Hauling A Motorcycle With A Truck Camper

[motas]

are there any legality problems carrying things on the front bumpers? im from australia and cant find any information on it

 

[Ozarker]

are there any legality problems carrying things on the front bumpers? im from australia and cant find any information on it

Not an issue in the States, the overall length of your vehicle would be measured including everything you hook up or connect. If someone overloads a rack past manufacture's limits (if shown on it) or it appears to be a questionable contraption an officer might nail you for a safety factor, unsafe operation, but otherwise you can hook up anything you like so long as you're within the width and length limitations. Don't obstruct lights or turn indicators or brake lights or driver's view straight ahead, those could be a safety call. It's common on RVs.

 

[Umtaneum]

I have a couple of sets of those old bolt-on bumper tire loops around here somewhere. My dad and my great-uncle both used to haul Honda CT 90's around on them, mounted on the front bumper. I am looking at putting a heavy aftermarket bumper on my 2002 F350 and these would work great on something like that.

 

[Darwin]

just found this. Great idea!

http://georgiaoffroad.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=50919

 

[ripperj]

That design makes me nervous, they allow easy access to the rear of the vehicle, but a 200-300 pound bike that far out from the pivot point puts huge stress on the hinge and the welds. If the bike is supported from the center( like a pin or something to take the load off the hinge) when in the travel position, you probably would not have any issues.

Sent from my Z10 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Jim1960]

I have a 4 wheel camper on my dodge and a bike rack on the back end. As with everyone else pictured in this thread, you can only open your door partially and you need to tie strap both ends of the rig to keep it from wobbling from side to side. Other than that, keep the bike under 350lbs and you will be fine.

 

[Stumper92]

After I buy a smaller bike, I will look into the best way to transport it on a rack. Until then, I'll just trailer my KLR around.

 

[Curtis in Texas]

What would be nice is a rear rack that could swing out from one side! Seems you could lock a channel into place, release it and swing it to one side, pull out a ramp and unload or load.:bike_rider:

what about having a rack that holds a bike that swings away like a spare tire holder? or extends out? most dirt / dual sport bikes aren't that heavy.. I think I just had a brainstorm of how I am going to build the back rack on the ecooline

http://sprinterstore.com/tow_hitches.htm

Guys, back in 1972 I worked for a Company in Fort Worth TX that made a motorcycle carrier that swung out off the left side. The cool part is the pivot pin was put in at an angle and it meant that as you pulled the right side of the rail away from the right side mount it swung out and lowered the tip of the rail until it touched the ground. If you are interested in seeing it Google the US Patent Websight for Red Ant Motorcycle Carrier. They went out of business in the late 70's, but the idea was a good one.

So good infact I'm about half finished with building a version of it for the back of my 37' Class A Motorhome. My design will allow me to carry one of my Adventure Bikes back there. The biggest one if 600lbs. The rail will be at a maimum of 20 degrees down angle for loading and as it swings back it raises the bike and rail on a swivel plate back to the right side mounting plate.

I mounted a remote control 12 volt 3000 lb winch on the front of the wheel stop of the rail to pull the bigger bike up the rail and hold it while I secure the bike to the rail with tie down straps. Then I will use the cable to pull the bike rail back horizontal to the back of the MH for transport via a pulley attached to the rear part of the rail near the back tire. The 1" grade 8 pivot pin is on the left mount and the base is on the right side where it will be secured near the back wheel area on the rail.

I can also lower the bike & rail tip with the winch so nothing gets out of control.

My design will have additional tail lights mounted to the rail, in case the bike blocks the Coaches tail lights. And the 3 reciever hitch platform will have the ability to pull my toad too!

Does that all make sense?
Anyone want to see pictures of what I've got built so far?
I'm building the right side mounting plate then it will be pretty much finished!

Anyway it's a slick system and I was surprised it didn't catch on!
Small lighter bikes wouldn't even need a winch!


