Trailer Setup Question

PitRacer

PitRacer

PR Founding Father
I have a Hi - Point PT10 trailer which can hold 3 bikes. There have been many occasions when taking 4 would be nice, so I have an idea but not sure if I'm crazy or not.

I also have a moto-rack I use to put one bike on the back of the truck, and I started wondering if I could just put a 2" receiver on the back of the trailer. Then I could have 3 bikes in the trailer, close it up, put the moto rack on the back of that and add another bike.

I also thought about the other way, put the moto-rack in the truck with a bike on it, and have a ball on the moto-rack that the trailer hooks to. I don't want to make the trailer pull weird though or have tongue-weight problems.

Am I being stupid here?

Yes I understand I could buy a bigger trailer or a van.
 
I got the idea from RV's.

Here is an RV trailer with a moto-rack on the back.

100_1269.jpg
 
Awesome! The other thing is I have a bicycle rack that goes into the receiver and there have been a few times (like last year LL) I brought bicycles and have had them all jammed in the trailer like a big disaster. It's amazing how hard it is to pull a bicycle out from in between motorcycles.
 
Agree that you're better off adding it to the trailer. I'd make sure you load the front of the trailer a little heavier than normal to keep the tongue weight about the same. I can't imagine a single dirt bike would be a huge issue, but just to be safe...
 
Only issue you might have is the frame structure of the trailer to add the hitch. Otherwise theres no difference having it on trailer or on back of your Tahoe, assuming you have weight in the trailer.
 
Be carefull putting too much weight on the tail. The trailer will whip very bad. Did this with bicycles on the back of a friend's pop up camper and he had to take them off after only a few miles of his trip. Before I did much work on the rear I would try hanging comparable weight back there and see how it tows. Might save some work in the long run. If the trailer is a tandem axle it won't be as bad but a single axle trailer needs most of the weight on the tongue to tow properly.
 
Very good point.

I was towing Rocket Robin's huge Hi-Point trailer once and like an idiot I put two fully filled 55 gallon water drums in the back corners of it. I made it about 2 miles before I almost died from the trailer throwing my van around like a dog shaking a squeaky toy.

The good thing in this case, is that if I have 3 bikes in the trailer most of the weight is over and to the front of the axle. Plus I have a 35gal barrel mounted on the tongue I could fill for counter-balance weight.
 
Fortney had a bike inbetween the trailer and truck once if I remember right...Mark you out there? I think it hauled fine.
 
beenridin said:
Fortney had a bike inbetween the trailer and truck once if I remember right...Mark you out there? I think it hauled fine.
Click to expand...


Mike I had a picture of one some one made up but did not end up buying it fearing that may not be the best thing to do.

Pit- I would be leary of putting anything like that on the back of a trailer due to the leverage it would have on the rear section of the frame & am guessing you
may need to beef up the frame rails staring in front of the wheels & going all the way back. If you are dual axel maybe but single axel may not be a good idea
thinging it will want to sway a lot.

May be safer to just get a larger trailer & 221's old one may have fit that bill.

The RV's have pretty heavy frame fail so you could do this to them.
 
What about mounting a rail on the front of your trailer just before the tongue! On my trailer the frame is shaped like a V coming out from under the trailer before the tongue. There would be plenty of room to mount it. You would have to be careful to not jackknife the trailer so you don't mess up the bike or your truck. I think you have your h2o tank mounted there now.
 
As a fellow HP 14 owner, I'd say bad idea. To begin, don't mess with the trailer because it's perfect as it is. I've had four bikes in mine, it's tight but it can be done. You must have bikes facing forward and backward. Normally just take two so I use two bike shoes staggered in the front which makes for plenty of room and when I bring a third bike, I just use the back staggered floor rings and a backward facing bike. The torsion axle lets the HiPoint set low which is great but would make functional receiver carrier a really complicated piece. You'd have to work through the rear exposed frame cross member and then raise the carrier rack from there, not to mention attaching the hitch forward to the frame rails. And once all that was accomplished, the weight distribution would be a mess and your sweet handling HP wouldn't be so sweet anymore. I'd trade your Tahoe for an extended cab pickup and enjoy all the bike hauling options that follow!
 
One other thing if mounting on back is ground clearance when crossing dips as I tried to put a carrier behind our toy hauler but it drug bad several time
when pulling out of gas stations.


Time for a Fun Mover!
 
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