You don't need a truck....

[Fabry]

I like your boat man!

[Chaconne]

Dude, let me say this..... I remember when I was 24, and I wanted to look COOL... I would pay whatever it cost to drive what I wanted and to hell with gas prices or the cost of big ass tires or whatever. And hey man, thats fine!

I am older, and wiser now a days. I could afford to have my truck all lifted up and stuff some big wheels and tires under it and load it up with bikes and so on..... I can also afford the gas. It isn't going to kill me to pay that extra 20-40 or more in gas to take my truck.

So why do I take the car? To SAVE MONEY! You probably don't understand that concept yet. I know I didn't when I was your age. But all my shit is paid off.... I owe no one anything except for a mortage payment. I got 2 cars and a truck..... a nice boat, a jet ski, 2 dirt bikes, a street bike, a airplane, a gyroplane, a hangar I own, a business, and much more, all paid for, plus every month I am building my savings and retirement funds.

How do I do that? By being the guy you laugh at, because I will take my car instead of my truck to save that 20-40$. That is 20-40$ I can use towards something else, or put into savings. And I live my whole life that way.

I understand some people just have a small car and thats all they can afford. I don't drive a small car because of that reason, I do it by choice to save money. I try to save on gas costs especially because I use so much of it every week.... I own and operate a lawn service and between my lawn equipment and my truck, then my car and bike and the airplane and boat and all the other toys, I easily blow 1000-1500$ in a month on just gasoline. I am not sure if you will understand....

+1 ??? Absolutely right. Take a lesson.

[AJMAG247]

To haul your dirtbike around. Not sure if I posted this before or not, but here is a trailer I built a few months ago, made this out of a aluminum hitch hauler a friend gave me. Rides smooth, low enough to the ground to not need a ramp, and the entire trailer is well under 100 pounds.

looks like it would bounce around like crazy on the road and over bumps!

[Hans Schmid]

I guess its just me but carrying my 10k+ dollar motorcycle to save a few bucks on gas might seem counter productive. The trailer looks like a great idea, maybe a little sketchy though. It always reminds me of guys who haul their bikes with cheap tie-downs, why?

Do you ride with buddies? Cant you just haul their bikes and all chip in for gas?

[mjskier]

looks like it would bounce around like crazy on the road and over bumps!

If it does then so would this $1320 version

I'm not convinced it would bounce. I seem to remember one of the motorcycle rag doing a review of a small suspension-less utility trailer a while back and they say the suspension was done by the motorcycle.

Kind of makes sense to me. Since it is aluminum, the trailer itself musn't weight that much more than the axle/wheel combo. So it probably bounces as much as an empty Harbor Freight utility trailer.

Anyway, when in doubt, just punch it. That ought to pull you out of trouble

http://motorcycletrailer.com/tib/

[zlathim]

I guess its just me but carrying my 10k+ dollar motorcycle to save a few bucks on gas might seem counter productive. The trailer looks like a great idea, maybe a little sketchy though. It always reminds me of guys who haul their bikes with cheap tie-downs, why?

Do you ride with buddies? Cant you just haul their bikes and all chip in for gas?

I think that he has made it abundantly clear why he chose to go this route.

[jayc250x]

I like the little trailer, but am on the fence about the lack of suspension.

I have a truck now, but while driving a Corolla I used a 12" wheeled Harbor Freight utility trailer. They are actually a very nice rig, and still cost under $300.

JayC

[jayc250x]

I dunno people always freak out about gas $ and they especially freak out when they see my truck lifted up on 37" Toyo M/T's little do they know I get 16 mpg in my 16 year old truck but I never really saw the big deal, and alot of time the people bitching are the ones in the gas saver cars

16MPG in a lifted Chevy with big tires - yea right. Either you're coasting downhill (both ways), or you're not doing the math right. That's 320 miles on a 20 gallon fill.

