This is the concept we are using for a motorcycle camper...

[PCC]

This is where we are going with a deal we got on this camper.



It even had his name on it.

[jonnycando]

If you can find a little Cox folding camper....they are light enough to be towed by a stout motorcycle.

[jeffcoslacker]

Just be careful getting it home. That's a mighty load for that truck. Hope the trailer has brakes. [emoji2]

[Tbeck]

It's a bad idea no matter how it's justified.
You know or should know that I have towed cargo and camping trailer's with bikes, but I'm big enough to say it was a stupid practice. Anything attached to the back of a bike is going to push the front tire beyond it's abilities and that means it's just a matter of time before you find yourself on the ground.
If you REALLY just can't resist, put a single wheel trailer back there and ONLY carry your tent and cot in it. The truth is you can pack a tent, cot, sleeping bag, and anything else you need to camp on the bike and be much safer.

[jeffcoslacker]

It's a bad idea no matter how it's justified.
You know or should know that I have towed cargo and camping trailer's with bikes, but I'm big enough to say it was a stupid practice. Anything attached to the back of a bike is going to push the front tire beyond it's abilities and that means it's just a matter of time before you find yourself on the ground.
If you REALLY just can't resist, put a single wheel trailer back there and ONLY carry your tent and cot in it. The truth is you can pack a tent, cot, sleeping bag, and anything else you need to camp on the bike and be much safer.

Even with her trike?

[Herb]

It's a bad idea no matter how it's justified.
You know or should know that I have towed cargo and camping trailer's with bikes, but I'm big enough to say it was a stupid practice. Anything attached to the back of a bike is going to push the front tire beyond it's abilities and that means it's just a matter of time before you find yourself on the ground.
If you REALLY just can't resist, put a single wheel trailer back there and ONLY carry your tent and cot in it. The truth is you can pack a tent, cot, sleeping bag, and anything else you need to camp on the bike and be much safer.

What kind of nonsense is that? In 56 years of riding, I have never even heard of a bike crash because the bike was towing a trailer

Thousands of us have towed with bikes, for many years. Unless you are saying that you put your bike down while towing a trailer, I have yet to know/meet someone that has gone down while towing a trailer, let alone because of the trailer.

[RoadKing]

A motorcycle is two wheels. I even think a side hack is a bad idea. However, I see a trailer behind a trike a good idea.

[jeffcoslacker]

I even think a side hack is a bad idea.

Yeah but so fun...long as you can make all right turns anyway.

[old time rider]

Rode lots of trikes and they are so easy.Five minutes and you feel right at home.I still like two a lot better. Love the looks of a old style dutch shoe side car on a old harley or Indian or just a old looking bike. The few I have rode and rode in make them way down the list till I get a lot more time in the seat. Right turns feel bad.In the car if on a back road wear a full face with shield down! Friends that have them tell me its a lot in the set up but some that scared me were the ones they have!Cars still crowd you like a regular two wheeler and small branches you hit a lot if in the side car.I plan to keep getting smaller and thin maybe a trike or just a better street rod.

[old time rider]

Emu went down on his Nomad with a trailer but think he blamed it on a rail road track and him self.I have never pulled one but rode with lots.Two were Wings ,both with a dark side on the rear. [emoji2]

[BlacktopTravelr]

I guess I'm the crazy one because I pull a HF trailer with my little 800. Hell I even pulled it in a rain storm on the interstate highway coming back from Illinois. I put my future and faith in the hands of my guardian angel and hope he/she gets me home safely. So far it has worked. [emoji106] [space]

[Tbeck]

You fella's know that I state my opinions and there isn't anything more to it. You decide to do what you want, that's fine by me.

Herb, you obviously need to read more. Two member's from IA have gone down in the past 5-10 year's towing. One got banged around some, the other was seriously injured. Those are just two we've heard about, how many we haven't?

