Motorcycle Carrier for Teardrop

[702krawler]

I have a SoCal Teardrops Krawler 459, on which I'd like to be able to carry my Yamaha WR250R. Why? Well, the teardrop makes an excellent base camp in the middle of nowhere, but there are times I'd like to be able to quickly and efficiently take side trips down random unknown trails. Unfortunately, while the WR250R is street-legal, it isn't particularly fun to drive the hundreds of miles I sometimes drive to get to the middle of nowhere. So my ideal solution? Carry the bike on the trailer, and then use it to explore once I set-up camp.

It seems like I have two basic options (if either one is even viable):

1. Relocate the spare tire and gas can carriers and probably the tongue box, in order to mount a carrier for the motorcycle on the trailer tongue. The bike weighs about 300 lbs, and since it'd be sitting pretty close to the end of the tongue, it'd probably manifest itself as at least another 180 pounds of tongue weight. This seems bad, considering the trailer probably already exerts 200 or so pounds of tongue weight on the Xterra (so 380 pounds total).



2. Fabricate a custom receiver mount carrier for the back of the teardrop. The trailer already has a center mounted 2" receiver in the rear. Off-road, I simply wouldn't trust using a standard receiver mount motorcycle carrier due to the torsional forces you see as the trailer rocks from side to side. So, I'd propose welding two additional receiver mounts to the back of the teardrop (one on each side), then altering a standard carrier to add an additional mounting tube on each side, so the motorcycle would be supported by three tubes (and the torsional forces would be MUCH lower given the location of the outer tubes). The downside to this would be added weight to the back of the teardrop (I'd still be well under the 3500 pound axle rating). Based on my rough measurements, the motorcycle's center of mass (COM) would be about 5' behind the trailer's axle, while the distance between the trailer's axle and the Xterra's hitch would be about 11'6". So, if my calculation's are correct, it would lighten the tongue load by about 130 pounds. Which means I'd end up with a tongue weight of only 70 pounds or so. This also seems bad, as the rear end might tend to get very light as the trailer moves up and down off-road (or even on road).



Does anyone have any feedback on which option seems better (safer) and most likely to work while towing off-road? Is what I want to do simply not possible and/or advisable?

 

[TailLights]

In order for the trailer to track well behind the vehicle, tongue weight should be roughly 10-12% of the total trailer weight. If you lighten the tongue too much, the trailer will 'wander' rather than track straight. There are ways to fix this, add more weight up front to offset the bike weight out back, or move the axle further back (this doesn't sound feasible here).

 

[TailLights]

A buddy of mine fabricated a dirt bike rack out of a basket carrier and three receivers, just like you're thinking of doing, and it is very strong, with zero sway. His setup is a large flat trailer with a Polaris Ranger and several quads on it, pulled by a Ram diesel 3500, so a little weight out back didn't really change the dynamics of things much for him.

 

[702krawler]

Thanks, I'm pretty confident that a well engineered three receiver setup would work. I guess perhaps I'll just have to throw some sandbags in the tongue box when carrying the bike.

 

[mmuthart]

Here's a pic of all 3 of your options being implemented at the same time. 300 lbs is a lot of weight hanging off the rear; I vote on the tongue of the trailer for that bike. The easiest option is to purchase a receiver mounted motorcycle carrier that has a 'through' receiver. That's what I'm using below (mine is home made). Kamparoo is behind the receiver mounted motorcycle carrier. I have airbags in the back of the Excursion to dial out any rear end droop. Of course, off road action is limited. But if your just sticking to gravel roads; it's an easy option.

 

[702krawler]

SoCal actually recommended the "through" receiver mount carrier option, but I'm afraid that will absolutely destroy my departure angles. I don't do anything approaching the Rubicon Trail with the teardrop in tow, but there are a lot of dry wash crossings in the desert areas I frequent. I'm going to do some more precise measurements and calculations and make a decision from there.