JayC

[Maple Leaf MX]

fair enough

[250scott]

For all the people worried about a lack of suspension, the fact is in it's intended use it has two suspension systems. The first system, which basically everything on the road has is the tires. The second as has been pointed out is the bikes suspension. Once the bike is attached to the trailer, it is effectively part of the trailer. Assuming it is not strapped so tight as to fully compress the suspension it acts as the trailers suspension. This probably works very well as a result of the low trailer weight compared to the bike. When he hits a bump the ~100lbs of trailer and unsprung bike weight moves up, the energy of this movement is absorbed by the bikes suspension and counteracted by the sprung bike weight (i.e. frame, engine, etc..). This being said, when there is no bike (seldom) I would expect this bounces around a fair bit as the only suspension then is the tires.

And yes I'm an engineer and therefore a bit of geek.

[BlackCR25098]

16MPG in a lifted Chevy with big tires - yea right. Either you're coasting downhill (both ways), or you're not doing the math right. That's 320 miles on a 20 gallon fill.

JayC

LOL it's called gears guy. I put 4.56's in the truck front and rear which on a TBI 350 5.7, 37's make that ratio back close to like stock with 32" tires. These calculations were made with an EXACT measure of distance and 25 gallons of gas AND I was pulling my 5x12 trailer down the highway. This was @ 70mph and 1800-2000 rpms. With the gearing, my engine doesn't work any harder to pull those tires than a stock truck on 32's

Hate on. This is what I mean when I say people freak out when they see my truck. Then I explain. I get very very decent gas mileage out of this truck. I don't complain. Other people do though.

[BlackCR25098]

Dude, let me say this..... I remember when I was 24, and I wanted to look COOL... I would pay whatever it cost to drive what I wanted and to hell with gas prices or the cost of big ass tires or whatever. And hey man, thats fine!

I am older, and wiser now a days. I could afford to have my truck all lifted up and stuff some big wheels and tires under it and load it up with bikes and so on..... I can also afford the gas. It isn't going to kill me to pay that extra 20-40 or more in gas to take my truck.

So why do I take the car? To SAVE MONEY! You probably don't understand that concept yet. I know I didn't when I was your age. But all my shit is paid off.... I owe no one anything except for a mortage payment. I got 2 cars and a truck..... a nice boat, a jet ski, 2 dirt bikes, a street bike, a airplane, a gyroplane, a hangar I own, a business, and much more, all paid for, plus every month I am building my savings and retirement funds.

How do I do that? By being the guy you laugh at, because I will take my car instead of my truck to save that 20-40$. That is 20-40$ I can use towards something else, or put into savings. And I live my whole life that way.

I understand some people just have a small car and thats all they can afford. I don't drive a small car because of that reason, I do it by choice to save money. I try to save on gas costs especially because I use so much of it every week.... I own and operate a lawn service and between my lawn equipment and my truck, then my car and bike and the airplane and boat and all the other toys, I easily blow 1000-1500$ in a month on just gasoline. I am not sure if you will understand....

lol HEY guy, everything you just said is completely and utterly IRRELEVANT. You sit there and babble on about how much more mature you are than me and all this crap you have but in reality you are no different what so ever, except instead of having a big rig truck, you bought 5 or 6 other "toys" and decide to drive your geo prism around for gas $ to tell yourself it's okay? Does noone else see that that's a load of crap?

Guess what I'm a grown ass man and all my stuff is paid for as well. You're not saving any more $ by trading for a better mpg vehicle and then buying a bunch of other crap. We're just different. Learn to accept it and get over what ever bothers you about driving that car, and let me enjoy mine.

[Chickenhauler]

As for Taxs and lights...... I live in south carolina, and believe it or not, the state doesn't require tags on a trailer this small, and no one would even notice the lack of lights since the lights on the cars are easily visable. I have fenders, and lights I could easily install, just don't see a need to. I have been all over both north and south carolina and had plenty of Cops scope me out as I drove by.

You're right about one thing...nobody will notice it.

After dark, with a black bike in black trailer....CRUNCH when someone changes lanes, pulls up behind you, you dynamite the brakes or just merely slow down to make a turn. Toss in some rain after sundown, and that trailer gets hard for other motorists to see in a hurry.

