Anybody used a motorcycle carrier? Not a trailer...

I'm looking to pick up a used Bandit (aprox 480 lbs with gas etc), and transport it around with a motorcycle carrier that fits into a trailer hitch. The one I'm looking at is from PepBoys and is rated to hold about 500 lbs. I was also going to get a trailer hitch (class III or IV?) installed on my 2000 ML320 to carry it. All in all, the hitch and carrier would run me about $350. Cheaper and far easier than a trailer....

Has anyone had any experience with these or has any words of wisdom?

Thanks a lot!

 

Personally I don't trust those things. But being a good ole farm boy from Iowa if you don't have a truck your neighbor down the road does.
If I had a trailer though I'd use it but normally I just get a friend with a truck and put it in the back. So my suggestion is find someone with a truck. But in DC it might not be so easy otherwise you could see how much it costs to rent a truck for a day? Like go to a dealer and see if he'll let you take it and test drive it for a day for a price obviously.

 

I've seen dirtbikes on those things but never a street bike. Does it stick out far enough? A Benz ML320? Will that thing even take a class IV hitch? You'd be right at or over the tounge limit on a class III.

Get the hitch installed and rent a uhaul trailer. They go for about $45 a day.

Or find a truck, rent a truck or find someone with a hitch and trailer.

 

I rented a van once, was $130 for the day after mileage and everything. I go to school in Philly and live in DC, and want an easy solution to move my bike back and forth. It is a Benz ML320, and they can handle a Class IV. I'm looking for an easy way I can just get up and go with my bike when I need as I obviously travel a lot between DC and Philly.

Any non-trailer or truck options woudl be appreciated! I've read some reviews of people taking 600 lb bikes hundreds of miles on them, but wanted to hear some first-hand experience before I made the investment. Thanks!

 

I think it'll work unless you hit some really massive bumps at speed.
You are just under the rating. You could unload the battery and tank and maybe a few items to increase your safety margin, or install the hitch with all grade 8 hardware.

 

The bike is 480 the thing it sits on is more than 20lbs I'm pretty sure. that'd put you over the class III tounge rating.

 

So I called and I can get a Class IV hitch installed for $350. With a class IV, and a carrier with a 500 lb weight carrying ability, should that work? A lot of them say "NOT FOR MOTORCYCLES", but why not if the motorcycle is under 500 lbs?

Also, should I be concerned about my truck's suspension at all? Thanks a lot!

 

with the kind of gas mileage ur getting u could get a 1/2 ton truck and it would be about the same.

 

It's not like it would fold up right at 501 pounds.
These things are always over-engineered.
The guy driving just has to be careful and it will work overloaded.
If it's not maintained correctly, abused, or rusty it will fail even under-loaded.

 

Maryland is pretty picky about trailer weights. I'd guess this falls into that catagory. My Jeep XJ factory rated and properly equiped to tow 5,000 lbs is not allowed to tow anything over 3,000 lbs in Maryland.

If you get The Class IV then the tounge weight is fine. Check your vehicle specs on load capacity. I'll assume that if it can take a class IV hitch it should be able to take the tounge weight that would go with it.

 

I worked at Uhaul for a while and I got to see an aweful lot of those carriers come in pretty well thrashed with a ninja 250 or similar on the back. I wouldn't risk it, I'd borrow a truck or trailer. Also if you decide to rent a uhaul get it monday through thursday as it is $.20 less a mile

 

Here is what I was thinking of:

http://www.discountramps.com/smc-600-mo ... hauler.htm

 

The suspension on your tow vehicle is a big consideration.

Typically on light trucks those kinds of tongue loads require a weight distributing hitch to keep the rear of the vehicle up, and the front down. Since the carrier doesn't have it's own axle you can't do that.

I tow a 4,800 lb travel trailer that has a tongue weight of about 500lbs with a GMC Yukon. Without the spring bars the front of the vehicle rises several inches and the hitch will nearly drag (on flat ground). I wouldn't want to drive it on the highway like that.

 

ok, I'm not advertising recklessness or anything, I would do it. those ratings are well below the actual limit... I know tree stand's ratings are actually1/3 of what then can carry.... but yep

 

The carrier would hold the bike. The hitch would hold the carrier.

Your tail is going to squat badly as MiCarl notes.

If your Benz is Independant suspension this is worse than with a solid axle. You'll get your halfshafts at an angle they're not used to and cause uneven tire wear on your rear tires as they won't be flat on the ground anymore.

 

So after much deliberation and research I found out that with a Class IV hitch, the max tongue weight is 750 lbs, but I've gotten a little nervous about the suspension. The truck (believe it or not) has spent a little too much time offroad for me to trust her suspension 100%. I've decided instead to get a Class III hitch for about $150 (install myself) and pick one of these up instead, they don't work great for my shaft drive maxim, but should be fine for any chain driven monster I get myself into. Let me know your thoughts!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Motorcyc ... 19b9fab7b0



http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/MOTORCYC ... 20abffcd2a




Can't do much better for a little over $300 total, hitch and carrier!

 

I would still just get a truck.
If you do end up getting the thing off of ebay. go like 10mph or less around turns and hit bumps at about the same speed. The second one looks better cause it actually has guards on either side of the front tire. But if you do go too fast around a corner or too fast over a bump its going to be dragging faster then you can blink.
Also its kinda in a crappy position cause you wont be able to see if its knocked down yet or not cause they sit low.

