Topic: What did you do to your non-motorcycle vehicle today?

[grcamna2]

got the nev marster clutch pump..from Berlin.
.it set me back 270 kr.
.the Black grease/sand fluid have veared the vhole set aut..this stuff need to be thanges at least 4 years intevall..or it thange to Black glue gum...

got veldet some nev holders for the spare hveel..so it can be lifted back up...

stryboen,which vehicle does this part go into ?

[Terry in Australia]

Well the aluminium place rang to sat that their plate is 20mm narrower than I ordered but I don’t think that’ll matter, but I’ve changed the order from 3mm thick checker plate to 5mm thick plate, so it should add a bit more rigidity to the deck, and worked out a few bucks cheaper than buying the 3mm thick plate,  except I won’t get any offcuts. No biggie, as long as the trailer is usable again, I’ll be happy.

[Kelly E]

Well the aluminium place rang to sat that their plate is 20mm narrower than I ordered but I don’t think that’ll matter, but I’ve changed the order from 3mm thick checker plate to 5mm thick plate, so it should add a bit more rigidity to the deck, and worked out a few bucks cheaper than buying the 3mm thick plate,  except I won’t get any offcuts. No biggie, as long as the trailer is usable again, I’ll be happy.

The thicker deck plate should give it the strength of 1/8" steel.

[RAFster122s]

So, any significant differences in 5mm aluminum plate and the 3mm steel plate?
Imagine the aluminum was not cheap given last I had heard and was talking to Scottly about aluminum prices he was saying here in the USA they took a huge jump up in prices. Heck, that conversation was probably over a year ago now, yeah, last year was not a good year for me, it felt like an eternity but I have a hard time recalling a lot of it, not due to mental decline but the other medical condition I fight with…it impacts my short term memory a lot and my long term memory sometimes won’t be having anything to recall if it didn’t make it into the short term buffers to become a long term memory…

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, the 5mm plate is really nice, each piece was 1200x1200 so just went into the back of my little truck and was surprisingly heavy. I took it over to Spotty’s place and laid one sheet on the trailer and it was an excellent fit, then stood on it and it didn’t flex at all, so a better option than wood.

Might have been a little more expensive than marine plywood but we don’t have to paint it, so that alone makes it worthwhile. We’ll just pop rivet it to the frame as the bike wheel chock is bolted to the trailer frame. The two sheets were cut from one 8’ x 4’ sheet, and it cost me $439 AUD, or around $300 USD, which I thought wasn’t bad.

It’s going to come in handy as I want to collect my 1989 BMW K100RS from my storage unit and take it over to Spotty’s place to install a new fuel pump, battery and rebuild the front MC, the poor old Bavarian Murder Weapon hasn’t turned a wheel since 2015, so it’ll be great to have it back on the road again in the next couple of weeks.

[madmtnmotors]

Had to jettison the abs controller on my 02' Mustang. The hydraulic control unit portion had started leaking profusely from the pump. After replacing the HCU with a used unit the right front caliper would not release. Found an "ABS delete" block that replaces the ABS control unit and got that bolted in place last night. "But what about the ABS?" you ask? I grew up without ABS, not to mention our SOHC/4's don't have ABS either...

Just gotta drive like ya' got some smarts... 

[Terry in Australia]

The only bike I have with ABS is my old BMW K100RS, the first model with ABS, and to be honest I don’t know if it works or not. I’ve never locked the brakes up with it, which I have done on my Triumph Rocket III and my VFR750, but luckily both times because I overshot the driveway into my storage unit and didn’t have anything to run into.

It’ll be interesting if you notice any difference now that you’ve deleted the ABS on your car after driving it for a few years with the ABS functioning. The ABS on my (long gone, sadly) BMW R1100GS was able to be switched off for riding on dirt roads, and the only difference I noticed was that the brakes felt more responsive when the ABS was switched off. ABS on the later GS range was problematic because it was connected to the ECU and if it wasn’t working it would put the bike into “limp mode”. The only fix available then was to replace the ABS module, but someone here in Oz found a way of fixing it that saved around $2K over buying a new module. Let us know if you notice any difference now.

[Trevor from Warragul]

We’ll just pop rivet it to the frame

Have you considered using a Rivet Nut Tool? This would make the deck easily removable.

[madmtnmotors]

We’ll just pop rivet it to the frame

Have you considered using a Rivet Nut Tool? This would make the deck easily removable.

The only issue I've had with the "Riv-nuts" is when the threads start to corrode and the bolt becomes more difficult to extract. Once the bolt becomes so difficult to extract that the clamping force of the rivet shoulder can't hold anymore and the Riv-nut starts to spin. Profanities typically ensue beyond that point...   

[Stev-o]

We’ll just pop rivet it to the frame

 This would make the deck easily removable.

Just curious, why would the deck ever need to be removed?

And FYI - most utility trailers that I see around here have 2x6" pressure treated pine deck, lasts much longer and is stronger than plywood.

[Kelly E]

The last deck on the 12' trailer was plywood. We used two layers of 3/4" T&G plywood with staggered seams glued and screwed together.It lasted 14 years and was old but still useable when we changed the deck to steel diamond plate.
Our 20' aluminum flatbed is decked with 2'x6' treated pine. Eventually we'll probably deck it in aluminum diamond plate.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Trevor, I have a rivnut kit but don’t think I’ll ever need to remove the deck again. I’m going to bolt it down on each corner and in the middle with M10 bolts and just put a few pop rivets in every foot or so. I have a pneumatic pop rivet gun and a ton of aircraft quality pop rivets (I won’t mention where they came from…..) and it should be good.

