Tony’s Beriault Bicycle Camper – Am I there yet ?

Well, the camper is 9o% complete – so not quite.

Plus, as we all know, the final 10% often takes a lot longer than the 90%. For my build of a Beriault camper the main parts missing are the vestibule, the door and the front supporting legs. It is, however, ready for tow testing. So I towed it. Initially around the block. To check out how things went I mounted the camera in a position to record the action of the trailer and off we went.

The “round the block” test highlighted the need to control the hood during travel. It moves about slightly side to side and back to front while ballooning out a bit, all due to its flexibility and extra width. It’s not really that much movement but it does result in the sides coming in contact with the wheel spokes. During Robert’s initial testing he found the sides occasionally hit the tyres and so added some brackets to hold the hood.

So I fitted the recommended hood positioning brackets plus some hood cill stiffeners along the base of the sides.

To deal with the possibility of the hood sliding back and forth a few cm I added a strap at the front to keep it in place. To be honest it didn’t move much but I prefer no movement to be safe.

While making these changes I found I’ve got to the stage where each change and each new item causes a slight repositioning of the hood which, in turn, needs new screw placements which compete with things already in the wood! I have, therefore, added a few new holes in the coreflute and will need dobs of hot glue in the original holes to keep water out. The wooden frame starts to look like it has borer. Each new addition has taken a surprising amount of extra time to get it working correctly.

At this time I also :

And .. the camper is ready for “Around the Block take 2” !!

Round The Block Take 2

A repeat of the short run around Longford, the plan was to once again make sure the action of towing works OK, does not unbalance the trike on corners, produce steering wobble at speed and the trailer doesn’t weave when we travel in a straight line.

In the event it was a windy day so I decided to up the ante. A trip along Wilmore’s Lane would prove the trailer for hill climbing / descending as well as it’s ability to handle winds.

This time the hood still bounced about a bit and made noise over the uneven chipseal. It’s not held down well enough. Also, on arrival back at base, I found part of the protective cill had become displaced so more duct tape is required.

Handling. All good. The recommended top speed with the Burley trailer and the Beriault is 25 kph. In a straight line it doesn’t do anything untoward at 40kph downhill with a tailwind. I wouldn’t try and tackle bends at this speed though! At 25kph it handles like a dream while, in Longford, it tackles road junctions (left turns) at speeds up to 17-18 kph without weighing down or pushing the trike oddly.

Power usage. Not too scary! I started out with 41.1 volts and came back at 39.1 for a trip of 16 kilometers including 4 hills. And a head wind. I did use low power levels though, climbing slowly in low gears so it shouldn’t have used much. Once the build is complete I will load up trike and camper with camping gear and head off to Bracknell to check out power usage on a 40 k ride.

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Jobs to do

A “few” jobs are yet to be completed :

• Stop hood moving when travelling;
• Make and install hood guidance flap;
• Make and fit door;
• Design, build and install front legs;
• Design, build and fit improved legs for pull outs;
• Install weather proofing strips;
• Make and fit Vestibule;
• Make and fit doorway flyscreen;
• Make and fit door locks;
• Find, buy and fit draft excluder strips; and
• Sit back and decide what colour (if any) to paint it.

So, there we go ! I feel confident we will be ready for a proper overnight ride / camp shakedown test in the Spring. Only another month to wait! That in turn means only another month to get this build completed!!

’til next time ……………………………