Towing exceeds the transmissions limits along with braking and tires. Those are the facts and I don't make them. It's not in my OPINION a matter of pulling, it's a matter of stopping and turning (even on a trike).
So if you are inclined to tow, great I am happy for you and I hope it doesn't catch up with you. But I suspect that like most things, it's just a matter of time.

[lonerider]

Towing a trailer is in my opinion a risky proposition unless the gross weight is kept within the capacities of the the towing vehicle, and I don't know of any good way to determine that. One of the scariest moments of my life was when I was towing a small 13 ft. camper with my Jeep Cherokee. I was doing about 45 mph on a 4 lane when a traffic light up ahead turned red. I tried to slow down and stop but the trailer pushed me right through the intersection with the brakes locked up. I must have scared the sh!t out of the other drivers as well as myself but fortunately got through it without a scratch.

[navigator]

Towing a trailer is in my opinion a risky proposition unless the gross weight is kept within the capacities of the the towing vehicle, and I don't know of any good way to determine that. One of the scariest moments of my life was when I was towing a small 13 ft. camper with my Jeep Cherokee. I was doing about 45 mph on a 4 lane when a traffic light up ahead turned red. I tried to slow down and stop but the trailer pushed me right through the intersection with the brakes locked up. I must have scared the sh!t out of the other drivers as well as myself but fortunately got through it without a scratch.

I tend to agree.

[lonerider]

[jeffcoslacker]

Towing a trailer is in my opinion a risky proposition unless the gross weight is kept within the capacities of the the towing vehicle, and I don't know of any good way to determine that. One of the scariest moments of my life was when I was towing a small 13 ft. camper with my Jeep Cherokee. I was doing about 45 mph on a 4 lane when a traffic light up ahead turned red. I tried to slow down and stop but the trailer pushed me right through the intersection with the brakes locked up. I must have scared the sh!t out of the other drivers as well as myself but fortunately got through it without a scratch.

A longer wheelbase helps too. Jeep vehicles are nimble on trails due to the short base but not great proportions for towing. And usually pretty dismal tongue weight cap, which likes to make the front end light and skate like you did. If you really pay attention, you'll see a fair number of Cherokees with big creases up the side where they folded up jacknife when towing and got crunched by their own trailer. So it seems pretty common with them.

Anyway I'd think the key with a bike trailer would be to build it to where it is its own entity back there, weight-wise...but light tongue weight trailers usually come at a cost of longer tongue and that can create a problem where the trailer has more lateral (side to side) leverage on the tow vehicle. You really don't want to give it that authority.

Can't have the tail wag the dog. There's good books out there with awesome info on proper geometry and ratios and the math that should be done to make a trailer and tow vehicle get along best.

[Tbeck]

Jeffco the uni-go is the only mc specific trailer I am aware of that is lite enough and mount's in such a way as to not push a bike under heavy braking or turns.
I know folk's find trailers convenient, been there done that, but as the trailer weight comes forward under braking and decel to turn, it unloads the front suspension. When that happens you lose traction,control, etc on the front tire and that leads to bad thing's.
Again I wouldn't tell someone else what to do regarding trailer use. This is another topic like running DS where folk's are going to do what they want, good or bad.

[BlacktopTravelr]

Again I wouldn't tell someone else what to do regarding trailer use. This is another topic like running DS where folk's are going to do what they want, good or bad.

And I suppose you wouldn't tell someone not to go DS either? You amaze me with your holier than tho attitude sometimes. This attitude of it's going to happen at sometime reminds me of something that should never happen but does and that is an experienced gun owner being killed by a gun shot while cleaning an unloaded gun. Or we could talk about the number of people killed in car wrecked every year, slips in the shower/bathtub or a baby drowning when mommy turns her head for just a second. As bad as it is shit happens and I would imagine everybody that pulls a trailer knows it isn't the safest thing in the world to do.

