Motorcycle carrier On Hitch

Originally Posted by Mr. Adventure

5 years old, and still a really bad idea. The TM isn't built or balanced for substantial weight back there. If this is really important, put a hitch receiver for it on the front of your tow vehicle.

That would likely block the headlights.

As I said in an earlier post, I think it is possible to carry a motorcycle behind the tail gate of my truck and in front of the TM.

Use a Super hitch. This is a double receiver, over and under. You can then attach up to a 4 foot long hitch bar. It is intended for towing boats behind a truck with a camper that sticks out the back.

I think a 2 foot extension would be adequate for my 300 pound motorcycle.

You will likely have to modify a motorcycle carrier to be attached to the hitch bar. At least one motorcycle carrier has a hydraulic jack built in so that you can load low and then jack the motorcycle up to get it out of the way.

Extending the hitch bar will make it more likely to drag while using driveways to get into gas stations.

Because of the amount of weight and the fact that it is so far back behind the truck axle, it might require a one tone dually to carry the load, depending on what else you carry.

My initial estimate is that I could set it up for a little less than $2,000.

Not knowing if it would actually work with my 2500HD long bed truck, I have not been inclined to spend that much money. Especially since the bed of the truck would be carrying a 700 pound ATV.

So I gave up. I bought a second truck. One tows the TM. The other tows the ATV trailer. I frequently have 2 ATVs and 4 motorcycles. It would be rare that I had 1 ATV and 1 motorcycle. That would only be when the trip was just my wife and I. I the kids (are they still kids at 27 and 30?) go with us then we take more toys.

It is not possible for me to put both the ATV and the motorcycle in the bed of the truck. It might fit if I load the ATV first and then push it sideways to free up more space on one side. But I am certain that I can not push a 700 pound ATV sideways.

Now I never thought about using rollers. That might work.

Still makes me wonder what my final squat would be.

[Mr. Adventure]

Originally Posted by PopBeavers

That would likely block the headlights.

As I said in an earlier post, I think it is possible to carry a motorcycle behind the tail gate of my truck and in front of the TM.

Use a Super hitch. This is a double receiver, over and under. You can then attach up to a 4 foot long hitch bar. It is intended for towing boats behind a truck with a camper that sticks out the back.

I think a 2 foot extension would be adequate for my 300 pound motorcycle.

You will likely have to modify a motorcycle carrier to be attached to the hitch bar. At least one motorcycle carrier has a hydraulic jack built in so that you can load low and then jack the motorcycle up to get it out of the way.

Extending the hitch bar will make it more likely to drag while using driveways to get into gas stations.

Because of the amount of weight and the fact that it is so far back behind the truck axle, it might require a one tone dually to carry the load, depending on what else you carry.

My initial estimate is that I could set it up for a little less than $2,000.

Not knowing if it would actually work with my 2500HD long bed truck, I have not been inclined to spend that much money. Especially since the bed of the truck would be carrying a 700 pound ATV.

So I gave up. I bought a second truck. One tows the TM. The other tows the ATV trailer. I frequently have 2 ATVs and 4 motorcycles. It would be rare that I had 1 ATV and 1 motorcycle. That would only be when the trip was just my wife and I. I the kids (are they still kids at 27 and 30?) go with us then we take more toys.

It is not possible for me to put both the ATV and the motorcycle in the bed of the truck. It might fit if I load the ATV first and then push it sideways to free up more space on one side. But I am certain that I can not push a 700 pound ATV sideways.

Now I never thought about using rollers. That might work.

Still makes me wonder what my final squat would be.

I'm aware that they make trailer hitch extensions, but I can't get past thinking about how they'd leverage (literally) all of our towing problems in the worst way. I think we want a 4200# trailer with a 600# tongue to hang on a hitch ball as close to the rear axle as possible, not stuck out further with a load hanging there to boot. (If anybody out there's ever actually tried this, please share your experiences with us, because we always enjoy good adventure stories).

The 2 truck solution has a lot of promise. But to scale this up properly maybe what you really need is a proper 5 ton box truck for a tow vehicle. Or, even better, get one of those flat bed tow trucks, set the TrailManor up there so that the shells will have room to open and close, and then you'd be able to tow a big toy hauling trailer behind ("Watch out for that last step to the ground, Honey, it's a long one!").

