Some advice from Laser 16 owner Neil Lawrence. I'd love to have a similar jockey wheel for my Laser 13 which is perfectly balanced on the road trailer but on the launching trolley is very nose heavy; unfortunately my trolley does not have the crucial socket already welded on at the front.
Photos: Neil Lawrence
Neil writes:
- We needed a jockey wheel that would run over gravel, so went for two wheels of a larger diameter. The wheels are solid plastic and came from an engineering supplier; they cost € 7 each.
The main structure is made from old metal water pipe with a 25mm external diameter. This is a sliding fit into the socket on the front of the trolley. I think you can still buy this, but we found ours scrap. It used to be used a lot on farms and for electrical installations. We used one 30cm length of pipe which was already threaded into a 'T' piece.
The wheels were fixed to the 'T' by a piece of threaded rod (same engineering supplier) with washers and two nuts locked together at either end.
Originally we had a jubilee clip around the pipe to stop it slipping through the bracket, which worked well, but later had a washer welded in place at the same time as we were having some other work done.
The wheels can either steer or be locked straight by having a pin passed through the bracket and the pipe. The result is not pretty, but it works well. I managed to make it with the minimum of engineering skills and only a drill, spanners, screwdriver and hacksaw as tools. The whole lot cost about €20.
And here it is in place:
Does anyone else have any homebuilt projects of this sort that they would like to share?