Shake your Booty or not - trailer?

[trikerbiker645]

A question for anyone who pulls a trailer behind their spyder......do you notice a lot of bouncing of the trailer and contents inside since it is hooked to the swing-arm? Or does the tongue help reduce that? Curious if it would be as bad as my cargo box mountd right off the hitch. You could make butter if you had a bottle of milk in it from the severity of the bounce and shake. safe riding!:dontknow:

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

TRAILER AND SWING ARM

NO - the geometry is completely different ..... put your hands flat with your finger tips touching .... now flex the TIPS up & down .... that would be the BALL ..... the heel of your hand would be the rear wheels of the trailer .... they aren't moving much , right ....... the Cargo box would also be at the BALL .... that is is going up - down a lot ........ hope this makes sense ................ Mike :thumbup:

 

[WA5VHU]

Don't really notice it is back there, whether it is the Tag-Along cargo or the camper trailer. Just a little less zoom-zoom and more brake foot. As far as handling it is really like it isn't there. Took the camper out for its first test-drive one night with the wife and I two-up, went down some hilly curvy country roads, drove it like I stole it and it and the Spyder handled great. Over bumps there is that reduced third bump, like a car would have but nothing else I have noticed.

 

[trikermutha]

the trailer will pull smooth..Now if you have bumpy roads, then yes they will get shacked up..
The trailer items will be fine..I had a cooler attached and the items inside will get shacked up.
Don't put anything soft inside the cooler and you will be fine..

 

[trikerbiker645]

Thanks for the replies, that is what I thought but wanted some real life experiences. As much as I like my hitch box, while only weighing less than 30 lbs loaded I think it really is harder on the hitch connections and the swingarm. Time to re-consider come spring. safe riding!

 

[fjray]

The hitch system on the spyder beats the crap out of the trailer tongue and anything forward of the axle. I've had to replace the tongue mounts on my Bushtec because of it. The hitch should be mounted to the frame like any other vehicle so the suspension can control the load. Having the hitch attached to the rear axle also adds unneeded unsprung weight that the shock has to control. If you have the 40 pounds of tongue weight slamming up and down along with the weight of the tire, wheel, and swing arm it puts a lot of stress on the shock and mounts. If it doesn't sell this year I will be building a proper hitch before next season .

 

[trikerbiker645]

Fjaray.......I myself have always been trained and told to never put a hitch on a constant movable object "swingarm frame".....if you figure out a way to do a frame mount with what little frame we have to work with sign me up for one! Thats why I said my hitch box just is not the way to go.....sorry JT, I know your developing one but just my opinion from using my box which mounts the same as your prototype. safe riding!

 

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

I'm tossing around the idea of coming up with a frame supported hitch. Had some idea about how to do it last spring when I had the trunk module off, but summer was approaching and so didn't have time to finish figuring it out before I had to put my Spyder back together to go to Spyderfest. I'm going to try to do it this winter while the cold and snow are here!

The downside to it is going to be installation labor. The trunk module will have to come off to install it. The time to do that will make such a hitch a pretty costly item as a dealer install. For a DIY it'll be doable.

 

[SpyderAnn01]

I had some granola bars in a cargo box mounted on the hitch they turned into cereal in no time. I never have any issues with my RT-622 trailer even if it isn't fully loaded.