Shopping Cart Bike Trailer

I wanted a bike trailer that I can leave out in the weather without rotting, and without trapping water to breed mosquitoes. Figured a shopping cart would make a good body of the trailer. There are many shopping carts around, but just taking one that is in good shape would seem like stealing, and I never got around to investigating where to legally acquire an old one. I finally found this one all smashed up next to a dumpster - looks like a car just t-boned it.

Step 1 Parts

Parts
- one busted up shopping cart
- two old bicycle forks and fitting wheels
mine were mountain bike ones, BMX ones would have been better because they are smaller and more solid. I found them in the garbage somewhere.
- primer and paint
- matching male/female air hose fittings (there are different types)
- material for the tongue and bike hitch - I used an old metal pipe that came from a tent or something, wire, scrap metal

Tools
- welder
- angle grinder with cutting wheel and wire brush (you can use a manual or drill-type brush, but BOY are the grinder ones faster and more powerful!)
- bottle jack and waste lumber to straighen out cart
- several clamps or locking pliers for set-up

Comments

[Dave6]

I made one and its awesome! I have yet to use it to actually get something from one place to another but I still love it, although it is a pain to tow up the hill, especially when your bike only has about 5 gears

[berserk]

Show us a picture!

[Dave6]

I will get pics up as soon as possible

[jarrelb]

very useful instructable. i like the idea of using a old beat up cart that would have been scrap otherwise. great job!

[12Bones]

This cart will go perfect with the 66cc motor I just added to my 10 speed. Got the kit from gasbikes.net I've been having fun the last 4 months riding around doing about 30 mph, and I can go 140 - 150 miles on a little over a 1/2 gallon of mixxed gas.
I've been thinking of going out on weekend camping trips riding 1 day out and come back the next. I could have everything all packed up in the cart.

[manicmonday]

You misspelled a word. Your incorrect spelling was "moskitos". The correct spelling is "moskeetoes" :)

[berserk]

Oh man. You know, that one is stuck in my head in its German spelling and I get it wrong every chance I get. Thanks, fixed :-)

[Whamola]

How did you end up attaching the forks to the cart?  A picture of what you welded to would have made this step a lot better. 

Thanks

[berserk]

I keep meaning to get a pic to respond to your question. I welded the sides of the forks to a thicker wire (~8mm) that ran down the side of the cart in an S-curve. The "s" gave me three attachmetn points. Probably not the most solid way to do it.
Since then the fork has pulled loose on one side. I re-attached it with some thick wire using a Clamptite (http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=59452&cat=1,43456) tool. It's been running will with that repair since.

[NWilhelm]

haha and here I am thinking nobody has made an Instructable on this yet. silly me. I just "acquired" a cart and I was thinking about doing this exact same thing. thanks for the basic idea to work with.

[berserk]

If I were to do one thing different this time around, I think it's to make it sit lower on the wheels. Maybe use a threaded rod as the axle or so, rather than the forks. There is a fair bit of vibration where they are attached. That said, it's lasting not too badly and has been on many a garbage-eve trip.

[NWilhelm]

yeah im in the process of figuring out a good method to mount the wheels, with my limited tools at the moment it may take a while. but we'll see.

[guitarwizard94]

Nice Idea...if I can find a crappy cart I will definetly give this a try!!!

[Pandymoose]

ingenious! i wouldnt have even tried with such a wreak of a trailer, but you seem to have pulled it off perfectly!

[Bearclaw_Michael]

Great utilization of old stuff to make a very useful little trailer.

[SureShot]

Very cool idea, and it even looks nice too!

[djr6789]

awsome build!

[ve2vfd]

Great idea! Carts are light and very solid. Looks like a vintage car with "wings" at the back where the handle attached :) Just be sure to always have permission to get/use a broken cart. A new cart costs the store $150-$400 depending on model so they may not appreciate people "liberating" their carts.