Is your rear carrier a single receiver, triple, or other mount? Any issues off road with it? What does the KTM on the back weigh, 250 pounds or so?

 

[mmuthart]

SoCal actually recommended the "through" receiver mount carrier option, but I'm afraid that will absolutely destroy my departure angles. I don't do anything approaching the Rubicon Trail with the teardrop in tow, but there are a lot of dry wash crossings in the desert areas I frequent. I'm going to do some more precise measurements and calculations and make a decision from there.

Is your rear carrier a single receiver, triple, or other mount? Any issues off road with it? What does the KTM on the back weigh, 250 pounds or so?

The receiver on the back of the trailer is just a single receiver. The bike at the very back is actually a Honda 80; the lightest of the bunch. And the carrier holding it is all aluminum to help keep the weight down. The key to keeping these receiver mounted motorcycle racks stable is to triangulate them back to the frame with either chains or ratchet straps. I found this pic on the web just to demonstrate; doing this makes the receiver mounted racks rock solid. I use chains with tensioning turn buckles on the back of the Excursion. The rack on the back of the trailer uses straps to triangulate. I've blasted down 60 miles of dirt road with this setup without issue. Check out my Kamparoo build thread to see my motorcycle mount. Both of my motorcycle carriers use the same hold down mechanism that 'clamps' down over the seat; very stable.

 

[702krawler]

Thanks, I'll definitely checkout your build thread. If only I'd known I'd get into motorcycles before I bought the Xterra -- I would have bought a Tacoma or Frontier instead. Switching over now is a pricey proposal, but it'd probably be my best solution (bike in the bed).

Hopefully I'll come up with something useful in the next week or two. If I do, I'll post my results here.

 

[702krawler]

Well, I just used a bathroom scale to check my current tongue weight, and I'm sitting at around 300 pounds with the spare mounted on the tongue but without 80 pounds of gas in the jerry cans (which would probably add at least half their weight to the tongue. So I'm actually feeling a little more comfortable with the rear mount option. 340 or so minus 130 would still put me at 210 pounds of tongue weight.

Time permitting, I'm going to try to find a certified truck scale this weekend to verify my results before fully committing.

 

[ian408]

Have you looked at the VersaHaul? It's capable of carrying a dirt bike using a hitch mounted carrier. It generally does not go below the receiver however, as you've suggested, it will affect your departure angle. If you wanted to improve that angle, you might want to lift the trailer.

You could definitely model a carrier off their design. Not sure about how you would balance it with regard to tongue weight. I suppose you could also fabricate something to lift the carrier up to improve DA. However, that would probably mean that you'd need to remove the carrier before accessing the back of the trailer-as opposed to removing the bike.

 

[702krawler]

Yeah, if I go the carrier route on the back of the teardrop, I've resigned myself to having to remove both the bike and carrier to get into the rear hatch, which is definitely a downside when stopping for lunch and wanting to grab something out of the fridge. Something I hadn't fully considered until just now. This almost points back to mounting the bike on the tongue, but now that I know my tongue weight is over 300 pounds, I'm not sure I want to add another 180 or so. Though I am upgrading the Xterra's rear suspension to OME springs this weekend (if they get here in time).

If I do go down the rear carrier path, I'll either fabricate something entirely myself, or start with a Joe Hauler Elevated Single Hauler to keep the trailer departure angle intact. Either way, I'll do the triple receiver mount. The single receiver mounts, while clever, are huge engineering compromises. Starting from a clean slate, no one would intentionally design a method of carrying a motorcycle by using one center point to hold it.

An earlier suggestion was to put the carrier on the back of the tow rig, then attach the trailer to the carrier, but I'd essentially end up with a 1.5' to 2' receiver sticking out of the back of the Xterra, which would kill my departure angle there. On the back of the trailer, there are plenty of options to raise the carrier up from the level of the receiver, so I'm not too worried about that. I'll take a small hit, but it won't be nearly as bad as if I put the carrier inbetween the truck and trailer.