Added a trailer to the stable

So having signed up for NERDS for 3 days, I figured why not go up the Sunday before NERDS and camp for 4 more days? Only problem is where to put all the camping gear for 2 people (Mrs. Pep will be on board). Harbor Freight makes a nice little cargo trailer for $399.99. It was on sale at the Nashua store for $299.99. I had a coupon for 20% off (coups are in the M/C mags all the time) net was $240 & change. Not too shabby!! :yahoo:



Harbor Freight Tagalong

Next issue is what to do for a hitch? There's one or two out there for $300+; more than the trailer costs! So I did a search over on FJROWNERS.COM and found one that Bernie in OZ made.



Bernie's Hitch for a Gen 2

Pretty cool. Unfortunately I don't have access to the nice swiveling/articulating hitch that Bernie used, so I had a friend weld up a chunk o' angle stock that I could bolt a hitch ball to.



...and painted it black cuz I had a rattle can of black on the shelf.



I also added a Fendah Extendah from a donor wastebasket, because sand and crud was piling up in the hitch and ball.

Other mods included LED tail and running lights, a Hoppy 5 to 4 wire converter that takes it's power direct from the battery for the trailer lights, and I-bolts substituted for the regular bolts that hold the shell to the frame so that stuff inside can be secured from sliding around. Also a wheel stand for when it's parked.



I also added a shower, toilet, and kitchen sink; that's the drain pipe you see underneath. :coolsmiley:



JUST KIDDING!! :clown2:

Actually I needed a place to put some tent poles for my tarp, but they were too long to fit in the box.



It pulls just fine. You notice it on accel and decel, since it's like having a couple extra passengers on board weight-wise. In the corners you can't tell it's there. It might be a foot wider than the bike overall.

Here's a pic with it partially loaded.



See you at NERDS!

One of our biker friends did the same thing about a month ago. She loves it!

Fantastic idea: re: the tube!

I made one, also. 5 feet long., 5 inch diameter. Capped at one end with a screw plug on the other. It carries the table support tube, all the tent support hardware and other goodies.

Stephen said:

One of our biker friends did the same thing about a month ago. She loves it!

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I like the dog accessory - is that the alarm system?

Why is the box in this picture mounted backwards?

mferriter said:

...Why is the box in this picture mounted backwards?

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In terms of opening convenience the box is mounted backwards, but in terms of aerodynamics this orientation is favorable and might have less buffeting affect.

At the last meeting of the Breakfast Club I got to see Carl's fine handy work on his trailer hitch. It is all welded up and looks solid. I'm pretty sure it would be easy to make the tent pole tube look like a sidewinder missile :lol:

I plan on leaving it as is, so I can get some more mileage out of the "sink/shower/tub/toilet" joke...

The bends in the hitch parts were carefully hand-crafted by using 2 c-clamps, a 1/2" thick piece of steel, a heavy ballpeen hammer, and my picnic table made from pressure treated wood. Truly precision stuff!

Now that is awesome! So how much do you think you have tied up in the homemade hitch? Wouldn't mind having one for my gen 1.

airportcop said:

Now that is awesome! So how much do you think you have tied up in the homemade hitch? Wouldn't mind having one for my gen 1.

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When I built the hitch for my Bushtec, I don't think I have more than 25.00 in material. Had the local shop do the bending and the rest was 1/4" plate.

I'm interested in this setup. How's it handle at speed?

My partner had a PVC tube on his van. We made a nose cone and fins that screwed in where the endcaps went.

Added a couple of stickers down the side.

airportcop said:

Now that is awesome! So how much do you think you have tied up in the homemade hitch? Wouldn't mind having one for my gen 1.

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I prolly have $100 into it. Bought the steel at the most expensive place I could find; Home Depot. I threw $40 at my welding buddy for welding the end piece. Bought the SS hardware at the even more expensive True Value 1 mi. from Casa Layton. Took a lot of time, though; bend and trial fit, etc. Your best bet would be to take the one from my bike and copy my pieces. DON'T DRILL ANY HOLES TILL YOU HAVE EVERYTHING TEST FITTED!

I held my pieces in place with vicegrips to determine hole locations.

 

If time is more valuable than money, buy a premade hitch.

Powerman said:

I'm interested in this setup. How's it handle at speed?

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It handles well at 70 MPH with a load. I haven't tried it empty. I still need to mess with the tire pressure; max for these tires is around 60#, but that's with a full load of 500# per tire. I started with 35#, will probably end up around 25 or 30#, based on what I've read. The spring is used on several different models, all of which are intended for heavier loads. I tried jumping up and down on the frame minus the box, and the spring deflected about 1/4". The tires do most of the spring work. I took it on a hundred mile shakedown run and the tires were cold when I got home.

BUMP!

For Peter (GRAVITY) who was interested in the details at NERDS. PM me if you have any questions or need tips for this project.

Somebody above wanted to know how it is at speed; coming home from NERDS we slabbed it 75-80 all the way, no problems.

I put one of these trailers together last week. They are a discontinued item? I got one that had been in a taped up box that had some damage.

The lights were cracked and I negotiated for a LED set.

Building the hitch today, I had to stop because it's too damn hot to weld.

1. Repack the wheel bearings. The first trailer had a bearing so jammed, the wheel wouldn't come off the axle. The second axle the wheels wouldn't spin freely, the castle nuts were too tight.

