hbadventure wrote: ↑02 Aug 2018 16:43
What size enclosed trailer does one need to possess to haul 4 DR's strapped securely with gear in an enclosed trailer. Pics?? and Opinions??
A friend cued me in on this thread, as he knew we've hauled a few motorcycles in our day. First thing I would consider is your truck. I have a big ol diesel, it'll pull and stop anything. What do you have? Does it have a brake controller? Will your trailer have trailer brakes? What I pull is a doo-little 7x14 with ramp door. I easily get four bikes in it, plus a gas grill and the all gear for four guys for a week long trip. Forget the straps and buy 3 wheel chocks, like these:
https://www.motosport.com/product/?adpo ... ent=badger You will only need a pair of straps for the 4th bike. I've hauled bikes literally thousands of miles in these, with zero issues.
Stagger them in the front with the middle chock being the closest to the front of the trailer. Staggering this way keeps the bars from hitting each other. Load that bike first, once its clipped into place swings its a$$ end over to the passenger side of the trailer and slot in the bike on the left of it. Once its clipped in, swing the a$$ of the middle bike back to the center and poke the 3rd bike in. Loading like this, my boys and I can literally load our bikes in 2 minutes. 2 freaking minutes. Loaded, doors shut and rolling down the road. 2 minutes. Now there are 3 of us in our family, so those bikes are covered. What if we bring a buddy? Many members here have had their bike in the #4 slot. Maybe they'll post up too, t-roy do you have any pics of 4 in the trailer? . What I use there is a detachable bike chock like this:
https://www.titanramps.com/motorcycle-w ... mount.html If not in use, the only thing on the floor are the little plates. Slide it in the notches, put the bike in the chock and pull a strap from each side of the bar(or lower triple clamp preferred) to the d-rings installed in my trailer and boom- four bikes loaded in.
Now for gear I have 2 helmet holders in the front, each will hold 2 brain buckets. They have coat racks on the bottom for, well, for holding coats?! I built a boot rack/shelf that sits above my gas grill that will hold 3 pair of boots and has room for spare trailer parts.(I bring extra wheel bearings and grease and tools to replace them, on every trip. 4 pair, one for each wheel). I keep a large tote in there by the grill with extra bike parts. All the time, it does not leave the trailer. Plus a dedicated trailer tool box with just about everything necessary to work on a ktm on site.
All of this can be unloaded in a few minutes and the trailer go to regular cargo duty. Once, maybe twice a year it gets used to collect all the clothes donations for our VFW. We then haul them to a mission in topeka. So my trailer does see some domestic use!