Or someone pulls out at an intersection thinking "I'll go now, that car should be clear by the time I get out there....HOLY SHIT WHERE'D THAT TRAILER COME FROM?"...crunch...

At least put some reflectors on there.

As for scary..... I had a ******* who was slicing and dicing through traffic on I-85, cut into the gap between me and the car ahead of me in the fast lane. We were going over 80 mph... the gap was maybe 5 feet larger than his SUV, and once he pulled in front of me he slammed his brakes and I had no where to go but to run off the road into the median. The car and trailer were fishtailing left and right through the grass and I don't know how but somehow I managed to keep it from getting out of control and got back onto the pavement and back into the lane. Words can't describe how all that went down.... just needless to say, if there was ever a time that the trailer and or trailer hitch would be tested, it was that day. Surprisingly, the trailer came out fine, the hitch fine and I didn't even loose a tie down strap.

Sounds about the norm for that neck of the woods.

All the more reason to do something to increase visibility of that trailer.

[Chickenhauler]

LOL it's called gears guy. I put 4.56's in the truck front and rear which on a TBI 350 5.7, 37's make that ratio back close to like stock with 32" tires. These calculations were made with an EXACT measure of distance and 25 gallons of gas AND I was pulling my 5x12 trailer down the highway. This was @ 70mph and 1800-2000 rpms. With the gearing, my engine doesn't work any harder to pull those tires than a stock truck on 32's

You left two things out of your equation-rotating mass of the larger tires and increased wind resistance due to higher vehicle profile to name two.

Your engine is working harder than one propelling a stock height truck down the road at the same speed, even if the gearing is corrected.

[Jakeblues]

You're right about one thing...nobody will notice it.

After dark, with a black bike in black trailer....CRUNCH when someone changes lanes, pulls up behind you, you dynamite the brakes or just merely slow down to make a turn. Toss in some rain after sundown, and that trailer gets hard for other motorists to see in a hurry.

Or someone pulls out at an intersection thinking "I'll go now, that car should be clear by the time I get out there....HOLY SHIT WHERE'D THAT TRAILER COME FROM?"...crunch...

At least put some reflectors on there.

All the more reason to do something to increase visibility of that trailer.

That's what I was thinking...and from a later post he already has the lights and wiring from the complete trailer he bought.

Other than that I think it is a neat little trailer. And accept his claim that it is not hindered by the lack of suspension.

[BlackCR25098]

You left two things out of your equation-rotating mass of the larger tires and increased wind resistance due to higher vehicle profile to name two.

Your engine is working harder than one propelling a stock height truck down the road at the same speed, even if the gearing is corrected.

You are correct but the numbers do not lie, and when we get into my truck being less aerodynamic and all I feel as if we're just sort of splitting hairs. It's a truck, not designed to go fast either way. All I know is 16 year old truck on 37's = 16mpg on highway pulling open trailer =

[BDP27]

"You dont need a big truck to do big things"

- Nick Wey

[BlackCR25098]

"You dont need a big truck to do big things"

- Nick Wey

True. We big truck guys are quite a misunderstood bunch, especially with the way people are nowadays with their prius and what not. I believe it's the people who SEE guys in big trucks that feel inadequate somehow and get weird, and try to argue you to death over mpg's or anything else under the sun. Like the guy above who says his whole life story to not even prove a point. Get over it.

[Smacaroni]

Need a truck... pfft. Wind resistance... pfft...

This is my brother's hot tub that I'm babysitting at the moment (cause I haven't been motivated to hook it up).

I got some weird looks, but it felt just fine at 70. Note, if it was windy, I wouldn't have.

I've also pulled two bikes and camping gear - most of which was strapped on the trailer because the trunk is only big enough to fit a golf bag.

[BlackCR25098]

That. Is. Awesome. If I drove by you I would hi five you simultaneously, and you would just somehow know to hi five me.