2. The tongue is like 2 1/4 inch, the hitch is made for 2 1/2 inch. Use washers to shim.

3. I have a perfectly good set of incandescent lights, since I, too, got the leds.

4. You can ditch the helper spring if you like.

5. Get a good light converter. Hopkins Mfg. (Hoppy) makes a good one that takes it's power directly from the battery. Expect to pay $50 or so for a good one. PM me if you need the part number.

Enjoy!

I have used the HF trailer a lot for my other bike but didnt know I could use it on the FJR.... HUMMMM

Guess I will need to check it out.

Doesn't look like the "tagalong" is available, but there is a 40x49" trailer for $200 (ish). I see a winter project idea forming....

twistedcricket said:

Doesn't look like the "tagalong" is available, but there is a 40x49" trailer for $200 (ish). I see a winter project idea forming....

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Twisted

Don't write off the tagalongs just yet, I have been looking on their website and can't find them but I called two local stores and it turns out that one store still has 2 in stock. They wanted the part/model # from me, I just kept calling it a small tagalong trailer and they were able to look it up.

I looked at the same size trailer as you are but if I had to I would probably opt for the $259 model for the larger 12" wheels over the 8" ones.

Good luck on your project. I think I'm going to give this hitch and trailer thing a try also. I'll post as I make progress.

I already pulled out an old motrcyclist mag and grabbed the Harbor Freight add out of it for the 20% off coupon. The tagalong left in stock is going for

$379 the coupon will drop it to close to $300 and I'll probably grab the LED trailer lights to go with it.

Hey Pepperel thanks for the bump. I was also wondering what diameter the wheels are?

Peter

Pepperell said:

BUMP!

For Peter (GRAVITY) who was interested in the details at NERDS. PM me if you have any questions or need tips for this project.

Somebody above wanted to know how it is at speed; coming home from NERDS we slabbed it 75-80 all the way, no problems.

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I saw your hitch when we rode the 6 gaps. It looked great and you did a fine job building it....well done!! Do you happen to have the dimensions for the support bars you made? I am going to build one this winter!

Mattster

I just picked up hte same trailer at HF. It is discontinued, but you may still be able to find one here or there. I negotiated a "floor model" down to $200, due to a broken tail light and the fact that it was taking up a lot of space in the store that they wanted to clear out.

Just ask them how long it's been sitting there and how much it costs to keep it there. They seemed more than happy to get rid of it.

However, beware that if you buy a floor model, it's likely put together wrong. One mine, the wiring was cut in several locations (no big deal since I was replacing all of it anyway), many of the nuts were not tight, the box was mounted backwards, the two bolts that hold the coupler on were overtightened to the point that the mechanism was jammed in the closed position.

I'm currently modifying it to my liking:

•  
  
• Removed the "extra" leaf in the leaf springs to make a softer suspension (I also have a torsion axle that I am building to fit to this trailer which will be a huge upgrade to the suspension and will lower the ride-height)
  
• Upgrading lighting
  
• Changed over to 12" wheels (which does raise it up a bit high for my liking) $35 on sale at HF plus 20% off coupon - net $28 each - I couldn't resist and bought 6 of them - I also have a "Trailer-in-a-bag" bike hauler with 8" wheels, but not for long!
  
• Painting the box lid to match the bike (either "Cerulean" Silver or the lighter silver to match my '06) - should cut down a little bit on interior heat.
  
• Looking at "swivel hitches". There seem to be two kinds, one that mounts in the trailer tongue and one that mounts on the bike. From what I've read DO NOT get one of the bike mounted ones that just flops from side to side - they dont work, they just flop to one side and stay there (which is worse than a stationary one since it eliminates the pivoting ability in one direction). I'm leaning towards the tongue mounted one since they're a bit heavy and don't want to carry the weight around on the bike when the trailer's not hooked up.
  

I still have to work out the wiring for the bike. - Anyone seen a walk-through on trailer wiring, I've heard that an isolator should be used to protect the bike's electrical system?

Use this Hoppy converter; includes fused run from the battery to power the trailer, only pulls signal information from the splices to tail, stop, and directional wires, not power. Protects & isolates from the bike's electrical system.

HOPPY CONVERTER

See my reply above about things that need to be done to the stock Tagalong to make it usable.

I can provide the rough length measurements of the individual pieces, but I bent, cut, and drilled everything by trial fitting everything. I think I bought 2 48" lengths of 1/4" by 1" mild steel plus a foot of the angle stock. The end plates on the angle stock were scraps my welder friend had kicking around.

2 pcs 24" (from footpeg mount to ball mount assembly)

2 pcs 10" (from exhaust hanger mount to 24" piece)

2 pcs 14" (from fender mount under rear seat to 24" piece)

Again, I drilled the ends that attach to the bike first, then visegripped the pieces together to determine the location for connecting bolts.

I also strongly recommend this trailer jack/wheel. Makes it real easy to unhook the trailer near the road at the campsite and push it around to a convenient spot.

trailer jack

8" wheels work just fine; experiences over on the motocampers forum show no particular advantage to the larger wheel, but if you like the look, go for it.

If anyone finds a paint that will stick well to tho polypropalene (sp) carrier, I'd like to know of it.

Swivel hitch is nice to have if you have the money, but many have found it unnecessary. If you get the trailer upside down, you're in deeper shit than just a swivel hitch can shovel you out of... :lol:

Enjoy!