 

Believe me, I'd love to have a pick-up, but I have no access to that kind of money anytime soon, and I'd also love to have a trailer, but I have no place to store it, so a carrier of some kind is really my only option.

Thanks for all your help guys!

 

Yikes, never having used either of those contraptions, I'd buy the thing that has both wheels off the ground if I was going any distance. Whatever you decide, make sure to come back to this post and describe how it worked out for you, OK? We would all be interested to know.
Thanks!

 

That is what my dad used when he drove flat-bed otr. He'd usually take his bike with him and used the same type of contraption. I just feel sorry for the back tire.

 

You can buy a folding trailer with a load capacity of 950 pounds for $225 from Northern tool.
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/ ... 468_465468

It would keep almost all the weight off your hitch, give you a lot more versatility and far safer IMO.

It won't be an awesome trailer, but you'll use it for all kinds of bulky moving projects. Now you'll be able to haul that sofa to your buddies place!

There are also motorcycle specific trailers that will fold up, but probably a bit more expensive.

Just because a hitch is rated for 750 pounds, and it fits the car doesn't mean the car can handle 750 pounds hanging two feet off the back bumper (the leverage is the bigger problem)
They are rated for that weight on a ball hitch (about 4" behind the pin and no leverage possible)
Now you put that weight rigidly attached a distance back and you are asking for trouble.

 

I saw one of these once! It was on the back of a fullsize van and had a Gold wing on it: I could get a great look, because the bike was hanging over the right lane, upside down (but still strapped to the carrier!), and the truck was off the right side of the road with the nose over a guardrail, also upside down! I don't know if the bike carrier had anything to do with the crash (and even if it did, putting a big bike like a Goldwing on there is pretty dumb IMO, but I still don't trust them. Too much weight, too much leverage. Just get a little trailer, they're cheap and much less problematic. Even a passenger car could safely tow a bike with a little trailer on the back.

 

I have used several of the bike carriers over the years. I have a 96 Tacoma 4cly 4wd with overload springs in the back and beefed up suspension all around. I have carried various dirt bikes for long and short distances on and off road. But..... BUT the weight is an issue. When I purchased my XJ I loaded it in the bed and carted her home. The truck did fine but I could tell the handling suffered. I wouldn't haul my XJ on a bike carrier. Its just to heavy and to far back. The leverage is to great. The only reason I do the dirt bikes this way is cause they are half the weight and it allows me to keep the topper on for camping.
I had a girlfriend haul her XS400 across the country on a carrier behind her astro van. She made it okay, but had some close calls pulling into gas stations and parking lots. We had to unload the bike to just get her out of my drive way. By the time she had made it to WV she had scraped off a significant amount of metal from the bottom of the rack.
I like the folding trailer idea.

 

Thanks for all the advice guys! I don't think a carrier is my option (my truck thanks you) and I think I'm going to get one of the motorcycle trailer/carriers that has the back wheel running on the pavement.


The problem with a trailer is the costs get high real quick. That $225 trailer doesn't include the $100 shipping, or even wheels (another $70 plus shipping), plus I have to pay $51 a year in MD for registration. Thats approaching $500 without me even being on the road.

I really appreciate all the help guys, yall are always awesome at helping each other out!

One last question, any idea if my 1982 XJ750 Maxim would lubricate the shaft drive if it were being towed while off?

 

I would think so. The rear gear would be spinning through the oil same as if you were riding it.

The front end of it I don't know about.

Also, I found my trailer used for $200 and it came with wheels

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you would also be spinning all 10 meshed gears and the middle gear set as you pull the bike down the highway. Since the bike would be tilted, there would be oil back there, would that stay lubed without the oil pump running??

 

Hi,

I bought one of those carriers, that runs the rear wheel on the ground, it looked so problematic, that I decided I would let someone else ruin their bike with it and sold it. Harbor Freight does advertise a folding trailer that should work, for I believe two hundred fifty dollars when they have it on sale, storage shouldnt be much of a problem since it kind of sits upright on its tail when folded and you may be able to design a front wheel holder that wouldnt have to be removed to fold the trailer. Northern tool is usually substantially more expensive compared to harbor freight but there could be quality differences of course. Ive looked at the HF trailer myself, and it seemed kind of lightly built for my eight hundred plus pounds Zook M 109, but your lighter bike should be fine. If you have a harbor freight nearby, Ive had some luck, asking for the sale price even when the item was not on sale. Just go right to the manager and make your pitch.

 

Of your choices I like the first one

I wouldn't mind using that in emergencies. I understand the trailer license fees. You said you expected to use it for transporting a bike around. Long trips? I would have liked to have one when my seca 900 wouldn't start at work a few weeks back. Besides it would be a great option to a AAA rec vehicle charge.

 

Buy a flippin trailer already. The tongue rating on your vehicle is 460 pounds on a good day.
The drag behind hitches are also bad news. You will tear up your gears and put unneeded miles on the rear tire. Most bikes are not made to roll with the engine shut down. I know on the XJs thats real bad for them.
If you spend 600 bucks on a 1500 lb trailer you will save yourself much heartache and discontent. If you don't would you let me tell you I and the rest of us told you so later?
Good luck but I think your heading down the wrong road. Trailers are not the PIA you may think they are. Plus you can carry more crap with you and put minimal stress on the Merc.