Motorcycle Trailer WEIGHT LIMIT, BRAKES, SUSPENSION, TONGUE WEIGHT etc...
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ส.ค. 2022
- A detailed look at the most important issues when towing a trailer behind a motorcycle. How much weight you can safely tow, Suspension, Brakes, Tongue weight, Swivel couplings etc...
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Good video.
Thank you so much for this. It's recently become my dream to tow my life from Florida to Arizona (east to west coast in USA) using a motorcycle & a fold-out camper trailer.
However, having no previous experience on motorcycles, it's been hard to start understanding what bikes might be good for a beginner, & much more difficult to understand how I should progress towards becoming the kind of rider who can accomplish such a feat on a motorcycle.
Anyhow, thanks for the incredible insights on this niche topic!
I would strongly recommend becoming a competent motorcycle rider well before attempting to tow a camper trailer.
Very informative. I tow a cargo trailer with camping gear behind a Harley Davidson Electra Glide Classic. Once I towed from Northern Minnesota to Southwestern Texas, over 1600 miles. And always towing with a passenger. I have a ball hitch and once let the bike fall over at a gas station with no problem with the trailer. A Harley touring bike doesn't lean over very far. I have considered increasing the capacity of the trailer, different suspension, and brakes.
Thats a big trip buddy, and yer they dont lean that much. Cheers
I'll be taking possession of my new SLT Excel II soon, and this is good information to have. Thanks, and you have a new subscriber.
I am glad you got something from watching the video buddy!
Excellent vid. Just about to dip my toe in to a camper trailer and this vid is perfectly timed. Thank you. Will check out the channel
Thanks mate, you should learn something from the series
Very informative .thanks for sharing👍😉
Great information for people with, or getting a trailer thanks.
and thank you for taking the time to leave some great feedback!
Excellent information.
Thanks for watching buddy
Definitely thumbs up 👍.
I'm towing an Ali-Lite mid tourer behind my off-road sportster. With a lot 😁 of dirt, mud, creek crossings, uphill, and down. Had to smile when you mentioned bump steering. So true, but I like to think I am disciplined with maintenance, all tire pressures, and weights.
Definitely not a fan of just because you can you should "overweight".
Thanks buddy, appreciate your comment. sorry for the late reply buddy.
Great info mate, cheers
thank you so much
You are most welcome 🙂
Great video
Thank you!
I dig the video.
You answered a lot of questions I had. Especially as it pertains to suspension.
I do have something maybe you can answer. I wanted to add luggage rack to the rear of my small 40” x 48” utility trailer. I wanted to do this by installing a 2 in hitch adapter to the rear of my trailer and then inserting the luggage rack to the hitch.
The luggage rack would extend out approximately 30 inches and weight would be 20lbs and the hitch weighs 5 lbs. I would be using the luggage rack to carry bulky light items like blankets and pillows which take up lots of room inside my cargo carrier.
Any information, insight or guidance would be much appreciated.
Again thank you for the video. I’m new to the pull behind motorcycle trailer thing and really loving it.
Hi, I can't give you much helpful advice on what you mention doing apart from if it's only 20lbs in weight it would probably be ok and the weight is low which is also good. It basically depends how much weight it takes off your tongue weight. Being so far back it will have some effect for sure. It's much better to keep everything as close to the trailer axle as possible. But would I add such a thing to my trailer, probably not. If its only 20 lbs just put it on top.
@@motorcyclecafe
I appreciate your response and yes I couldn’t agree with you more in the fact that I should just add the extra 20lbs to the top.
Unfortunately either I’m carrying or should I say “bringing” to much stuff, or my wife needs to bring less. 😜
You shoulda seen us out on the road this summer. After about 2 weeks of a 30 day, 11 state, 8,000 mile motorcycle trip with the trailer I had things spread out all over the top of my cargo carrier. So much so that the weight of it all actually started to buckle the top in. Luckily it was playable enough so it didn’t break.
