Trailer hitch build

[Kneedragger55]

Anyone ever heard of or seen a FJR towing another bike? Maybe a SM, or a sportbike? I know of a guy that hauls 2 supermotos with a Goldwing. Not sure of the hitch attachment and setup, but his rig definitely carries 400+ pounds thousands of miles...and he's only got 300 more cc's right?

I have no experience towing with a motorcycle, but I've always wondered about stopping. At some point, it seems that towed weight could overpower the brakes on a bike. Is there some provision for brakes on the trailer?

I'd say the brakes on most "modern" bikes have superb stopping quality. "Over power" I'm not so sure about. Over heat may be more likely if you're grinding them down a steep mountain road for a 100 miles with 400 lbs in tow. I'd say 2x200lb passengers are stopped fairly well, even on a FJR (the bikes weight contributes to the stopping power more than anything). With my weight around 150lbs and a single SM at 250lbs, that's less than two heavily endowed passengers. I think it takes a lot to overpower the brakes on a modern "sport" bike.

 

[Old Guy]

Anyone ever heard of or seen a FJR towing another bike? Maybe a SM, or a sportbike? I know of a guy that hauls 2 supermotos with a Goldwing. Not sure of the hitch attachment and setup, but his rig definitely carries 400+ pounds thousands of miles...and he's only got 300 more cc's right?

I have no experience towing with a motorcycle, but I've always wondered about stopping. At some point, it seems that towed weight could overpower the brakes on a bike. Is there some provision for brakes on the trailer?

I'd say the brakes on most "modern" bikes have superb stopping quality. "Over power" I'm not so sure about. Over heat may be more likely if you're grinding them down a steep mountain road for a 100 miles with 400 lbs in tow. I'd say 2x200lb passengers are stopped fairly well, even on a FJR (the bikes weight contributes to the stopping power more than anything). With my weight around 150lbs and a single SM at 250lbs, that's less than two heavily endowed passengers. I think it takes a lot to overpower the brakes on a modern "sport" bike.

I was thinking more about some of the rigs I've seen -- two people me-sized pulling a loaded trailer. I've seen one incident where a rider stopped suddenly and was run over by his own trailer, but one out of all I've ever seen isn't a bad record. Just curious if there's any provision for brakes on any of them. I could see how surge brakes might work; just wondered if anyone was doing it.

 

[ionbeam]

Even with a 400 lb trailer I expect that the FJR can still lock the wheels if it wasn't for ABS. The braking is more traction related with the ABS modulating the braking to the greatest extent of the available traction. As previously noted, the biggest issue would be brake overheating from frequent braking or extended downhill braking.

There are two types of lightweight trailer brakes, electric brakes which the driver actuates and surge brakes which automatically operate. The electric brakes on, say a boat or horse trailer are manually activated by the driver using a control box as they see fit to regulate the load on the tow vehicle brakes and to produce shorter stopping. The surge brakes are a hydraulic coupler built into the trailer tongue, when the tow vehicle brakes the trailer pushes on the hitch which compresses the hydraulic coupling which provides the hydraulic pressure to activate the trailer brakes.

While surge brakes are not uncommon they technically don't meet DOT safety standards. DOT wants the trailer brakes to have an available override by the driver, which the surge brakes do not have.

 

[playinatwork]

Anyone ever heard of or seen a FJR towing another bike? Maybe a SM, or a sportbike? I know of a guy that hauls 2 supermotos with a Goldwing. Not sure of the hitch attachment and setup, but his rig definitely carries 400+ pounds thousands of miles...and he's only got 300 more cc's right?

I've towed a KTM 525 thousands of miles behind my Honda ST1300 without any problems. No brakes on the trailer, and I made the trailer as light as possible. Total weight with an empty fuel tank in the KTM was right at 302 lbs for the bike and trailer. I rode quite a few twistys with that rig. I'm on the search for a trailer hitch for my FJR now. Nice work OP.

 

[Northwoods Snowman]

I would like to build a motorcycle trailer with brakes. The bike's brakes may be adequate for the weight but it's the uncommon scenarios that scare me; like emergency braking in a corner! A couple hundred pounds pushing the back of the bike out sideways may just be enough to put you down. Plus with a hitch hanging off the subframe on the FJR I would like to have as little stress on it as possible.

I like surge brakes over electric since they give proportionate braking, unlike electric brakes that are all or nothing (set by the gain of course). They may not meet DOT safety specs, but NO brakes certainly don't either! lol.

 

[Old Guy]

Even with a 400 lb trailer I expect that the FJR can still lock the wheels if it wasn't for ABS. The braking is more traction related with the ABS modulating the braking to the greatest extent of the available traction. As previously noted, the biggest issue would be brake overheating from frequent braking or extended downhill braking.
There are two types of lightweight trailer brakes, electric brakes which the driver actuates and surge brakes which automatically operate. The electric brakes on, say a boat or horse trailer are manually activated by the driver using a control box as they see fit to regulate the load on the tow vehicle brakes and to produce shorter stopping. The surge brakes are a hydraulic coupler built into the trailer tongue, when the tow vehicle brakes the trailer pushes on the hitch which compresses the hydraulic coupling which provides the hydraulic pressure to activate the trailer brakes.

While surge brakes are not uncommon they technically don't meet DOT safety standards. DOT wants the trailer brakes to have an available override by the driver, which the surge brakes do not have.

