Tow a Boat With a Bike

If you live near a lake but not on the lake; a bike boat trailer is the way to tow your small boat to the neighborhood lake. This trailer is made from black iron pipe and wheelbarrow wheels. It uses standard threaded pipe fittings so there is no welding involved.

The boat is 9 feet long and weighs over 100 lbs by itself (and the trailer of steel pipe is not exactly light weigh). You can see in the video it maneuvers nicely, and is not a problem to tow (though I wouldn't want to take it up any steep hills!)

Note: the center joints are "loose fit" (not fully tightened). This allows the for the 6 degrees of freedom required for the joint to rotate along the X,Y,Z axis.
(Darn Rust - it has held up well over the last 5 years since it was built considering I didn't paint it)

Pneumatic wheelbarrow wheels provide the suspension to absorb road bumps and at bike speeds there is no worry about burning out the bearings.
The axle is a 3/8" steel rod with holes drilled in the ends for cotter pins (with washer) to hold the wheels on.
There is a reducer pipe fitting on the inboard side of the wheels to reduce the diameter of the 1" pipe to provide a better fit for the 3/8" axle.
Note: a joining fitting is required at the center of the frame to tie the two side of the trailer frames together.

Urethane roller used on big boat trailers. I got this one at a sporting goods store.

The connection to the bike is made by partially unthreading the fore/aft connector pipe. As it is being unthreaded from the trailer side make sure it is being threaded into the top elbow on the bike.

My two tow vehicles side by side.