obiwancanoli wrote:
Good info., thank you, Scott, very thorough. I'll be looking at this in more detail, as your post gives me hope I can accomplish my goal. The idahotote site was interesting, but I already have an enclosed trailer for the bike. Problem with that is lining it up - or rather, lining up the coach - to connect the two.
Rather than the challenge of backing up the coach to a hitch, I'm assuming there must be a way to maneuver the trailer to connect to the hitch, manually. The trailer's too heavy to do so alone, and by hand, but if there were something like, say, a hand truck, or easily maneuvered way to move the trailer to the hitch, that would work for me, too....
Obiwan,
You're more than welcome Sir. I don't know how close you looked at the Idaho Tote but, it's not a normal SINGLE ball type trailer hookup. It connects at TWO points on the back of the coach. When towing it, all moves is up and down, not sideways like a regular trailer. The pivoting dual wheels do the work of moving sideways. And, like stated, you can tow behind it. And, while it's darn near impossible to back up a toad, if the toad is removed, you can back up an Idaho Tote, straight and in turns, very, very easily. But, it's just another option. If you have any questions, surely PM me and I'd be glad to help.
Scott
obiwancanoli wrote:
Ok, so my coach is a Newmar 35' DP Ventana LE. I admit to guessing the weight of the lift, and so, it was me, sir, who was clueless... I'm familiar with the Hydralift, and feel that might be a solution, but it means buying a new or another vehicle. Not sure on this yet...
FWIW, I'd also plan to take only the HD, and wondered if a lift on the rear DP, and the bike, would be too much weight as well. To be completely candid here, I am relatively new to the lifestyle - 7 months now - and still have a lot to learn. But that's why I'm here, and posted my query, so, keep in mind this isn't a political debate, and offer a bit more respect than my "clueless" perspective might otherwise inspire. Thanks.
Obiwan,
My comments were not directed at you. There are many on RV forums that are safety police, weight police and more and never done anything outside the box. And as such, have tendency to illicit advice that they, in fact, have never ever dealt with. And, there are ones that think ALL COACHES are built the same. Well, for those of us that ACTUALLY have done things outside the box and experimented with all kinds of situations, we've gained experience on what works and what doesn't. The manufacturers of most coaches pretty much know what they're doing and, post limits on what their coaches can do, what they can't and what kind of limits are on them.
But, if one has worked with heavy equipment, alterations, modifications, suspensions and more for most of their life, one can sometimes, exceed posted limitations with somewhat of an education/experience level that lends assistance. So, with all that being said, and as stated previously, we've done what you're thinking of doing. AND NO ONE DIED in the process due to the fact that SOME of the limits were exceeded.
Do I advise this kind of thinking, well, not really. I look at this kind of situation as, it's my coach, if I break it, I HAVE TO FIX IT. Now, again with all that being said, I appreciate you posting more info on your particular coach. Your coach is only moderately shorter than ours.
Did our coach survive with the lift and the weight of a Honda Goldwing? Yep, sure did. And we'd still be doing it today if not for one thing. TIRES! I was 2,600 lbs. over the weight limit on the four tires on the back. Using advanced math, that's 1,300 lbs. per side. Even more advanced math shows 650 lbs. per tire, over its rated weight. Did it work? Yep, sure did. As stated we traveled all over the western U.S. with that setup. WE towed an '04 Jeep Rubicon along with carrying the bike.
I have to tell ya, it was absolutely great having both of those toys with us for all that time. We love both methods of fun and transportation. But, as stated we were over the weight limits on the rear tires. So, being that, if one of my rear tires blew, the other would be instantaneously ANOTHER 650 lbs over what it was already over. So, after some discussions, we abandoned that proven game plan for an alternate way of getting the job done.
We have two toads. One is a '15 Jeep JKUR and the other one is an '11 GMC Sierra 1500 4x4 Extended Cab. When we decide we want the bike along on our trip, we hook up the truck. I setup, a Rampage lift/carrier in the back of that truck. The way I did it was so that it's instantly removable. I won't go into that unless you, or someone asks. Suffice to say, when it comes time to load that lift into the truck, from start to finish and, is ready for the bike, it's about 6-8 minutes, tops.
