trailer towing

[SFSPECBIKER79]

trailer hitch

i am not worried to much about the tongue weight it is easy adjust. the trailer itself is also very light the axle probably weighs more than the frame , which i made from a atv 4 wheeler crate sitting on a cut down john boat trailer. looks nice with sears hauler built onto it. i been wondering about what would be the best way to attach it to my bike, with a swivel hitch or a ball hitch. i can see a swivel type working good., but if the difference would be worth the 175.00 bucks. what have you used and your experience with. also wondering about the strain on the engine and clutch, brakes if they are any concerns, i should know about. like starting off and stopping on steep grades that kind of thing.

[Jerry]

I have been using a swivel hitch for 9 years. Many people prefer the ball because of cost and simplicity; the swivel does have more wear points. However, I built my swivel, cost was only around $10.00. Not the prettiest item, but does a good job!

Brakes....I had upgraded to SS lines front and rear, have had no problems. I am running EBC brand organic pads. With a trailer I recommend getting used to applying the rear brake first if you don't already do so.

Strain on clutch...there is some. However, I did not do anything special to my clutch and have had no ill effects over the years. My rig weighs about 120 pounds empty, maybe 180 full, not much more than carrying a passenger. I would recommend checking / replacing the stock springs with Barnett units if you have a concern about it.

What I did notice was wear on the drive shaft. Be sure you remove the final drive and lubricate the drive shaft splines. I now do this every tire change. Since the wheel is off anyway it makes the lube job easier. The built-in grease zerk is useless for any real lubrication. Use a grease designed for drive shafts; the Honda stuff for Gold Wings works quite well.

Starting and stopping on grades...you get used to holding the brakes on while you let out the clutch, keep one foot on the ground until you start rolling. Not a big deal.

If you have any experience carrying a passenger you will find that pulling a trailer is similar, but the load is less top-heavy. That makes towing a trailer easier than having a passenger, IMHO.

You will need to adjust your lines through curves to compensate for the trailer's greater width and you will ride more in the center of traffic lanes. There is some added electrical draw due to the trailer lights; go to a heavy-duty 2-prong flasher to handle the load. You will loose the auto-cancel feature of the OEM flasher, but at a replacment cost of $70.00 or so I don't want to stress the OEM unit more than I have to. I swap the OEM unit back in when I am not pulling the trailer.

Since my trailer is purpose-built I went to a 5-wire setup instead of the more common 4-wire, which requires an adapter. 5 wires are ground, right turn, left turn, running lights, brake lights. I made up Y connectors and plugged in the trailer wiring to the bike's wiring at connections under the seat near the rear fender.

If you stay with the 4-wire set-up, which is more common and gives you the option of pulling the trailer with another vehicle, you will need to get the adapter. There are two types out there, one for cars with computers, which runs a separate power line to the adapter, and an unpowered unit that takes power off the bike-side wiring. For an XJ I would spring for the powered unit, for the XS the unpowered unit works fine. If you go with the powered type you can run the lead over to the aux fuse near the main fuse block on the engine's right side. The idea of the powered unit is to isolate any potential trailer wiring problems from the car / bike on-board computer systems.

Not much else...on the trailer I carry a sissors jack and wrench (plus a spare tire mounted on the trailer tongue) and have had to change tires a couple times over the years. I carry the trailer registraton papers along with the bike registration papers on trips. I also carry a wiring diagram for the trailer which includes the wire color / function for each wire. The diagram also indicates which pin is what function for the bike-trailer connector. (If you use the standard 4-wire this is probably not necessary.)

Your mileage will slip anywhere from 2 - 4 mpg while towing.

Check with your state about licensing requirements. I built my trailer in Wisconsin, which did not require registration on trailers under 4K pounds. (Many farm trailers fall onto this category.) In Arizona and Colorado the trailer needed to be registerd, so I had to add a license plate braket and light plus fill out a home made trailer application. In Colorado getting plates will cost you about $40.00, depending on what you claim the trailer is worth. In AZ this process cost considerably more, but the plate was a "permanent" plate with no annual fee after the initial expense. I think I paid around $100.00.

I like having the extra capacity of the trailer on long trips, and the handling / performance hit, not great to begin with, is more than offset by the benefits. YMMV

[Crazcnuk]

I just used a 1 7/8" ball hitch, I could never lean far enough to make it bind.

On the shadow, I didn't modify anything, other than adding the adaptor to a 4 wire trailer wiring system. I pull my little trailer with the car from time to time (like all the way to Fred's in Saskatoon!).

I used a Canadian Tire premade frame kit thats 48" long and 40" wide with 8" tires. I had a galvanized steel box made at a local sheet metal shop. It's 24" high with a shoe-box lid.

The paint is getting pretty rough now, after 20 years.

The only thing that takes getting used to is every time a wheel, on the trailer, hits a pot hole or anything, you get a corresponding 'twitch' with the front wheel. Nothing dangerous, just odd feeling.

I've never had a flat tire, but I always meant to add a spare on the hitch, just never did. I carry a can of Tireflate and a bearing kit. Since I had these I never needed either one.

I made mine convertible. The box is held on with 4 7/16" wing nuts, so I can convert it to a flat trailer anytime. Handy for hauling other things.

When I took it to Sask last time, both fenders decided they had had enough and fell off....

I also had to flip the licence plate holder/taillight assemblies upside down because the licence plate would drag when yu tried to move the trailer off the hitch.

[skids]

I made a swivel hitch for mine but if I was to do it all over, I would make a ball hitch for the bike and a rotating receiver for the tongue. I have seen them on Honda Goldwings and they are slick.

[b.walker5]

Trailer Plans

This looks like a pretty good trailer....

http://www.intergate.com/~brianb/bik...rgoTrailer.htm

Might build one myself, if I can find a suitable top box over here..