Originally Posted by Mr. Adventure

I'm aware that they make trailer hitch extensions, but I can't get past thinking about how they'd leverage (literally) all of our towing problems in the worst way. I think we want a 4200# trailer with a 600# tongue to hang on a hitch ball as close to the rear axle as possible, not stuck out further with a load hanging there to boot. (If anybody out there's ever actually tried this, please share your experiences with us, because we always enjoy good adventure stories).

The 2 truck solution has a lot of promise. But to scale this up properly maybe what you really need is a proper 5 ton box truck for a tow vehicle. Or, even better, get one of those flat bed tow trucks, set the TrailManor up there so that the shells will have room to open and close, and then you'd be able to tow a big toy hauling trailer behind ("Watch out for that last step to the ground, Honey, it's a long one!").

I have reached the same conclusion you did regarding the hitch extensions. I would also like to hear stories of experience. The cost is too high to just spend the money to try it out to see if it works.

For my current needs/wants/desires I can get by with a pair of 3/4 ton crew cab trucks. One has the 8 foot bed but the other one only has a 6.5 foot bed. With 5 adults that is enough. Now if we ever have grand children then I might need to modify this.

A whole new discussion around a spam comment. Interesting. Why beat the horse?

Mr. Adventure. You sound like a smart man... I'm just a smart "a". I've contemplated adding an extension between the swing hitch joint to the trailer for the purpose of adding a ramp for a motorcycle. This actually seems viable, but might be pushing the "bleeding edge". The extension would need to be 3' long. I estimate the extension will weigh less than 100#. The tongue weight now is about 450#, so with the extension and bike it will increase to 950#. The truck and hitch is rated well beyond that and with a WDH 250# will be transferred to the front axle and 250# to the TM axle. Again, below the capacity. Assuming the material used and construction method is first class, tell me why you think that won't work. I see the thread is quite old, but hopefully you get this. Thanks ahead of the time... Clint (Redhorseman)

[mjlaupp]

Torquelift Superhitch: http://www.torklift.com/t.php?w_page=superhitch
& Supertruss: http://www.torklift.com/t.php?w_page=supertruss

[Mr. Adventure]

Originally Posted by Redhorseman

Mr. Adventure. You sound like a smart man... I'm just a smart "a". I've contemplated adding an extension between the swing hitch joint to the trailer for the purpose of adding a ramp for a motorcycle. This actually seems viable, but might be pushing the "bleeding edge". The extension would need to be 3' long. I estimate the extension will weigh less than 100#. The tongue weight now is about 450#, so with the extension and bike it will increase to 950#. The truck and hitch is rated well beyond that and with a WDH 250# will be transferred to the front axle and 250# to the TM axle. Again, below the capacity. Assuming the material used and construction method is first class, tell me why you think that won't work. I see the thread is quite old, but hopefully you get this. Thanks ahead of the time... Clint (Redhorseman)

Think of a teeter-totter with the rear axle of your tow vehicle as the balance point. In rough terms, the problem with doubling the hitch weight and doubling the distance from the rear axle to the hitch ball is that you're multiplying the downward effect of the hitch load by approximately four. In general, anything that multiplies the distance from the rear axle to the hitch ball also multiplies most of your towing problems.

Again in very round numbers and going from memory on some of the long wheelbase pickup weights reported, a 500# tongue took 300# off the front and added 800# on the rear axle without a WDH. 4 times that would be taking 1200# off the front and adding 2400# to the rear axle, to put this in the ballpark without working too hard. A WDH would help, but if you found one big enough, you'd be needing a tag axle on the trailer to carry it's share (longer hitch ball-to-front-axle-distance vs hitch-ball-to-trailer-axle-distance makes a WDH put a higher percentage of weight distributed to the trailer side).

I'd also be concerned about the flexing and slack motion in the joints of the hitch and the up and down travel (I think you'd risk bottoming out a lot, perhaps on the highway at speed when you hit a dip in the road). The extension may not be designed to handle the side to side torque loads of a 450# motorcycle carrier fastened on it. And how would you attach it: you don't dare drill holes in the extension, and if the extension is heat treated you don't want to weld anything to it. Even if you got this all hooked up on the driveway and it looked OK, I can't see how this story can have a happy result when you get it to the truck scale.


Now think about this the other way. If you instead mounted 450# of motorcycle on the front end of the truck, it would balance the truck axle loads and you wouldn't be needing a WDH or any of that other hardware back aft. How to do that? How about a snow plow mount where you unbolt the plow and replace it with a roll on motorcycle platform that uses the hydraulic plow lift mechanism?

[Bill]

Let me suggest not doing this. I'm not at all sure that the swing tongue structure is strong enough to support it.

Bill