Thinking of eventually building an Isuzu NPS with a slid on flat bed, side door, camper and will make a simular bike carrier for it if I go ahead with the project. (Somthing like this would make getting spare tires down a snap!}

 

[guthriealexander]

Id love to see some pictures Curtis, im in the process of building my own swing out carrier at the moment.

 

[Curtis in Texas]

Id love to see some pictures Curtis, im in the process of building my own swing out carrier at the moment.

Ok Guthrie, I'll take some tomorrow and post them up.

Here's a teaser. I added two reciever tubes to my trailer hitch at the frame rails of the back of the Coach to give me three 2 inch reciever tubes. Made three longer extensions for the bike rail to mount and pivot off of the two outer reciever tubes. I'm adding a plate over the three tubes, which are all parallel, equally spaced and length to each other, to give me a platform should I want to stand there. And for structural rigidity between the three reciever tubes.

For the heck of it I did the a Google Search and found it. So here's the link,
http://www.google.com/patents/US3760965

This will give you a better idea of the picture I was trying to explain.

 

[Darwin]

Yes photos, photos, photos! I am still a little ways off but looking for ideas.

 

[Curtis in Texas]

OK here's how it looks under construction.

I added parts with clamps and magnets to help you vizualize better the tie down posts that will hold the bike on when finished. The post up front will be so I can reach the tie down straps by reaching over the fuel tank.

The winch is attached to the front side of the wheel stop of the rail. This will have a wireless remote control to run the cale in and out. The remote, like a key fob, I will be able to work with my left hand while holding onto the handlebars when loading. Since the winch will be doing all the lifting I won't have to worry about braking, but I can work the hand brake if I need to.

Here you can see the rail in the down position with the tip on the ground.
It lowers as it swing out!

This is how the winch will raise the rail back to the horizontal travel postion. The clamps are for clarity. There will be a chain link ring attached to the side of the rail near the back wheel. The cable will run through a snatch block pulley and when ready to raise, I will attach the end of the cable hook to the base on the right side to pull the rail up into position. There will be another rear tie down post on the left side of the right side rail clamp on the right platform to hold the rail down and in position. The snatch block pulley will float when pulling the bike up the rail. The winch will hold the bike against the wheel stop until I strap the bike down to the rail. Then I'll let out the cable and use it to pull the rail with the bike strapped to it up to the travel position.

Just in case some of you guys with tall hard sided campers are thinking about how you could use this idea on your tall truck. You can add a temporary rail to the rail tip to lengenthen it if your truck frame is higher off the ground. Just add narrow fold down or removable platform to the bike rail so you can walk up with the bike. Heck, just put the platform on the inside and you won't even have to remove it! Simple!

And if my carrier ends up hitting the ground too much I'll raise it and add an extension.

Let me know if any of this doesn't make sense. I've had years to think about this, so I'm sure I've forgotten something. This is actually my second one. I built one about 30 years ago to go on the back of my Pop Up Trailer to carry a CT 110. Always worked great!

WOW! I'm sorry, I thought I could explain this real easy and it got complicated the harder I tried to explain it.

 

[bigdon 55]

Ok Guthrie, I'll take some tomorrow and post them up.

Here's a teaser. I added two reciever tubes to my trailer hitch at the frame rails of the back of the Coach to give me three 2 inch reciever tubes. Made three longer extensions for the bike rail to mount and pivot off of the two outer reciever tubes. I'm adding a plate over the three tubes, which are all parallel, equally spaced and length to each other, to give me a platform should I want to stand there. And for structural rigidity between the three reciever tubes.

For the heck of it I did the a Google Search and found it. So here's the link,
http://www.google.com/patents/US3760965

This will give you a better idea of the picture I was trying to explain.

Hey Curtis , fancy meeting you here!

 

[mbettis]

Here's my current rack system. I use a ratchet strap to compress the forks, bolt the bike straight to the rack, and eliminate all wobble with two more straps from the bike's frame to my tow hooks. Been over 10,000 miles like that with no problems.

Later,
Matt

 

[pappawheely]

Nice design Curtis. I may have to use something similar. Thanks for sharing the details.