Trailering

[Hepcat]

Hey guys,

I'm looking to haul my bike behind my minivan. Has anyone ever pulled a bike like a trailer. I'm thinking I'll unhook the driveshaft and mount the front wheel somehow on a platform attached to my hitch receiver. The driver's manual says the minivan will handle a tongue weight of 600#. IIRC, the bike weighs in at around 580# on an empty tank. It's been a while since I looked that up though, so I may be off. Either way, that's 600# located about 4" from the bumper, any further than that and the leverage compounds the weight quite a bit. I think I'll be ok with just the front wheel supported. I may have to take it to the scales to figure out the weight more accurately.

I'm thinking I may rig up a way to pivot the platform under the van when not in use, or to make it fold up so that I can take it off and it fits behind the back seat easily. The next question is how to get enough ground clearance and still be able to push the wheel onto it. Any ideas would be appreciated. Maybe I could use a screwjack like they put on the front end of trailers to raise and lower the tongue to lift the platform.

Oh well, preliminary ideas and plenty of time to work them out.

Thanks,
Jon

[ratbyk]

Towing

From the way you are describing the tow the rear wheel of the bike will still be on the ground. Most of the bikes weight will be supported by the rear wheel of the bike, not the toque of the hitch. Not likely more than 225-250 lbs of toque weight.
What is intriguing me is how you propose disconnecting the drive shaft?
Ken/Sooke

[Hepcat]

I figured I'd do so at the middle gear. When I pulled the engine, I disconnected the driveshaft where it bolts on to the middle gear. It's been a while since I looked at it, but I wonder how hard it would be to disconnect the driveshaft at the right angle gearbox at the rear wheel.

[Ken Talbot]

You might be able to disconnect the driven end of the universal, but the driveshaft would then be spinning around inside the frame tube with nothing to hold the loose end. IIRC, you have to remove the rear wheel to pull the driveshaft to be able to remove the universal.

[LoHo]

Hey, this might be an easy way of doing what you want:

http://members.aol.com/handeehitch/handeehitch.htm

[Hepcat]

That's right along the lines of what I was thinking! I'll have to put pencil to paper on this and figure out if I need to adjust hitch mount height.

Thanks,

[Pat Kelly]

A former roommate of mine towed his bike like this. His was a chain-drive so he just removed the chain.
The problem was the bike tended to lean out on turns causing tremendous stress on the steering head area. One thing that is ceryain, you can't back-up with the bike attached. The bike lays over and the tow vehicle will crush it. He had his attached and backed-up straight 5 ' and the bike was jacknifing.
I wouldn't do it .

[rneal55555]

I have towed mine on a trailer like the these from the links below just fine use a 2 x 10 with ramp ends to load it and four tie down straps. It's a bunch of money But you might want to look at http://www.trailerinabag.com/main.html too. And UHAUL rents Motorcycle trailers for $25 a day. I think a trailer is the real way to go.

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...65468&R=465468

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=90154

[Hepcat]

I loved the trailer in a bag link. That would be relatively simple to build. And then it's just a matter of where you put the axle to balance the weight.

And I remember now hearing about the stress on the steering head. I guess I'm not sure about that one. Would the stresses involved be any different than if you were riding the bike the same distance? I know it wouldn't be able to lean in the turns, but would it make that much difference?

Thanks!

[Pat Kelly]

I think it may have something to do with the fork being held upright through the turn and the back of the bike being able to pivot at the steering head. A standard trailer pivots side to side in a vertical axis. The steering tube has the trailer (bike) pivoting side to side at 29 degrees (or some angle like that).
I just remember that when Mike was testing it in the parking lot is just didn't look safe or good for the bike.

[Hepcat]

Revision

Ok, I've given it some thought here. What if I locked the steering on the bike and made the portion the axle bolts through able to pivot with a vertical axis? The only trouble I can think of is that trailers are typically attached with a ball hitch to allow twisting. A bike shouldn't need that though. I think that has more to do with having 2 wheels touching the ground. If it only pivoted on a vertical axis, you could have torque applied via the tongue due to differences in height between the 2 wheels of the trailer. A bike shouldn't have that problem.

I just looked at the handee hitch. I think that's what they've done. as long as you don't bolt the hitch down tight, it should be able to swivel. If you locked the steering, you'd have it done right there!

[Hepcat]

Check out this link. Somebody did the screw jack thing.

http://www.sportutilitytrailers.com/Magneta/RHMC1.htm

[Ken Talbot]

On all of my XSs, the steering locks only when the front wheel is turned fully to the left.

[lsippell]

That screwjactk device looks neat. I wonder if it holds a bike steady enough that you could back a bike into it so the drive shaft wouldn't have to be disconectd? Of course, You wouldn't be able to back up, but big deal, I made a device like trailer in a bag in about 1973 and towed a Kawasaki for thousands of miles in the next year, and never backed up once

Louis

[Bud Manley]

I wonder...
IF your engine in the van stoped running exactley how fast can an XS1100 push a van?

One person on the bike in the rear hitting the gas and another up front driving.