Metal Twister
Highly Motivated
Several years ago a good friend Pete from Hot Shot Racing and I designed a unique trailer suspension. I posted it up here for conversation along with a solid works animation of the arm an air bag cycling. A few of you thought it was a different idea that looked interesting and were encouraging. A larger group of you thought it a waste of time and nit picked the concept apart. It was so negative that I ended up removing the Solid works arm in disgust.
Since that time we have had the opportunity to develop the suspension in the real world and not virtually. Im happy to say that all that work has paid off and now we are up and running and building the first of what we hope are many Bivouac trailers. This Bivouac trailer is called the "Bravo" as it is designed to haul 2 bikes. By bikes we are talking 2 Off Road racing motorcycles. I spent a life time on two wheels racing Motocross and Desert racing and it has always been a dream of mine to build what I though was the ultimate Long Travel motorcycle trailer with the practicality of a self contained Expo Trailer. Ive always been fascinated with the Swiss Army Knife approach the these vehicles and hope to exploit that aspect through out the build process.
This was the original suspension design that we started with. Since this original design we have moved the shock absorbers up front and parallel to the airbags. This got rid of a lot of extra work and eliminated any reliability issues. Every thing related to the actual suspension is now mounted in the trailer and away from any ground hazards or obstacles. Another benefit of this design is the ability to change out components through an access panel door and not on your back in the mud, snow, rocks or dirt. As we all know air bags degrade over time and most manufactures recommend changing out bags about every 5 years or so. This makes that process painless and super easy. Finally with Bivouac suspension design it is easy to insure that the shock angles are correct and located in the perfect operating angles for maximum efficiency. No need to lay them down or tuck them in an already violent environment.
It really does work, honest!
Since that time we have had the opportunity to develop the suspension in the real world and not virtually. Im happy to say that all that work has paid off and now we are up and running and building the first of what we hope are many Bivouac trailers. This Bivouac trailer is called the "Bravo" as it is designed to haul 2 bikes. By bikes we are talking 2 Off Road racing motorcycles. I spent a life time on two wheels racing Motocross and Desert racing and it has always been a dream of mine to build what I though was the ultimate Long Travel motorcycle trailer with the practicality of a self contained Expo Trailer. Ive always been fascinated with the Swiss Army Knife approach the these vehicles and hope to exploit that aspect through out the build process.
This was the original suspension design that we started with. Since this original design we have moved the shock absorbers up front and parallel to the airbags. This got rid of a lot of extra work and eliminated any reliability issues. Every thing related to the actual suspension is now mounted in the trailer and away from any ground hazards or obstacles. Another benefit of this design is the ability to change out components through an access panel door and not on your back in the mud, snow, rocks or dirt. As we all know air bags degrade over time and most manufactures recommend changing out bags about every 5 years or so. This makes that process painless and super easy. Finally with Bivouac suspension design it is easy to insure that the shock angles are correct and located in the perfect operating angles for maximum efficiency. No need to lay them down or tuck them in an already violent environment.
It really does work, honest!
Last edited:
