Hello from Bavaria - Stainless Micro Airstream

[Sbb]

I'll take one! I love watching your progress, just beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

[pan-european]

Originally Posted by Bauxter

Tom, Where did you get the rear license plate enclosure?
If you have any spare time, I (and I bet others) would love to see more detail on how you bent the uprights. Awesome!
thanks
Mike

The license plate bay is a stainless lasagne dish for 5.99 Euro.



To bend my tubes I used this tool and bent by hand.



And I have a pattern to control the radius before I cut the tubes to the same length.

[SteveSueMac]

Lasagna pan! Genius!!! :-)


Someone with some authority ought to just give you membership immediately. I can't believe how fantastic your idea and execution are!! So well done!!!

What are your plans for the inside??

[pan-european]

Originally Posted by wncrasher

Dude, seriously impressed with your fabrication skills. You should join the Teardrops and Tiny Trailers forum. They have alot of trailer fabricators over there that may be able to offer you some tips on your interior.
Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers • Index page
Update: OOPs! see you already are a member. Keep us posted on your progress though.

If you want to see the complete process from scratch, you can take a look HERE in the TNTTT forum, but you need a little time to read.

I built for one year now and there are 18 pages with 270 postings and 180 pictures inside.

What I post here is the Express Version

Thanks for your encouraging comments !

Tom

[Bauxter]

Springtime is beautiful in Ohio. You should come for a visit.....Bring your Tools!

[urnmor]

Fantastic

[pan-european]

Originally Posted by SteveSueMac

Lasagna pan! Genius!!! :-)
Someone with some authority ought to just give you membership immediately. I can't believe how fantastic your idea and execution are!! So well done!!!
What are your plans for the inside??

Thank you - I hope this will happen

To be honest, my plan is to sleep inside - to make it cosy and how I will decide on my 16 day test ride through spain.

I need only a foldable 3-inch foam matress, sleeping bag, a pillow and a hook for jacket, pants and T-Shirt.



Under the deck is a big baggage compartment for cloth.
And in the step in well under the desktop I can store my boots during the night.



Some LED lights for reading and writing in the evening I have.
But my first aim is to ride my 50th anniversary 7000 km tour and find out, what is missing and what would be fine for more comfort.

Tom

[surfpod]

Will you be blogging on your trip? Totally cool setup. The corners could not have come out better! Please keep us informed!

[pan-european]

Originally Posted by surfpod

Will you be blogging on your trip? Totally cool setup. The corners could not have come out better! Please keep us informed!

Thanks

But I am a System Administrator, working all day with my PC.
In my vacation no TV, no Radio, no Music and no Internet!

I only take a a cellphone with me to show daily a sign of life to my family.

But I will take photos to make again a travel diary on my homepage like I did for all my bike tours since 1988.

HERE you can see my 2013 tour thru Croatia (only with tent).

The button "Nächste Seite" means "next page" !

Tom

[pan-european]

Next step was to strip the frame again, deburr all new added holes and degrease all so that the sikaflex would stick perfect in my seams.

Then I loaded my rivet gun and went out into the dark (garage) for the final shootout!

I started from the stern and riveted me in eight hours to the front, sealing every new seam with sikaflex.







Tom

[mayco]

That is absolutely rediculously COOL!!!! When you get done and post some completed pics, with or without your bike, i think i will copy the best pic, have it blown up on good photo paper and frame it to put on the wall in our home.......with your permission of course. My 5 brothers and myself are all casual bike enthusiasts, im looking forward to showing them your project.

[pan-european]

Here two better pics of the whole trailer.





Tom

[Lara Me]

Super cool!

I ride with a bunch of FJR guys who pull trailers. Their hitch setups are a bit different, and you might consider a pivoting type hitch like off-road guys use, to enable leaning into corners without binding.

Imagine the weight of this trailer will be light, but the profile may be challenging when passing semi trucks.

Good luck with this build. Lotsa fun to watch.

[Aerowood]

Do you plan on insulating the inside?

[pan-european]

Originally Posted by Aerowood

Do you plan on insulating the inside?

I travel only from March to October, because I have a seasonal plate 3/10 on my bike)

So I plan no insulation because humidity is not easy to handle and it will be additional weight.

Tom

[pan-european]

Originally Posted by Lara Me

Super cool!

I ride with a bunch of FJR guys who pull trailers. Their hitch setups are a bit different, and you might consider a pivoting type hitch like off-road guys use, to enable leaning into corners without binding.

Imagine the weight of this trailer will be light, but the profile may be challenging when passing semi trucks.

Good luck with this build. Lotsa fun to watch.

Thank you

The hitch is a 50 mm greased ball, why should I weaken this strong link and add a pivot ?
If I am leaned into the curve and the trailer lifts his inner wheel, it stops to capsize when the coupler meets the neck of the ball.
With a pivot type hitch the trailer can tip over complete and pulls the rear of the bike off the street.

Tom

[pan-european]

Next challenge was the door.
Hinge and frame were the result of a complete friday afternoon.





Tom

[andreasduess]

Originally Posted by pan-european

With a pivot type hitch the trailer can tip over complete and pulls the rear of the bike off the street.

Tom

I think the idea is that with a pivoting hitch the trailer stays upright and level at all times, whereas the bike can lean into corners.

Not a biker myself, but that's how I understood it.

[Lara Me]

Yes, that's what I intended to mention.

You make a good point about weight , Tom. I suspect you won't be leaning too hard with that trailer, and I'd be more worried about wind and buffeting from semis than leaning hard in corners, but mentioned it as worth investigating. Might be worth pinging Gullwing owners to get their experience. An ST1100 loaded is not light, but not near as planted and heavy while pulling a trailer as a Wing.

[pan-european]

Thanks for your hints, but I cannot change the tongue, because the trailer is approved by the authorities and a change needs a new approval and the engineer will not accept to change the certified tongue and coupler.

In USA you can use different couplers (small ball or pin) for attaching a trailer to a bike.
Some of them may work better with a pivoting tongue. But safety chains must be used.

In Europe the 50-mm-steel ball is the only certified connection.
It is proven safe up to 3.5 tons and we need no safety chains here.
From the smallest trailer up to towing motoryachts it is the same.



The freedom of moving around the ball is VERY BIG, so that heavy caravans
have often special couplers which "clamp" the degreased ball and make the connection stiffer, to prevent the trailer from shaking, if a Mercedes Sprinter passes with 160 km/h.



I will not drive much on highways with this trailer.
And I will find the safety zone with try and error like with my fullsize trailer.
In France you are allowed to go with 130 km/h on highways with a caravan
and if the balance and tongue weight is correct, that was never a safety problem.

I know the influence of a passed truck or passing coach and I am sure I will find my way home safe.

Tom