Trailer ............  

With tales of Maderia Drive and Cofton Park a young mans thoughts turned to the logistics of the whole thing.   I found myself drawing trailers on the back of envelopes, and burning the mid-night oil on the AutoCAD.   Then around November I was fortunate enough to stumble on a grotty trailer at the local scrappy, for which he did not want a complete fortune.   It was a close coupled four wheeled unit with indispension, and had been used I imagine for the transport of an invalid carriage.   From the condition it had stood unused in the open for a very, very long time.   The horrid bed-iron and fibreglass structure on it had deteriorated badly, and two of the wheels were missing.   Anyway, coin of the realm change hands, two Mini wheels which the good fellow threw in were fitted inside-out, and we towed it home. 

A period with the disc grinder removed all the extraneous superstructure, it was stood up on end and the suspension units removed, and then began a days work removing the rust.   A coat of rust preventive paint later it all looked a lot less sad.   The hubs were stripped (just as well since the last time it happened the oil seals were fitted a about f) cleaned repacked and reassembled and the indispension units were refitted to the frame.   Another good coat of paint finished that part of the exercise.

I was lucky to find a couple of alloy channels, and these were fitted to accept the Seven's wheels, and some stops were fashioned for the front end.   A local fabricator folded up a  pair of ramps from some zintec, and I made a stowage for these.   Mr. Halford supplied a trailer board as this seemed to be the most economical way of sourcing the lights.

I found that I could still purchase long mudguards to cover the pairs of wheels, and that the correct wheels were also available from a trailer parts supplier on the web. 

So, as that artist on the box always says," there you have it - a trailer."    It tows very well since I dropped the ball on my car by three inches, and sits there un-noticed up to fifty-five which is quite fast enough.   It starts to rattle a bit at anything faster which I suspect is wheel balance, anyway it keeps me legal.

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