Trailer

I needed a small trailer to transport the Moonfish - but the budget for this project didn't allow for a new one.  Eventually, patient searching and waiting on eBay got me this one about an hour's drive from home:

This must have been built sometime in the 1960s, by a firm of which no trace remains:

The suspension has a weird leading arm setup:

which uses what look like motorcycle shock absorbers (again, produced by a long-defunct firm) to provide both location and suspension.  The wheels and hubs appeared to be very early Mini items.

Detailed examination showed that the shockers were completly shot, as were the bearings and all the bushes:

but that the stub axles and mounting tubes were recoverable:

So I sourced some new shockers from a classic motobike store, modern composite bushes (the originals were nylon !), modern 4" hubs and 400 x 8 wheels (adapted with some additional sintered bronze bushes) and rebuilt the suspension.  I also rebuilt and recarpeted the rear bunks and made new forward bunks where a simple keel support had been before.

All of which gave me this:

which has been very easy to launch from and recover to, but is currently giving me really excessive tyre wear.  Something not quite right in the suspension setup, I think ........



(to be continued !)