A week ago, I saw a guy in our small Kansas town pushing a shopping cart filled with his belongings. He needs this bike trailer, and I want him to have it.

I bought a used InStep bike trailer from The Recyclery, a used bike shop. $40. Kinda pricy, but I think they're doing a service for the community by fixing up and selling used bikes. Generally I can get these trailers for between free and $25.

Supplies:

Used bike trailer $40

Cedar wood fence pickets from HD $8.91

Scrap wood for the underside of the trailer

Bolts, nuts, washers $6

The whole thing cost less than $50.

Step 1: Design

I cut 2 pieces of scrap plywood the width of the trailer and bolted them in to the frame as pictured. Then I cut cedar planks to lay across the plywood. I polyurethaned the cedar planks, and screwed them into the plywood pieces, using the existing holes whenever possible.

Step 2: More Design

I then cut down some 2 X 4's the width of the trailer frame, about 1 1/2" wide, and bolted them through to the underside pieces. Then I took some of those slices of 2 X 4's and used them as the uprights for the sides of the utility trailer. I then took some of the same 6" picket fence cedar pieces that I used for the deck and I ripped them in half and used them for the sides of the utility trailer.