One small pedal for man...

After several years, much daydreaming, and a few hours of sawing and cutting the SUS001 bicycle trailer is a reality.
As I've increased my biking abilities I wanted to add carrying capacity. My young children can't ride yet and there is only so much you ca fit in a bike basket. Inspired by the boys from Ottawa, the their achievments:
appliances
organ
stuff
sofa +
I set aout finding plans. I'm using a modified bamboo trailer, found here.

Here it is.
While unfortunately it lacks the grace and style of

or

OR

it has already exceeded my expectations.
My normal max average speed on level ground is about 17mph. Maybe thats fast, more likely it's slow. My current average with trailer, over hilly riverside country, is 10mph. Carrying 160 pounds. I think that's awesome.
Most surprising observation is you still use all your highest gears, once you get up to speed. Only difference between a normal ride is that you use the full range of speeds from 1 to 15 for me. It's had two hard test runs with weight, speed, and terrain, and a few runs to the local pool carrying 3 girls we babysit: they weigh not much less than 150 together and don't distribute the weight as well as my test weights: 80# bag of concrete, 80#+ wood planer. Hopefully I'll be making a "standard" run of two passengers (kids) weighing 60#, plus cargo (???).
Pictures attached. Blueprints in progress. Specs at bottom.




Laying out the dimensions. Sometimes graphpaper doesn't cut it and sidewalk chalk is called for.


One of my apprentices. Had a tendency to eat tools.

Some projects take longer than others... Caleb is living proof of this... the rain harvesting project is still ongoing...


Inspiration and test bed (not attached) on frame


Closeup of hitch and open bed

Comparrison to old 2 seat kid trailer. Kid trailer has something close to zero cargo volume (which didn't stop me from using it for heavy cargo) and has a steep recline when sitting in it.

Forward view (aint it pretty), and "parking brake". It's temporary, just haven't worked out the design troubles with the replacement.
Inside the bed. Yard stick for refference (also in other pictures.

Specs
Total length: About 7 feet. I started with an 8' 2"x4" and cut it down once finished.
Total width: 30"
Wheel width: About 24"
Bed length: 5 feet
Axle height: 13.5"
Bed height: about 18"
Wheels: Standard 27"x1" street tires
Box height: 12" (I think)
Bed surface: About 10 square feet
Box volume: As high as willing to load. Reasonably 4 feet high so 40 cubic feet of space.
Weight capacity: 160 pounds plus. I plan to try again with 340.
Materials: Long frame-treated pine 2"x4", other frame-pine 2"x4", bed OSB 1/2", box 3/4" plywood. Connected with deck screws at key points (frame to frame) and 6d box nails for the rest (bed to frame, most of box assy)
Material cost: $0.00 All materials including wheels, brackets, hitches, and fasteners are recycled, donated, or are from previous projects (like nails, I've been holding those for years and have only recently been using them up)
Bed/seating options: Box is currently screwed to frame, will be changed to bolts for removal. Steaing is currently spaced for children, slides out for all cargo: will be changed to multi position seating for tall folk. Seats can be stored/used to keep cargo from slidnig about.
Cleanout: Gaps near wheel wells. Yes those were a mistake but they saved me the trouble of cutting holes later.

Still in progress:
Better parking brake
Better seat belts
Attachment points for bungee cord/ropes along all four sides at bed level and box
Tailgate. This would be GREAT. Lifting the planer over the back was a little difficult.
Shade cover for kids
Tarp for cargo
Missing saftey features: reflectors, tail lamps
Waterproofing/deck sealer
Wheel well covers
Attached tool box for spare tire tubes and bungees

CS

I can see my house from here!

I found an amazing bit of free software called Google Earth, which has a sort of ominous ring to it. I'ts an interactive model of the earth composed of sattelite images. And for most of the US, their pretty sharp pictures too. Some larger cities have a feature called street view, which zooms down to ground level and then displays panoramic photos of the surrounding view. Also you can turn on a button that shows where, for example, a video clip was shot. If I took a movie of my trip to Niagra Falls, I can mark that on the map for all the world to see, and they can watch my movie on YouTube.
At some level, it gives me concerns about privacy rights and purpose and power of technology. But at the same time it was just amazing that the whole dar thing worked, and worked well! It's a lot of fun but it'd be real easy to lose yourself looking at maps for a few days.
You are now here:
I found out about a lot of this while looking at someones map of their yard showing a garden layout. The folks at Path to Freedom are well aware of the amazingness of Google Earth and you can see their front yard gadens as well as watch interviews with the family, right from the map. The work their doing is at least as amazing as the software so you can check them out also.

CS

The real garden

THIS is cool. I've never had a garden before. My mother always had flower and occasionaly veggie gardens as far as I can remember. One of my first memories is of planting corn (which as I recall, was eaten by racoons. Darn racoons...). My wife has a strawberry garden but my only significant contribution was turning over the dirt at the begining.

We've talked about putting in a garden, and we're going to put in a good one this year untill we decided to put me in college. No time for both we said. Then one day my neighbor was asking about the strawberries and said something on the lines of "Hey I've got seeds and plants, you want some?" It wasn't exactly a nudge from God in my mind but I said yes and picked up a few other seeds and went to work.
I love it. Of course I don't really know what I'm doing. A can generally tell a weed from a good plant, and I know dry dirt means dead plants, but really just winging it.

But now I've got a few little square of corn, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, chives, and flowers coming up. Everymorning, whether it needs it or not, I tend my little patch of dirt. And to confirm to me that miracles do happen and God loves us, the little plants are growing strong.

Beginings

Welcome to A Potato Garden. I hope I can use this to share what my family and I are up to with family, friends, and guests. I'm something of a hermit and have difficulty keeping intouch with even those very close to me.
Also I've learned a lot from some other blogs, maybe you have too. It'd be great to think that someone could be helped by my somewhat eclectic interests.

So enjoy, and take care!

CS