Hiking Trailer From Trash

I love to walk in the rural areas, but I hate my backpack: like me, he's getting older and heavier!
So, I needed a hiking trailer. But I found out they are VERY expensive.

Forget about it. Better take a look in my garage, first.

What I found:

• 2 metallic used broomsticks (one yellow, one red)
• 2 wheels from a golf bag cart
• several alluminum tubes
• rivets, screws, etc
• brown plastic fruit box
• brown zipties
• elastic baggage bands
• nylon strips (reclaimed from old school bag)
• carabiners from promotional keyrings
• black elastic band from a pair of leggings ;)

For a better finishing, though, I needed to spend some change in hardware:

• 1m long, 4mm diameter, threaded rod and self-locking nuts
• 4 rubber caps

As the broomsticks had different colours, firstly I cut it in halves of the same length. Doing that prevented the problems that could arise from bending tubes. But I needed to connect the two pieces. I'll explain that in a moment.

I then measured the fruit box, and cut an alluminum tube in an adequate lenght to hold the wheels, the box and the broomsticks.

A piece of wood was inserted in the broomstick tube (for reinforcement) and a hole was made side-to-side, so the alluminum tube could be inserted. A metal screw was used to lock it in place, and a rubber cap completed the mounting.

The wheels were easy, as they possess a plastic wing screw, so it can be easily dismounted for transportation and/or cleansing.

The next step was to find a way of connecting the broomstick parts, but with a small angle. For that I used two small (20 cm) pieces of alluminum tube, carefully bended by inserting two drills in it and forcing the center against a hard corner with my bare hands, in small steps, so it bendend smoothly.
But the diameters were very different. So I solved it using pieces of a dry ornamental cane I reclaimed from my wife's garden, thus forcing the pieces to be concentric. Then I drilled holes through the two tubes and used rivets to firmly secure it.

It was time to reinforce the structure. So I cutted two more pieces of alluminum tube and inserted threaded rods in them; drilled holes in the broomsticks and used the self-locking nuts to secure everything.
I can use the upper part of the sticks to store stuff, like money, but for now I just throw some spare zipties in there. Then a pair of rubber caps, and that part was finished.

The box has two functions. It holds and protects whatever I put in it, and reinforce the structure.

But sometimes it may become necessary, for storage/transportation/other reasons, to dismount it, so I used those plastic ties. Two baggage elastic bands were added, to secure the backpack or other cargo.

Now it's time to connect the sticks to my belt with carabiners. I used nylon strips reclaimed from my daughter's old school bag. A piece of the black rubber band reclaimed from my daughter's leggings was sewed in it to avoid rigidity, and a screw fixed the stuff to the broomstick, leaving enough free space for my hands, just in case i need to push or tow.

I also kept the padded strips: if needed, they will be used to reinforce the belt and transfer the load from the hips to the shoulders.

The trailer is now complete and ready to test outside.
It weights less than 2,5 Kg, and I've already tried it at home with a 20 Kg load: I barely felt it on my hips, and it rolled pleasantly.

I'm confident it will be strong enough for not-very-rough paths.

Next step: using another pair of wheels I own, build a second trailer for my wife, so we can both walk the Way of Saint James in style!