I'm not concerned about the ability to lock the brakes; i'm concerned about the ability of two small motorcycle tires to have enough traction to stop a loaded bike, two up, with a 400# trailer pushing on it.

But though it sounds like I'm arguing, I'll readily admit that I don't have a clue about pulling trailers with bikes.

I have pulled some heavy trailers with my truck and understand how the trailer brakes work. The trailer brakes on my truck are supposed to be proportional. I know the controller detects the rate at which I'm decelerating and is supposed to apply the trailer brakes accordingly. I can't prove it actually works that way. Surge brakes, to me, seem to be the way to go if a person were to use brakes on a trailer pulled by a bike simply because it requires no additional gadgets on the bike itself.

 

[ionbeam]

Even with a 400 lb trailer I expect that the FJR can still lock the wheels if it wasn't for ABS. The braking is more traction related with the ABS modulating the braking to the greatest extent of the available traction...

I'm not concerned about the ability to lock the brakes; i'm concerned about the ability of two small motorcycle tires to have enough traction to stop a loaded bike, two up, with a 400# trailer pushing on it.

Umm, that's what I was talking about, traction...

 

[Old Guy]

Even with a 400 lb trailer I expect that the FJR can still lock the wheels if it wasn't for ABS. The braking is more traction related with the ABS modulating the braking to the greatest extent of the available traction...

I'm not concerned about the ability to lock the brakes; i'm concerned about the ability of two small motorcycle tires to have enough traction to stop a loaded bike, two up, with a 400# trailer pushing on it.

Umm, that's what I was talking about, traction...

I know. I am too. If the ABS is modulating the brakes, and there's a 400-pound sledge pushing it .... oh, never mind

 

[Powerman]

Saw a guy at VIR pulling a R1 track bike behind his 08 FJR.

He had two race tires and a little tool box on the trailer.

 

[HotRodZilla]

There used to be a guy here that was towing a GSXR 600 or 750, I don't remember, to track days, with his FJR. Trailer brakes would be cool, and surge would probably be better. Uhaul and other places like them use them on all their larger trailers, especially the car haulers. Backing up a hill can be a bitch, because it engages the brakes, but it keeps them from having to install brake controllers on every customer's vehicle that wants to tow something.

Electric brakes are NOT all or nothing. The brake controller is adjusted by the driver. The gain is set by pulling an empty trailer and braking. If the wheels lock up, the trailer jerks the truck around, or nothing happens, the Gain gets adjusted up or down. Once set properly, the trailer will slow in porportion to the lead vehicle. Electric brakes are bad ass! My horse trailers and my camper have them. Wouldn't want to be without them, as they greatly reduce the tail wagging the dog when slowing, especially on curvy or wet roads.

 

[Old Guy]

Don't surge brakes generally have a reverse lockout so they don't operate in reverse? Again, no experience, but I thought I'd read that.

 

[HotRodZilla]

Maybe, if you buy them for your own trailer. I know the ones from U-Haul do not have a lock-out. Simple inertia driven brake system. I would suspect that would be a wiring issue, or a wheel direction issue that may require more maintenance than they want to have to put into trailers. No idea.

 

[gapiob]

maybe it's not totaly the subject, by advence sorry, but Have you got this kind of trailers for moto byke

It is juste link to the moto by pression on the bolts rear wheel.

so you have juste to prepar the electric wire for the light of the trailer.

https://www.wipigroup.fr/FR/produits-tow-case-raptor.php

 

[Old Guy]

Don't surge brakes generally have a reverse lockout so they don't operate in reverse? Again, no experience, but I thought I'd read that.

I remember now where I saw this. I was looking at a tow dolly with surge brakes, and it had a clip that could be put on the tongue that would lock it to disable them. I just remembered in the back of my head that I'd seen something like that.

 

[ionbeam]

Don't surge brakes generally have a reverse lockout so they don't operate in reverse? Again, no experience, but I thought I'd read that.

Trailers with drum brakes don't need a reverse lockout, trailers with disk brakes do. Drum brakes offer almost no braking power with the trailer wheels going backwards. (Google drum brake servo action.)

The lockout can be mechanical like a simple C-clamp you have to put on the hitch, a pin you install in the hitch or a Normally Open solenoid on the hydraulic line that is turned on by the reverse lights of the tow vehicle. Umm, does the FJR have backup lights?

 

[Old Guy]

Don't surge brakes generally have a reverse lockout so they don't operate in reverse? Again, no experience, but I thought I'd read that.

Trailers with drum brakes don't need a reverse lockout, trailers with disk brakes do. Drum brakes offer almost no braking power with the trailer wheels going backwards. (Google drum brake servo action.)

The lockout can be mechanical like a simple C-clamp you have to put on the hitch, a pin you install in the hitch or a Normally Open solenoid on the hydraulic line that is turned on by the reverse lights of the tow vehicle. Umm, does the FJR have backup lights?

Ah yes. Drum brake vs disk. Very logical. Thanks.

Uh. No. My FJR doesn't have backup lights. But my Goldwing had an electric reverse

 

[NTXFJR]

Who says trailer building has to be hard? Maybe some of us are way over thinking this trailer thing.....

https://www.bmwlt.com/forums/attachments/rt-series/31277-ghetto-trailer-wheelbarrow.jpeg

 

[Northwoods Snowman]

So THAT guy is the reason I have "NOT FOR HIGHWAY USE" on my wheel barrow tire!