Welding Tips and Tricks

This trailer will be used for pulling behind the dirt bike. Here in Canada a home built trailer can get insurance and registration easily from and insurance agent so I plan to use it for getting groceries and running errends on the street as well as offroad use. It is still a work in progress as I will be shortening the swing arm that pivots from the axle to trailer.....it was originally this long to accomodate a kayak (that project did not work). Also I want to beef up the pivot points to steel surfaces. Right now all of the trailer and parts are alluminum 6061 with the exception of a steel shaft running through my bike axle and also a steel wheel bearing fot the side to side pivot needed with this design.
I have a Everlast multi funtion unit that I am learning to weld aluminum with. Happy with the welder to date.....wayne

Thats pretty cool but how does it handle the road/terrain? It doesnt tip over when riding?

Sorry for the late reply. It goes over rough ground with out tipping real nice. The design is based on the "Bob" trailers the pedal bikers use for hauling stuff around. I tried my best with home made pivots etc but I really need to re do this unit with bicycle parts. Aluminum bike frame I have recently purchased will work for this. I will use the headset and steer tube from this frame to redo the main side to side pivot as this part has the most stress on it. The swing arm will also be shortened. It is long in the picture as the original trailer was for pulling my kayak and the trailer was really long.....that is a long story that was close to a disaster. Long story on trailer shown in picture is it is a work in progress that I will continue in the spring, but a single wheeled trailer is the way to go for speed and over rough ground for sure it will just need to be much stronger..................wayne

Have you looked at a Uni-go trailer for design ideas re: the hitch mechanism? I don't know if your dirt bike as a 200cc or 650, but I would think that using construction methods for a bicycle trailer (at least I would use a motorcycle wheel/tire assembly and bearings) might be trouble down the road. I would be happy to be proven wrong though.

Nice work.