captainryder
05-25-2009, 07:30 AM
Pulled my new Alumna MCT Trailer from Kansas City to Lake of the Ozarks Friday night and returned Sunday Nights. Total miles on with trailer in tow was about 360 miles. The L.E.D. lights on the trailer are very bright and make the whole rig much more noticeable.
The tongue weight on my Bushtec Hitch was just under 22 lbs after we loaded our gear in the trailer (about 65 lbs of stuff). To give you an idea of weights and loads:
Myself..... 220 lbs
Wife....... 154 lbs
Trailer ... 160 lbs ( empty )
Gear...... 65 lbs ( we carried)
Front Gear. 17 lbs ( some counter weight in the front luggage section)
So you see we were pretty well loaded. Rear spring is set to position (7).
I tend to keep the rpm's up when I cruise, so anytime the speed fell below 45mph I downshifted to 4th gear. I purposely am trying to save the brakes by using engine in my breaking and will manually downshift from 4th to 3rd while braking, but let the bike auto-downshift to 2nd and 1st in my stops......
In non-highway, hilly back roads, I found that using 3rd sometimes 4th and rpm's of about 4500 rpm in these type of road conditions the engine did not struggle.... I imagine that climbing some of those mountain passes in Wyoming will find this combination good.
We managed 65mpg easily on nice streches of highway, and actually passed someone at 75mph once. I know BRP says no towing, but this machine could easily be designed with a towing package with heftier suspension and perhaps a gear ratio change ( maybe 6 speeds ).
We enjoy our trailer, and feel pretty confident that it will help our roadtrip this summer be a good one.....
The tongue weight on my Bushtec Hitch was just under 22 lbs after we loaded our gear in the trailer (about 65 lbs of stuff). To give you an idea of weights and loads:
Myself..... 220 lbs
Wife....... 154 lbs
Trailer ... 160 lbs ( empty )
Gear...... 65 lbs ( we carried)
Front Gear. 17 lbs ( some counter weight in the front luggage section)
So you see we were pretty well loaded. Rear spring is set to position (7).
I tend to keep the rpm's up when I cruise, so anytime the speed fell below 45mph I downshifted to 4th gear. I purposely am trying to save the brakes by using engine in my breaking and will manually downshift from 4th to 3rd while braking, but let the bike auto-downshift to 2nd and 1st in my stops......
In non-highway, hilly back roads, I found that using 3rd sometimes 4th and rpm's of about 4500 rpm in these type of road conditions the engine did not struggle.... I imagine that climbing some of those mountain passes in Wyoming will find this combination good.
We managed 65mpg easily on nice streches of highway, and actually passed someone at 75mph once. I know BRP says no towing, but this machine could easily be designed with a towing package with heftier suspension and perhaps a gear ratio change ( maybe 6 speeds ).
We enjoy our trailer, and feel pretty confident that it will help our roadtrip this summer be a good one.....