Introducing the BRAT

You've already heard about our little cargo trailer, meant to be pulled behind our Harley-Davidson trike. We'd been looking for several months, starting with the idea of a camping trailer and finally realizing that for what we'd use it for and for how often we'd use it, a little cargo trailer made more sense.

During this process we looked at website after website, followed the posts in a Motorcycle Trailer Towing forum, try to locate dealers as we traveled to see trailers in person and watched what came up on eBay. Well, a couple weeks ago we found a trailer that we thought would work for us and we liked the lines since they somewhat mimic the back of the trike. Stu bid on it and won...it was in New Bern, NC....thus our trip there to pick it up.



Picking it up was easy...the only hitch (no pun intended) that we ran into was the ball we had picked up was miss-marked and too large. Fortunately the seller had no need for his and gave it to us. The directionals worked but only one brake light lit dimly....it was enough to get us back to the RV park.

The next adventure was figuring out HOW the heck we were going to carry this trailer around... Oh, by the way, the trailer already has a name...the trike is Big Red, the trailer is BRAT or Big Red's Attack Trailer. Anyway, BRAT was bigger than we anticipated....funny how that happens. We knew it wasn't going to fit into the garage even with the old sink & cabinet removed (done while in Bushnell, FL) and the tool chest moved to the corner.



This meant disassembling the trailer so we could store the frame & tires in the garage (standing upright) and temporarily put the cargo area in the back seat of the Freightliner. First the cargo area had to come off...top first. The top came off easily and is being carried on our bed during the day, stashed against the living room wall at night.

The cargo bed was bolted down and the bolts were tight and rusty. Took some hammering & prying but eventually it came off...no cracks either! Before it could be removed, all the wiring had to be taken out to go with the body.



The wheels came off the frame and were eventually stored behind it (forgot to get a final photo)...makes the garage door inaccessible but we can deal with that.



Then we loosened the back door on the Freightliner and got the body sat in on the seat, held down with two cargo straps.



While we are in Mission, TX Stu plans on pressure washing all the parts & pieces, coating the bottom of the cargo body with bed liner, putting in a removable carpet, redoing the lights, greasing the hubs and maybe even get the body painted. He will eventually change how the lid mounts onto the body and the final challenge will be attempting to find a safe way to carry it without disassembling it each time we use it. LOL!

Phew....but we're on the road finally and have 6-8 weeks in Mission, TX to work on this!

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna & Stu