And, when we're back home, it's about 6 minutes and that lift is out of the back of the truck and the truck is now a truck again. But, when it does carry the bike, it's pretty neat. I ride the bike up to the prepared lift, park it, strap the front to the lift, press a button on the winch and the bike starts traveling up the lift.
After a few seconds of travel, the bike levels the lift out and finishes its travel into the back of the truck. Once it's locked in place, I add about four more tie-downs and that bike ain't going anywhere the truck isn't. The truck is exactly 5,300 lbs. I weighed it. I advise this wholeheartedly. Do not, repeat, DO NOT take the word of any printed matter when it comes to ACTUAL WEIGHT of your toad or, intended toad. GO WEIGH IT! This way you'll know for sure.
The bike is close to 900 lbs and the Rampage lift is right close to 275 lbs. So, all in all, I'm dragging right close to 6,500 lbs. behind our coach. As state, the engine in our coach is the CAT C-7 330HP. Its labeled as 860 ft.lbs. of torque. The coach, the last time I weighed it, was right at it's GVWR which is, 27,910. When the truck and bike is hooked to it, that coach does great. It's not a speedster by any stretch but, it does a great job of getting the whole Amtrak where we want to go.
So, can you do this, yep. You may have to investigate different game plans but, you can get it done and it will work. One of the links below is a definite way to go in your case that will not tax your GVWR of your coach. You will have to consider the hitch limit(s).
http://www.idahotote.com/
There others that build the same kind of system. Here's another one:
http://www.cruiserlift.com/id77
I'm considering the second one due to the fact that we'd like to bring along our Jeep JKUR along with the Wing on trips. We'll see.
Scott
TNGW1500SE wrote:wildtoad wrote:
Swap the car and dolly for a F150 with 4wd, flat tow it, and put the HD in the truck bed.
A Harley in the back of a F150 is going to be a pain to load and unload. I did it when I pulled a camper with lighter weight bikes and a 4 foot wide ramp. You really need a loading dock. Also I think it would be pushing the weight limit of the 5K hitch.
Oh no it's not. Geeeze, all you have to do is look around on the i-net for about 30 seconds and you'll find a number of lift/carriers that go into the back of a pickup that make loading and unloading of large touring bikes very easy.
We used to carry our '08 Honda Goldwing GL 1800 on a Hydralift on the back of our coach, an '04 Itasca Horizon 36GD with the CAT C-7 330HP. And who ever told the OP that the lift was a THOUSAND POUNDS WAS/IS absolutely CLUELESS. The actual HYDRALIFT brand lift is right at 375-400 lbs. We carried that bike on that lift, on that coach for well over 8,000 miles and never, EVER had any issues what so ever.
No wandering, no porpoising, no ill-fated handling AT ALL. The front of our coach went up a whopping 1/16th of an inch when the bike and lift was on there. Does it add cantelever weight back there, yep, it sure does. But, as stated, on our diesel, due to the ride height sensors, the coach rode at the same EXACT height with the bike and lift as it did WITHOUT THEM.
But, since the OP does not state just what kind of "35'" coach he's got, I'd bet a 35' coach in his application, is a gas unit, just guessing.
If that's the case, Yep, I'd go with another form of bringing all the toys along. One in particular is the toy tote. It's a form of dual wheel, swivel wheel trailer that, IS NOT A TRAILER!!!!!! It attaches to the back of the coach with TWO mounting points. It is considered to be PART OF THE COACH, and not a trailer. And, you can tow a toad with it. That would get the OPs bike AND his toad without overloading the hitch on the back of the coach.
Using a 4x4 truck as a toad, and loading the bike in the truck, is not rocket science, no LOADING DOCK is needed! But, the weight of any 4x4 truck that's capable of being flat towed, is considerably more weight than the OP may be willing to deal with.
Scott
