My trailer solution to carry Spyder

[jaherbst]

I like your approach but you might be pushing the envelope here. You have a lot of weight very high with single axle. I am concerned what the trailer, wheels and tires are rated for. With weight that high you are putting a tremendous stress on the sidewalls of the tires and the bearings. If they were made in China which I suspect they were I would change them now.

For just a few dollars more, less than you spent for the lumber, you could have bought a larger trailer that the Spyder would fit in and not have all the worries. Weight rating would be higher for the trailer and the tires would probably be D rated.

For what you spent on the trailer and the materials you could have bought at least a 6-7 foot wide trailer with higher load ratings and the load would be much lower. To me this just does not make since. I think you are setting yourself up for a real disaster.

I have towed trailers of all sorts all over the US and Canada in excess of 200,000 miles both for myself and commercial use and am speaking from a vast amount of personal experience. I do admire your willingness to try to solve the problem but----

Jack

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

I like your approach but you might be pushing the envelope here. You have a lot of weight very high with single axle. I am concerned what the trailer, wheels and tires are rated for. With weight that high you are putting a tremendous stress on the sidewalls of the tires and the bearings. If they were made in China which I suspect they were I would change them now.

For just a few dollars more, less than you spent for the lumber, you could have bought a larger trailer that the Spyder would fit in and not have all the worries. Weight rating would be higher for the trailer and the tires would probably be D rated.

For what you spent on the trailer and the materials you could have bought at least a 6-7 foot wide trailer with higher load ratings and the load would be much lower. To me this just does not make since. I think you are setting yourself up for a real disaster.

I have towed trailers of all sorts all over the US and Canada in excess of 200,000 miles both for myself and commercial use and am speaking from a vast amount of personal experience. I do admire your willingness to try to solve the problem but----

Jack

I hate to say it but you're bordering on scare mongering! :yikes: First off, it is not a Harbor Freight trailer, nor similar sold by Lowes or HD!

I bought it over ten years ago in Louisiana, before Spyders existed. Back then a 5 x 10 trailer made perfect sense for what I needed. And even back then there is no way I could have gotten a 6' wide one for $60 more. It was made by Diamond C Trailers, Mt. Pleasant, TX and sold by Tangi Industrial supply of Hammond, LA. The GVWR is 2900 lbs. The axle is an AL-KO manufactured by Kober Corp. in one of a half dozen US factories they had in 2004, and is rated 3500#. I doubt there are any Chinese bearings in there, more likely Japanese. The tires are radial trailer tires D rated, ST205/75R15, max load 2150#.

There's no way hauling a Spyder is going to over tax the trailer. It tows beautifully. I pulled it fully loaded down 1900 miles, at upwards of 75 mph, from LA to ID in 2006 without a single problem. Even if the trailer weighs 500# when you add 900# for the Spyder I'm still 1500# under GVWR. That's a 100% margin of safety!

Nope, I'm not the least bit worried about hauling the Spyder this way!

 

[jaherbst]

I hate to say it but you're bordering on scare mongering! :yikes: First off, it is not a Harbor Freight trailer, nor similar sold by Lowes or HD!

I bought it over ten years ago in Louisiana, before Spyders existed. Back then a 5 x 10 trailer made perfect sense for what I needed. And even back then there is no way I could have gotten a 6' wide one for $60 more. It was made by Diamond C Trailers, Mt. Pleasant, TX and sold by Tangi Industrial supply of Hammond, LA. The GVWR is 2900 lbs. The axle is an AL-KO manufactured by Kober Corp. in one of a half dozen US factories they had in 2004, and is rated 3500#. I doubt there are any Chinese bearings in there, more likely Japanese. The tires are radial trailer tires D rated, ST205/75R15, max load 2150#.

There's no way hauling a Spyder is going to over tax the trailer. It tows beautifully. I pulled it fully loaded down 1900 miles, at upwards of 75 mph, from LA to ID in 2006 without a single problem. Even if the trailer weighs 500# when you add 900# for the Spyder I'm still 1500# under GVWR. That's a 100% margin of safety!

Nope, I'm not the least bit worried about hauling the Spyder this way!

Good on ya. I hope it all works out. LOL If you bought it over ten years ago the Tire Companies such as Discount Tire will not repair or work on your tires. Suggest you install new ones as recommended. Keep the pedal to the metal and the CG low.

Jack

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Suggest you install new ones as recommended.

Yep, changed them both a couple of years ago! The previous ones were worn badly!

 

[jaherbst]

The only time I ever hauled my Goldwing, after trailering it home from the dealer, was in the back of the pickup when I moved from Louisiana to Idaho in 2006, so I figured when I got my Spyder I would never have need of a trailer to haul it anywhere. Wrong! :sour: I have a 5' x 10' utility trailer, but of course that is not wide enough, by 6"! If I'm going to go on a long trip I'll RYDE! That's why I bought it!

