Bauer Catfish Trailer

Last crawled date: 1 year, 11 months ago

DISCLAIMER: I've only been doing CAD design for three months. I'm not an engineer. I have a degree in business. However, I do have a very extensive background in mechanics as an Apache Helicopter mechanic in the U.S. Army and helicopter technician for McDonnell Douglas helicopters.

With that being said, this is only the third model that I've ever made using Solidworks. Therefore, it's lacking some design elements that I didn't have time to put in as the challenge is coming to a close on October 1, 2013.

THE DESIGN

This trailer is designed to lower and raise it's floor for the purpose of loading and un-loading the car. The floor is lowered and raised by cables which are attached to steel bars located inside the frame. The bars are rotated by two electric motors which are powered by the tow vehicles on board battery or alternator, similar to a winch on the front of an off road vehicle.

A secondary and cheaper solution for raising and lowering the floor would be to operate the rotation of the bars manually via a crank system.

Quick release pins secure the floor once in the raised position.

The entire trailer is designed to minimize it's footprint while trying to maximize functionality so that it can easily fit in a one car garage with room to spare. The tow bar can be placed in one of two positions; horizontal for towing and vertical for storage. Each position is secured with quick release pins.

NOTABLE FEATURES

- Minimalist design to keep cost and production time down
- Fits easily within a one car garage especially with the tow bar raised
- The middle floor of the trailer is open providing easy access to the underside of the car for maintenance or repairs in the raised position.

UNFINISHED FEATURES

Due to time or my limited CAD experience. I was unable to finish these features.

- Ball bearing on end of each rotating steel rod
- Supports for steel rods
- Fixed support or suspension for wheels
- Secondary turning mechanism for lower cost ie. crank system
- Animation showing functionality; ie steel bar rotating, cable winding around bar, floor raising and quick release pins being installed.
- Tie down locations