is rated for 350 pounds (?) with the optional "heavy duty shocks". My old trailer, a prototype built for TSC as a bid submission for a snowmobile trailer, weighed 100 pounds and carried hundreds of loads of gravel (1200 - 1500 pounds), and ran about 100,000 miles. Paid $100 for it new in '92. Sold it for $100 in 2018. Went through five sets of tires, three sets of bearings, several fenders, replaced the deck once, and built two sets of sideboards for it. It would carry a ton or more short distances at low speed. It had a 1500 pound rated axle/suspension/tires. It made several cross-country trips at 80 mph on the interstate fully loaded.

    And that Yakima trailer desperately needs some lateral support for the trailing arms. It's a very easy fix. Drill a hole in the center tube in line with the trailing arm pivots and put a big bolt through. Run a rod from each trailing arm near the wheel to the bolt on the center tube. Weld to the arm (to resist arm twist) , but let it pivot at the center tube.
     
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2020
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  10. DCockey
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    DCockey Senior Member

    What would be the marketing reason for the small diameter wheels and tires on the original Mini?
     
  11. philSweet
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    philSweet Senior Member

    The underserved clown car market ?;)
     
  12. upchurchmr
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    upchurchmr Senior Member

    About the Mini.
    You start with a small tire you get small suspension and everything else in the car small - to match the design requirement for a small engine but still capable on the road.
    There were a lot of them over the years.
    Highway speeds might have been slower in past years.
    If I remember right there was a design goal of making a practical 10' long car to reduce the price.

    Phil,
    Sounds like you are ready to go with your new company and we get a better trailer for small boats.
    What are you going to name it?
     
  13. A II
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    Damn, I shouldn't have said it, Mini wheels is a long story . . . . :eek:

    An technical advantage is small wheels only need small wheel arches, which give more interior space within the same car length.

    The marketing advantage was far more irrational, much of the buyers market believed it was cute, like the little hands and feet of a baby.

    As for the small wheel diameter, the Mini design team and the British public had a bad advisor in this regard, namely Sir. Dr. Alex Moulton, he developed the folding Moulton Bicycle of the Moulton Bicycle Company with front and rear suspension and 17" rims. As there were no bicycle tires on the market for that size he also developed tires for it that were ahead of their time, with a much lower rolling resistance than was available in existing bicycle tires at that time. He was the great grandson of Stephen Moulton, who began making vulcanised rubber in Britain in 1848, based on pioneering work by the American inventor Charles Goodyear. Then he made the British public and the Mini design team believe his bicycles had a lower rolling resistance not because of their revolutionary tires, but because of their smaller wheels, so he had a unique design feature there. For the Mini combined with their cute looks, that fake story of lower rolling resistance in smaller wheels made them sell like hot cakes and the then popular mini skirts...

    - Alex Moulton: Designer whose eponymous lightweight bicycle became a symbol of the Sixties -

    Sir Dr Alex Moulton Folding Bicycle and Mini Automobile Small Wheels.gif
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2020
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  14. DCockey
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    DCockey Senior Member

    Do you have any evidence of this claim from when the Mini was designed in the 1950's or introduced in the 1959? Or is it just a guess by you?

    To be polite the claims above are an attempt at revisionist history which fails due to the dates involved.
    The Mini was designed in the 1950's with design work starting around 1955, and it was introduced in April 1959. From the link above about the Moulton bicylce: "In November 1962 he showed his newly designed bicycle at the Earl's Court Cycle Show." The Moulton bicycle was introduced three and a half years after the Mini car was introduced, not before.
     

  15. upchurchmr
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    upchurchmr Senior Member

    To dismiss the Mini as only "cute" does a disservice to all those people who feel that small has practical benefits, including lower purchase cost, lower fuel cost, and the ability to park in small spaces.
    There were numerous small car designs at the time. Mini was just arguably the most successful.

    What is the emphasis on fuel efficiency/ increased drag of small diameter tires? Every engineering decision is a tradeoff to reach the goal. The Mini was famous for being fuel efficient.
    Would you criticize the current Mini for its small tires? Compared to other contemporary cars?

    You might as well blast all those on this forum and others who are fascinated with small boats, including those who want to go trans oceanic voyaging.
     
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