So what should I do to haul my Spyder to the dealer when riding isn't a good first choice? I borrowed an enclosed trailer from my nephew once, but that's not a convenient option since he lives 25 miles away. I couldn't justify buying a new trailer just for the once or twice a year I might need to haul my bike. Plus, this size trailer really works good as an all around utility trailer and my ATV fits in it quite nicely!

This is what I came up with. I took it to the dealer today to have the air bag checked out. I used the winch on the tongue to pull it up and the service manager drove it off. And yes, I took the windshield off, which takes all of about 2 minutes! Worked great! All for less than $60!:yes:I will probably add a 2 x 4 stiffener to the underside of the ramps. They sagged about 2 inches while loading/unloading. More weight on the front wheels than I expected!

Looks complicated. Me, I would have bought a wider trailer. :joke:

Jack

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Looks complicated. Me, I would have bought a wider trailer. :joke:

Jack

Agree, if I was going to haul it once a month! This is only the second time in 10 months I've used it to haul a Spyder, and this one wasn't expected! It works quite fine for hauling my Honda Foreman 500 ATV, which is what the trailer gets used for mostly.

 

[MisterP]

Looks complicated. Me, I would have bought a wider trailer. :joke:

Jack

Sheesh, you made your point. If you don't like the idea, don't use it. There's no reason to badger someone because they did something that doesn't meet your approval. Move on.

 

[spyderjo333]

We recently had a sensor go bad and our RT was still under warranty. We found a tower who would take it the 50 miles from our house to Wilmington, NC. I was
looking into trailers if we needed to do it ourselves. What I found is that U Haul has a motorcycle trailer (which they say is ok for golf carts). Has anyone ever used this? Does it work for an RT? I'd appreciate any info you can give me on this. We are considering taking the Spyder with us for trips longer than 300 miles.
This way we'd have our truck and the Spyder (which by the way hubby attaches his golf clubs to the back seat and bungie cords them down to keep from moving). Thanks.

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

ALTERNATE TRAILER

We recently had a sensor go bad and our RT was still under warranty. We found a tower who would take it the 50 miles from our house to Wilmington, NC. I was
looking into trailers if we needed to do it ourselves. What I found is that U Haul has a motorcycle trailer (which they say is ok for golf carts). Has anyone ever used this? Does it work for an RT? I'd appreciate any info you can give me on this. We are considering taking the Spyder with us for trips longer than 300 miles.
This way we'd have our truck and the Spyder (which by the way hubby attaches his golf clubs to the back seat and bungie cords them down to keep from moving). Thanks.

......:lecturef_smilie:..... I would bet the person you spoke with at U_HAUL was thinking TWO wheel Mtc not a Three wheel Spyder......and Spyders are wider than golf carts. You need to get accurate inside measurements before you rent any trailer and you need to consider the RAMP........just sayin......Mike :thumbup:

 

[AmeriDeck]

Thanks for sharing the pics... makes for entertaining reading.

 

[RinconRyder]

It took me about 2 minutes to remove the windshield! I thought about a cover but from other discussions here a cover while hauling on an open trailer can abraid the paint from the wind whipping.

If you really want to haul the Spyder in an open trailer and cover it up go to any Goodwill store and buy a very large heavy quilt. Tie the quilt over the Spyder and then the cover over the quilt. Viola! No paint damage.

 

[Bob Denman]

Why try and argue with success? :dontknow:
Glad to hear that it works as you planned! :clap: :congrats: :firstplace:

 

[Motorcycledave]

I would keep a close watch on the windshield, being on backwords it will catch
the wind big time...

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

I would keep a close watch on the windshield, being on backwords it will catch
the wind big time...

Which is why I took it off!

 

[3whlLefty]

I like it!

You certainly created a lot of comments here. I had a very similar trailer when I bought my Spyder in 09. I built rails like yours but went all the way to the front so I could load it facing forward. It was tricky loading even facing forward. Luckily the seller had a small hill on his property to make the angles better. Towed it home 550 miles with no problems. I used that same trailer to haul my Goldwing trike so the Spyder seemed like a light load.

Good work and if the windshield removes that easily I'd say you are good to go whenever it needs a lift. :clap:

 

[OlJim]

No problem at 70 mph +. The only issue is the bike bounces up and down quite a bit going over pot holes, curbs, and rough roads, but that's because the BRP tie down method doesn't have any provision for snugging the bike down by pulling down on the frame. When I hauled my Goldwing in the pickup bed it was snugged down by the frame, not tires, and did not bounce at all.

When I built my trailer I put a tie down under the foot pegs that I just snug down enough to keep the bike from bouncing. I use a strap over the front tires and secure the rear tire per the BRP method.