[Crazcnuk]

The only problem with those car top carriers is the lid is taller than the body (to facilitate getting stuff out while on top the car, I assume).

If you put very much in it, it is always falling out when you open the lid.

Other than that it would work fine.

I don't have a digital picture of mine, unfortunately, and the box is off it at the moment.

[Jerry]

Actually, I have never had anything fall out of my trailer when I raised the lid. As a benefit, the top has a spring mechanism that holds the top up when open to make it easier to load and unload.

Since I was concerned about weight I passed on the pre-made trailer frames and put a frame together out of tubular steel. Almost to thin, though, is harder to weld on without burning holes in it.

To save weight I removed the deck I originall had under the carrier; I have 3 other trailers and Jeep Grand Cherokee to haul anything else I need.

Ball vs swivel...no strong feeling either way. Ball is more universal, available anywhere, and simpler in operation. However, when I was building my trailer, putting together my own swivel was cheaper than buying a ball hitch and coupler. Also, I like the in-line look. And...my trailer is only used on my motorcycles, so I do not have to worrry about towing it with another vehicle. There are some hybred couplers now that look quite attractive.

The only other point I would make...when I built my trailer, I used the softest springs I could find, rated at 300 pounds per side. Most of the pre-built units have heavier springs, resulting in more 'bounce' when the trailer hits a pothole or other irregularity. When the trailer bounces it tends to move from side-to-side, giving the bike a small shake. The lighter spring lessen the bounce, thus lessening the effect on the bike. If you have a pre-built frame you may want to consider going to softer springs if this effect bothers you.

Finally, a note about safety chains. You need them; they are required if you need to register your trailer, and are a good idea anyway. The chain from the right side of the trailer should connect to the left side of the hitch and vice-versa. The chains will form a 'pocket' for the tongue to fall into if the hitch fails, rather than allowing the tongue to hit the road. For this reason, the chain length is important. To long and the tongue hits the road or your back wheel. To short and you can't turn a sharp corner. I set mine up by putting the trailer tongue 90 degrees to the bike's hitch then setting the chain length to be able to reach from the tongue to the appropriate left or right side of the hitch. This way the chain length will allow full left-right travel without allowing the tongue to hit the ground. DAMHIKT.

[Crazcnuk]

Yes, I pull mine with the car, too, hence the ball hitch.

I have safety chains. The trick with them is to have the connect point, on your hitch, as close to the ball as you can, then, being the same length to the end of the tongue, bind is not really an issue.

I also removed the extra leaf in my springs. The trailer kit was sprung for 1000lbs, which is too much.

The other issue I had was going through bulbs in the tail lights. I would go through piles of them because of the bounce. After taking the leaf out, it was much better. I canonly think going to LED bulbs would make this moot.

Both my tailight mount brackets (supplied with the kit) broke in the first few trips too, so I made stronger one, and as I mentioned, mounted the lights upside down to put the licence plate above the light, so I wasn't dragging it everwhere

[Jerry]

The longer this thread goes on, the more it jogs memories...

For those contemplating building a hitch, another comment on safety chain attachment. I used eye-bolts for my attachment points on the hitch. They will take the S-hooks commonly found on most trailer chains. However, the standard 1/4 or 3/8 inch eye-bolts, steel or stainless steel, are only rated for a max of 165 pounds or less. This is not enough. If you go with eye-bolts, find the cast ones. They are more expensive, but will have the capacity you need. Larger hardware and auto parts stores will have them.

I agree...putting the safety chain attachments closest to the ball or swivel hitch works best. Mine are about 1.5 inches on either side of the tongue when the trailer is aligned with the bike.

Another feature of keeping the chains as short as practical is that if the hitch should fail and you get on the brakes, the hitch will want to move forward, possible hitting your rear wheel. The chains should be short enough to keep that from happening, or you will need to move the hitch a little farther back from the tire.

Because my trailer sits outside, I packed all the light sockets with dielectric grease, available at auto parts stores. This really cuts down fooling with the lights to get them working again after long periods of no use. I pack the bike to trailer connectors with the same stuff, although the bike is garaged when I am not using it. If your trips include riding through rain, it isn't a bad idea to pack the bike's light sockets with the same stuff.

A trick that I have tried, and it seems to work, is to spray your ground connections with Battery Protector. This stuff is sold at auto parts stores to keep corrosion from building up on battery terminals. Seems to work on ground connections as well.

Photo of trailer, XJ, and me approaching Yosemity National Park for last year's Yosemite rally:

[b.walker5]

The longer this thread goes on, the more it jogs memories...

What brand is the box?? It looks like a good size and style for my needs but we seem to only have "Thule" here which are a little too low in profile for my liking

[Jerry]

What brand is the box??

Sears X-Cargo. Think it is around 16 cubic feet capacity. I bought it on sale for around $80.00, regularly about $100.00. That was several years ago, though, don't know what today's prices look like.

I had passed on the Thule for the same reason; too flat for my purposes. In the photo I posted you can see the round tubular frame under the rear lights, which are from a Ford Taurus station wagon. I put yellow bulbs in the clear section that used to be the backup lights and these became my turn signals. Other sections are brake and running lights.

[wa407mpp]

Even though I have never owned or towed a trailer with a bike, I do have two suggestions given to me by people who have experience with them. The first is air shocks, to make suspension adjustments easier. The other is to use a swivel tongue on the trailer, the guy who made this suggestion said it makes it tow smoother and less likely to flip the bike if you hit something on the road with only one trailer wheel, like someone else's spare tire lying in the road. He missed it with the bike but hit it with the right trailer wheel bouncing the trailer almost to 90 degrees according to the rider behind him.