I use a DS tire and pull a HF trailer and I don't need you to remind me every chance you get that it isn't safe. As far as I have read riders have put over a million miles on DS tires and not a one has came off the rim and caused a wreck. Now I don't remember the two wrecks by IA members you speak of so I can't say whether the wrecks were caused by the trailers or if they just happen to be pulling a trailer when they had a wreck. I do remember the accident JFL Live had with his trailer, but I do believe that happened in a bad rain storm and he caught the trailer wheel on a curb while pulling into a parking lot.

[PCC]

I have pulled my lil Bed Roll and have no qualms about it. Yes I have a trike and I try to be extra careful when pulling it. Still plan to do it from time to time!
I have a number of friends that have pulled light weight trailers with their two wheels for years with no problems.
Jim's trailer is a good find in that it is extremely light weight and was in his price range. He intends to only load no more than he must have in it for the times we want to travel extended States.
I don't believe that he will have any trouble but he will decide for sure when the weather warms a bit & he licenses it.
It would be also nice to have for the trike too if we want to go camping & load with a tent set up.
However that said I am not much on ground tent set up sooo ??? We will see. [emoji14]

[jeffcoslacker]

The only things on the road that were truly designed to pull trailers are duallie pickups and semi tractors. If the vehicle feels really harsh and unsettled and incomplete without a heavy trailer on its back, you've got one made for pulling and handling weight. All else is going to be a compromise, one way or the other. There's better and there's worse, but having any mass tethered and hanging out behind you is gonna change the physics of how your vehicle reacts. You gotta understand what the limitations are, and try hard not to overdrive them. I could see where a trike might handle it well enough in most situations...But without knowing the natural tendency of the trike, it's hard to say what the main thing to watch for is.

With a trike you got three things that can happen when slowing into a turn. It can understeer (plow with the front), oversteer (try to throw the back end out to the side), or it can try to flip, but most of the good ones the geometry makes that very unlikely.

But that all changes based on how much lateral force the trailer develops on the hitch at that moment...I think the trike should have an advantage there because the hitch can be mounted farther forward, since it doesn't have to extend beyond a rear wheel and fender...so lateral force is closer to the rear axle centerline, which lessens it. That's why heavy haulers have their fifth wheel over the drive axle. Besides weight carrying advantage, it helps negate that lateral push.

You'd want the tongue and trailer deck to be in a very neutral, flat plane to the road with trike and trailer loaded...if it angles upwards too much, it's going to shove up and lift the rear and make the rear axle light when you slow, which will induce oversteer (rear end steps out), and if it angles down it's going to compress the rear of the trike as its weight bias moves forward, which will lever the front end into a light condition and make it want to understeer (plow)...so try to keep it as neutral as possible...

Also I would think you'd want that plane as close to intersecting straight through the heaviest part of the bike if possible...which should be right through the middle of the engine/trans. That's about the level you'd want your hitch pivot to be. the Goldie's engine is a flat thing, so that's pretty low on that trike. Even if the trailer won't line up that way I'd think there would be a way to drop/raise the receiver even if an adapter plate or welding a step into the tongue were involved.

Still, I'd read a book. And there's probably some good articles available online about it. The other thing is my theory is that you can do all you want to minimize risk, but when the SHTF is not the time to figure out what you're supposed to do when the SHTF. With any trailer on any vehicle, the FIRST action you take if you feel the rear of the power unit trying to step out, against every instinct you possess, you have to remain calm, countersteer gently, and roll back into the throttle slowly until it gets back in line. Grab the brakes or dump off the throttle, you're done. Jacknife oversteer.

Front end understeer? Ease up on the steer angle and the brakes, if being used, just enough to get traction again. Even if you go wide through the rough, it's better to do that with a rolling steer axle you have some authority with, than screaming in terror with the wheel(s) skidding sideways and plowing in a straight line into whatever's there.

Subtlety and controlled, thoughtful actions are what save your ass in those situations. Reflexes just get you in trouble.