These EVs are very popular and people use them for hauling all sorts of stuff.
BHPian Jeroen recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
You might have come across this post of mine less than a week ago. Long story short, we bought ourselves our very first (second hand) EV. In this case, as would be befitting to me, a proper Dutch electric cargo bike. We call them bakfiets.
Bakfietsen are hugely popular in the Netherlands. You might still see them being used hauling all sorts of stuff. Students moving apartments, some folks delivering stuff. But these days they are used to haul kids. In our case grandchildren!
Have a look to get some idea of how this bakfiets thing works and looks like in the Netherlands.
So I found us a very nice second hand electric bakfiets. Fixed a few small things and we took it for an extended test runs last weekend.
Our daughter Ellen with her daughter (our first grand daughter) Bella going for a ride.
Bella and Panda really liked the new bakfiets.
This coming weekend we have a family dinner with all kids and grandchildren, so it will get some good use no doubt.
But with a bakfiets comes the question of where to keep it. These things are huge, very long, very wide and very heavy. I really don’t want it in my garage as it would be in the way all the time. We do have a garden shed as well, but it will not fit through a normal 90 cm wide door. (it’s almost 110cm wide!)
But next to the shed is a bit of room. We keep two of our bins there (plastic and paper/cardboard bins) and a bunch of stuff from the garden.
All cleaned up
I tried it out and the bakfiets would squeeze in fine. Great spot!!
So I decided to build a car port for the bakfiets between our shed and the garden fence. Now, I am not a woodworker or carpenter. Those of you who follow some of my other threads will know I am pretty decent metal working. Even on my hobby lathe and mini mill, I can work up to 1-2 thousands of millimeters. People working with wood rarely go beyond a few millimetres.
I like these sort of projects because I don’t make a design. For various reasons, I can’t do it anymore. So I have something in my mind and I just wing it. Also, something like this is very functional. As long as it looks good and does the job of protecting the bakfiets from the elements, all is good. You don’t need to measure much. Just eyeball most stuff. If it looks good, that is good enough in most cases.
I also like to use stuff I have lying around, before going to the DIY store and buying new and more. My idea was to make a very simple wooden frame between the shed and the fence and have it covered with a sort of corrugated material.
I started by adding a sort of extension to the fence. I had some of these old beams and I just nailed them in place. Made sure the vertical one is buried deep inside the soiled. Banged it in with a sledgehammer. That sucker ain’t moving anymore!
The length of the shed is just over 4 meters and the bakfiets is about 2.30 m. I had no idea how long the car port (corrugated) roof was going to be. Other than it had to be well over 2,30m to provide adequate protection, what with rain, snow and wind.
So I climbed in my Jeep and drove west for about 20 minutes to Hornbach. The best DIY store in the Netherlands. We have at least three other DIY stores here nearby. They are fine if I am short of something. But for the largest selection of materials, tools and what have you, nothing beats Hornbach.
They also have knowledgeable staff and lots of information stands. Like this one, that explains all kinds of different (corrugated) roofs, what materials to use, how to use them etc.
Look at all these different kinds of materials.
After checking various things for size and prices I decided to go with PVC Corrugated roof plates. They came in a size that would easily fit my little project. They were 2 meters long and 1,10m wide. Which would mean I would only need two of them.
Each type of roof cover comes with one of these very handy information sheets. Which tells you exactly what you need to install everything and how to install it.
Next I walked over to the wood section: Literally wall to wall wood. Any type, shape, finish you would like.
I bought two 3 meter 4×4 beams and some more smaller sized bits.
Next a stop at the bolts and screw section. I bought all stainless steel screws.
Each type of screw, bolt, nut had a code. You take how many screws you need, put them on the scale, punch in the code and it will spit out a price ticket!
I also bought myself an electric saw. Never had one before, always borrowed my son’s one. In the end I was pleased I had gotten my own.
Loaded everything up in the Jeep and drove home.
My idea was to build a very simple type of ladder frame which would be wedged between the shed and the fence. As I had two pieces of PVC corrugated roof material, each 2 meters, I decided to more or less make use of the full length. They need to overlap by at least 10-15 cm. I had an off cut of an identical wooden 4×4 beam left from a previous job. So first thing I did was to extend my 3 meter long beams to 3,80m.
Our garden tables made an excellent work bench!!
I always apply wood glue. I just cut two smaller pieces of wood and glued them on top of the beams. Drilled and screwed in 8 screws. Left everything clamped together over lunch.
Next I wanted to get some idea on how these two 3,8 meter long beams would sit against the fence and the shed. I had already hammered some small blocks of wood that would support the beams whilst fitting.
This is actually where you need to measure a bit. The roof needs to slant forward by 7o according to the instructions. Which means that across a length of 3,80 it needs to about 6 cm lower on the front side. (As you will see, that is where the plumbing for the gutter is). Also, you want the roof reasonably horizontal.
Neither the shed nor the fence is very square along any of its edges. So it is a bit of a fiddle to get the angles correct from a functional point of view (rainwater slant) and it looks nice!
Next I made an improvised depth gauge, which allowed me to determine how far apart the two beams should be. Next I cut the cross beams to length. Very quickly, very easy with my brand new electric saw!!
By the way, this was a gorgeous day to be out and about in our garden fiddling. 23-deg and blue sky!!
I also needed to ensure the spacing between the cross members would work out alright for the overlap and securing of the two PVC corrugated roof plates. Also, on the front side I wanted a gutter. Which also meant the roof plate had to protrude about 4 cm across the cross members.
Continue reading about Jeroen’s DIY experience for BHPian comments, insights and more information.
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