I could’ve sworn I packed everything the same inside the carrier just as I had done many times before the trip as practice. It seemed every time I turned around my wife would say to me “oh don’t forget this” or “do you have room for this”?
It’s like the magician with the rabbit only we are talking boots, jackets, sweaters and on and on! Anyways I know I’m not alone and as you can see I needed to get it off my chest.
Currently I’m thinking of building cargo support for my fenders. Either over the top or underneath as a skeleton structure if you will.
Again I dig your videos. Thanks again for your suggestions.
Greatly informative video Mate! I have a trike conversion and live in the USA. I recently bought a TimeOut folding camper to tow behind my trike. I know the weight calculations would be a little different, but that is not my question.
I tow a fairly heavy RV, so I'm extremely familiar with electric braking and the frequent adjustments required.
My real question is about brake controllers for motorcycles. I did not see a model number or any identifying characteristics on the Curt unit you pictured. Any recommendations?"
No mate sorry, I'm sure their web site has the info you need.
Possibly the only motorcycle (trike) CanAm Spyder is rated for a trailer at 181kg. Only downside that I see is the the towbar (hitch) is through the rear axle. Bounces the trailer all over the place and places heaps of load on the drawbar.
Spyders are cool machines but truthfully i cannot believe they sell axle mounted towbars as an accessory.
@@motorcyclecafe They certainly do. Factory accessory.
Hi, thanks for the interesting video, I have a couple of questions.
In the case of a single wheel tilting trailer, as you showed at 1:50, what are your thoughts on tongue weight, as 10% would be very hard to achieve with the wheel right at the back?
Secondly, hitches are always mounted at the back of the bike for obvious reasons, but would it be beneficial and allow a higher tongue weight, if the hitch, and therefore the weight, could be placed near the centre of the bike?
Hi, single wheel trailers do not carry anywhere near the load of a two wheeled trailer which is probably why the wheel is at the back so there is at least some weight on the hitch. Your second question does not make any sense to me as you cannot place the hitch in the centre of a bike.
@@motorcyclecafe You're not thinking laterally enough, think about the '5th wheel' type of hitch, while it obviously has practicality issues, it's not impossible.
I also have in mind a drawbar with two pivot points, one vertical and one horizontal, which could place the load anywhere on the bike.
@@FDE94T build it.
@@motorcyclecafe one day... 🙄
i would like to construct a small aluminum luggage trailer for my r1150gs. the standard bike weighs 230kg unladen, which means total trailer weight of 115kg. is this correct?
laden with bags and panniers plus two up, would be approx. 480kg thereby allowing a total trailer weight of 240kg?
Safely you should only tow 1/2 of the motorcycles dry weight so yes 115 kgs but this is no matter what weight you have on your bike. You can stretch it to 2/3rds, in your case a fully loaded trailer of about 150kgs max. I would not recommend going over this but its only a guide. Riding a motorcycle can be a somewhat dangerous activity and towing a trailer does add to the risk somewhat.
He left out good. Flat highways lucky don't know or good. Just like there are thousands of ranchers pulling around horses and cattle with non functioning or malfunctioning trailer brakes and they've been doing it all. Their lives, but they're very careful because They've learned when to hit the brakes to stop by a certain point.. Towi😮ng that heavy trailer is unsafe but I might carefully do it. I sure wouldn't plan to do that daily but possibly a one time or once in a while thing very carefully. Definitely not safe to Just ride normally.😮
Happen to have any info for a hitch that will fit a 82 GS 1100 g shaft drive?
No buddy. You will have to get one made but I would imagine that particular bike would have some good mounting points. Buy some 16mm (min) to 20mm solid round bar steel and a bit of flat bar steel for the brackets. You'll also need a pipe bender and a really good welder. Made properly & then painted or powder coated it will look factory made. The one on the Red Ducati Multistrada in my first Trailer video (The Prologue) was one I made it served me well for many years. If I was towing a heavier trailer I would have welded a brace between the bottom bar & the down strut.
@@motorcyclecafe thanks for the information.