[scottly]

Another option to secure the deck is self-drilling screws. They are easier and faster than pop rivets, and can be removed if needed.

[RAFster122s]

Diclofenac orally is a pill

[Terry in Australia]

Diclofenac orally is a pill

It is David, but what’s it got to do with non motorcycle vehicles?

[grcamna2]

Diclofenac orally is a pill

It is David, but what’s it got to do with non motorcycle vehicles?

Drop it into the fuel tank of an automobile like medicine? 

[dave500]

ive heard of guys dropping square fishing lead sinkers into tanks to add the lead we dont have in fuel now,sheeses.

[Terry in Australia]

Spotty and I had a great day yesterday, replacing the trailer deck with 5mm aluminium checker plate. The two pieces that I needed were 1220x1220mm, but the best the shop could do was cut a 1200x2400mm sheet in half. The saw blade was 6mm thick, so we got two plates 1200x1197mm, which were just big enough. In hindsight it was probably a good thing, because the cut edges are quite sharp and if they hung over the curved edge of the frame rails a feller could scratch himself quite badly.

Trailer Saturday 27 January 2024 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Trailer Saturday 27 January 2024 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

We ended up bolting the deck down with 6 x 10mm bolts on the rear plate, and another 6 x 10 mm bolts on the front, plus another 8 x 10mm bolts to secure the wheel chock. The chock is bolted through the front and centre frame rails and we used 3 mm thick thick 50mm OD washers under the aluminium plate where the bolts didn't go thru a frame section. We used 4 x 12mm bolts to bolt the folding section back together, and ended up only using 6 large head pop rivets in the centre section to stop the plate from rattling, and avoid a trip hazard buy using low profile pop rivets and not hex bolts. we probably could have used countersunk bolts, but I'd already been to the hardware store, so didn't think too much about it, the pop rivets are around 25mm long, so would have pulled right up with plenty of meat underneath.

I bought them years ago to fix a Yoshimura muffler and found them by chance yesterday, and quite like them. We used my big rattle gun to tighten all the bolts and pneumatic pop rivet gun to insert the rivets, so the longest job (apart from repairing the tail light wiring) was marking, measuring and drilling all the holes, then removing the aluminium plates and deburring the holes, and blowing/brushing all the swarf away so it didn't get stuck between the plate and frame rails.

Trailer Saturday 27 January 2024 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

While it was only in the 70's, working outside in the sun all day with the light reflecting off the shiny aluminium deck fried our brains, and when I got home I looked in the mirror to see an old fcuker with a really bright red (to match the frame rails) face, but after a litre or two of ginger beer and a mouthful of drugs, I was feeling no pain. We also stripped the rust from the wheel chock and gave it a coat of "Canyon satin black" Rustoleum paint, which came up nicely. We'll take it for it's test ride on Saturday to a swap meet that we thought wasn't for a couple of weeks, with a bike on the trailer, so it was good to get it finished.

Trailer Saturday 27 January 2024 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[grcamna2]

Those thick aluminum plates will help the trailer be more rigid also Terry.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Bill, yep a couple of years ago I thought about taking it to the dump, but now it should be good for many more years.

[grcamna2]

Thanks Bill, yep a couple of years ago I thought about taking it to the dump, but now it should be good for many more years.

I had a Harbor Freight 4x8' folding trailer looked like the exact same design;the problem was it had been used to haul a heavy snowmobile around on salty Winter roads for a few years by the PO in Michigan..
Can you still fold it up in case you want to store it(folded)somewhere ?

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, that’s why we went with 2 plates, just need to unbolt it in the (hinged) centre and pull the pins out of the clevices that secure the deck to the drawbar, then fold it in the middle. There are little castors behind the fenders to roll it around on. Not as quick to assemble as some folding trailers but not bad. The rust was only on the top rails where the old timber floor was mounted but it wasn’t deep so we just machined it off with a nylon strip disc and gave it a thick coat of “Kill Rust” epoxy enamel paint.

[grcamna2]

Yep, that’s why we went with 2 plates, just need to unbolt it in the (hinged) centre and pull the pins out of the clevices that secure the deck to the drawbar, then fold it in the middle. There are little castors behind the fenders to roll it around on. Not as quick to assemble as some folding trailers but not bad. The rust was only on the top rails where the old timber floor was mounted but it wasn’t deep so we just machined it off with a nylon strip disc and gave it a thick coat of “Kill Rust” epoxy enamel paint.

Excellent restore job. 

[BenelliSEI]

Terry…..That trailer looks great! Nice job. I’m still looking for a replacement for my 4’ X 8’ utility trailer. It’s +25 years old and last time I tried to do some repairs it just crumbled away.

[Kelly E]

My favorite way to make a trailer is to use an old travel trailer frame. Our favorite is the 69' travel trailer we made into a 7'x12' flatbed with a 12" high railing. It has a single 4500lb axle and last year we replaced the plywood deck with steel diamond plate.

We have a dual axle travel trailer out back that we'll turn into a 19' deck flatbed. It's an excellent candidate for a flatbed since it's frame is made out of rectangular box section tubing instead of C channel.