Swivel Wheel Motorcylce Trailer

fj12ryder wrote:
We carried a Honda Interceptor for me, and a Honda SilverWing scooter for Peggy.

We use the G4 Scala Rider for communication, and it works great. We tried the Autocom system first, but it just didn't cut it. The Chatterbox system we tried was pretty awful too. The Scala Rider G4 is the cat's meow. :)

The SmartTrailer was 68" by 98".

Yeah, it looks like yours sits pretty high. Ours was 22" from the ground so it was no big deal loading and unloading.

We moved to a toyhauler because I just didn't feel comfortable with the movement of the bikes, because they were mounted sideways like yours. It just seemed like they moved around too much. I had a camera mounted back there to keep an eye on things and it looked they did a lot of rockin' and rollin'. Even worse on rough roads or where the pavement was uneven.

Now, loading the bikes is about a 5 minute job with no excitement. :)

Good luck with what you decide. What bikes are you looking at?

Thanks for the info! Ours is 25" from the ground.

Wife already has a Honda Helix. I was thinking either something small for me or a cruiser for the two of us. Each has their advantages. Right now, I like that we ride one bike and she can navigate on the fly.

I languished over building a swivel wheel trailer for three years and actually bought most of the components for it but after talking to the Florida DOT I was told in no un-certain terms "If it has wheels on the ground, it's a trailer" so it's in violation of the towing law, so I bought a golf cart for down here but the guy's at Double Hitch Company are terrific,give them a call.

We have the DW58 Swivel wheel. Does a wonderful job. In addition we have the Big Boy III ramps from discountramps.com You can look at my profile for pics.

We pull one behind our Mobile Suites. We load the Harley with the electric winch system sold by the same company. We are very happy with both systems so far. The swing-out is a factor especially in some smaller camp grounds. We have weighed our unit with the bike loaded. The bike weighs 800 +/- the swivel wheel according to Cruiser weighs 500 lbs Don't know how much the winch system weighs. It increased the rear Suites axle by 700 lbs.It took approx 400 lbs of the 4500 lb pin weight. Don't remember the swivel wheel axle weights we were way under the 1000 lb capacity of each assembly, it is the DW58. The maximum recommended speed is 65... I normally drive 62 so not a real issue. When we had the suites built we had them add extra tubular framing from the rear axle as we intended to put a Hydra lift on the 5th wheel but after researching it a little more we chose not to as they don't do so well on trailers over 32-33 feet, too much spring-board action I guess.

We carried a Honda Interceptor for me, and a Honda SilverWing scooter for Peggy.

We use the G4 Scala Rider for communication, and it works great. We tried the Autocom system first, but it just didn't cut it. The Chatterbox system we tried was pretty awful too. The Scala Rider G4 is the cat's meow. :)

The SmartTrailer was 68" by 98".

Yeah, it looks like yours sits pretty high. Ours was 22" from the ground so it was no big deal loading and unloading.

We moved to a toyhauler because I just didn't feel comfortable with the movement of the bikes, because they were mounted sideways like yours. It just seemed like they moved around too much. I had a camera mounted back there to keep an eye on things and it looked they did a lot of rockin' and rollin'. Even worse on rough roads or where the pavement was uneven.

Now, loading the bikes is about a 5 minute job with no excitement. :)

Good luck with what you decide. What bikes are you looking at?

fj12ryder wrote:
I pulled 2 bikes on SmartTrailer behind our Big Sky for three years and, all in all, it did an admirable job:

What bikes were you using?

What communication devices (if any) did you use with the bikes (assuming you and your significant other each rode separately)?

What was your platform size?

Thinking of going for a smaller bike for travel. The GW sits high and is a bit scary loading and unloading.

We have a 58DRW.

Get the longest ramp you can fit (we got a 12 foot folding that fits in the back of our truck even with the generator.

Also get the widest you can get. It will help you feel more stable when loading and unloading.

Bowti wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
The SmartTrailer has 2 ball couplers, so by your definition it's a trailer. :) And so are the rest of them IMO. They aren't permanently attached to the trailer so they are trailers.

A good welding shop can fix that definition in a hurry, for very little money.;)

LOL Very true, but my point was that if you got pulled over it would be difficult to convince the officer that it was a structural part of the 5er, and not an added on trailer.

They're pulled along behind the 5er, they don't support any of the weight of the 5er, and they were not present when the 5er was constructed, ergo, a trailer.

Just to be clear: I don't have a problem with the swivelwheel type trailers. As I've stated I pulled one for a couple years. It's just that, IMO, if you get pulled over in a state that doesn't allow double towing you don't have much defense.

Bowti wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
The SmartTrailer has 2 ball couplers, so by your definition it's a trailer. :) And so are the rest of them IMO. They aren't permanently attached to the trailer so they are trailers.

A good welding shop can fix that definition in a hurry, for very little money.;)

Most of the cycle weight is carried by the smart trailer wheels while the trailers moves vertically relative to each other at the connection point. Weld them together which may not be practical, remove the wheels and you have an entirely different platform to transport the cycles.

fj12ryder wrote:
The SmartTrailer has 2 ball couplers, so by your definition it's a trailer. :) And so are the rest of them IMO. They aren't permanently attached to the trailer so they are trailers.

A good welding shop can fix that definition in a hurry, for very little money.;)