My old Dodge Ram with Cummins diesel...

[7milesout]

Why not remove the rear trailer ramp and leave it home if you are going to make use of your loading ramps anyhow? Do you have a simple hinge/clevis hooks to hold the ramp on? How much weight do you estimate you'll save? 100? 200?

The gate hinges are welded on. Removing the gate is not a weight thing. It's wind drag with the gate up that's the issue with the Mirage. I think the wind drag accounted for more required power to overcome than the weight.

Say for example pulling that ATV down the road with the gate up required 40 hp, and I have 50 hp available (at that rpm, and this is just for argument sake), then a small bunny hill would require all 50 hp, and it would get the job done. But bigger than a bunny hill I'd drop to 4th. My feeling is that if I could have dropped that load gate instead of it requiring 40 hp to roll down the interstate (flat level, no headwind), dropping the gate might drop the required power down to 30 hp. Giving me more buffer for bigger hills, and using less fuel to boot.

Now those are not real numbers, just for argument sake.

I'm also remembering "mechanic." He doesn't seem to post much of late. But he moved from I think it was Minnesota to Texas. It took him 3 trips as I recall. And he towed a good bit more than 1,600 pounds with his G4.

The difference between myself and mechanic, and the guy that towed the Chevette is ... I have access to 2 very capable pickup trucks. They did not. For me to choose the Mirage over a more capable vehicle is just silly. But that's just who I am, just silly. I'm resisting though. I'm going to stick to blue truck.

[Fummins]

My local buddy asked me last night, "If you want to tow that red sickle with your gate folded forward / down, why don't you just bring your load ramps, and just push the bike up the ramps and roll over the gate with it laid down?"

I would have bet a dollar that I already suggest that exact thing in this thread but I didn't hit post...I was too busy hi-jacking your thread.

[Wallythacker]

The gate hinges are welded on. Removing the gate is not a weight thing. It's wind drag with the gate up that's the issue with the Mirage. I think the wind drag accounted for more required power to overcome than the weight.

Say for example pulling that ATV down the road with the gate up required 40 hp, and I have 50 hp available (at that rpm, and this is just for argument sake), then a small bunny hill would require all 50 hp, and it would get the job done. But bigger than a bunny hill I'd drop to 4th. My feeling is that if I could have dropped that load gate instead of it requiring 40 hp to roll down the interstate (flat level, no headwind), dropping the gate might drop the required power down to 30 hp. Giving me more buffer for bigger hills, and using less fuel to boot.

Now those are not real numbers, just for argument sake.

I'm also remembering "mechanic." He doesn't seem to post much of late. But he moved from I think it was Minnesota to Texas. It took him 3 trips as I recall. And he towed a good bit more than 1,600 pounds with his G4.

The difference between myself and mechanic, and the guy that towed the Chevette is ... I have access to 2 very capable pickup trucks. They did not. For me to choose the Mirage over a more capable vehicle is just silly. But that's just who I am, just silly. I'm resisting though. I'm going to stick to blue truck.

I forgot drag was the issue. Same with my larger AL trailer. It's very light but a poor ramp design means wasted HP on the hiway. I have access to my Saturn, good for 3500 lb. (says the internet) but I'd still likely use my Mirage for anything up to 12-1500 lb. with very little drag.

[Mark]

My local buddy asked me last night, "If you want to tow that red sickle with your gate folded forward / down, why don't you just bring your load ramps, and just push the bike up the ramps and roll over the gate with it laid down?"

And I was like, dayim. Why does my mind not think out of the box? I guess in my mind, you have to do things they way you're supposed to do things, and so I don't think out of the box well.

So now, here at the 11th hour, I'm slightly thinking, wouldn't it be cool to tow the sickle with the Mirage, now that I can do it with the gate down, the power required at interstate speeds should be a lot less.

I think the trailer is ~875 pounds. The bike is ~750 pounds. That's 1,625 pounds, with a 2,000 pound car. I don't know. Sounds fun. Certainly if I weren't on Enasaves with 32,000 miles on them, if I were on new tires, I'd probably just do it. But I think I'm going to not be so dumb. And just use blue truck.

Although, the tires on blue truck are 10 years old...

When I read posts like these, the ability to tow is not my concern. My concern is the ability to STOP! If your clipping along & something in front of you happens suddenly (shi* happens), how much control do you have in that situation?

I have a hitch on my Mirage. I could add a wiring harness, but I have no plans to do that. My Mirage hitch is strictly for my rear hitch bike rack, and it works nicely for that. Could I tow some trailer loads with my Mirage? Most likely I could, but I wouldn't have the level of control I would feel safe with. Yes, one can take it slow & be super careful. I get that.

I look at this way, some vehicles have large towing capacities. Even with those vehicles, trailer brakes are going to be required at some point for larger loads. Once you get a large mass in motion, it takes a lot of force to stop it.

If you were traveling through SW Wisconsin, I would plead with you to use your pickup truck. I seriously don't want to be around someone towing borderline large loads with a Mitsubishi Mirage.

If the person selling the bike has a small ditch or small hill near their house, I wouldn't even take a trailer. I would back the truck up to the small bank, & use your ramps to roll the cycle into the back of the truck. That's assuming you have a place like that to unload once you get home. If not, I don't blame you for using the trailer. It's probably easier to tie down on a trailer, too.

When I load my stuff (Mule, ATV, compact tractor, riding lawnmower, sold my motorcycle), I will use the small hillside near my house sometimes. It makes loading some much easier, but I have a tilt-bed trailer. I use a small board that simply pulls the bed down when I drive on it. Once I drive towards the front of the trailer, it comes back down & latches. In many ways, I prefer that over a rear ramp. It's easier to haul oversized planks & other stuff without a ramp being in the way all the time.

I like the new Floe CargoMax trailers, because they use both (small ramp with a tilt bed feature). The small rear ramp can be removed easily if you don't need it. If I am getting a yard of gravel with my trailer, I don't need a ramp! If I am buying lumber at Menards, I don't need or want a ramp on the trailer. I realize you can drop your ramp down flat in that case, however.

Sharing for just anyone - When hauling things like UTV, ATV, & motorcycles, I have found mounting the straps high on the item is best. Instead of putting a strap on the rear hitch of an ATV, put two straps on the corners of the rear rack, & then use your ratchet straps to compress the shocks. If you can tie things down in such a way that the shocks can be depressed, your load will be way more secure. This doesn't work for a riding lawnmower, unless you have a fancy one with some type of suspension.

If I was hauling a motorcycle a long distance, I would take my cordless drill, some 3" screws, and a couple long 2" x 4" boards. Once the motorcycle is loaded, I would screw down a 2" x 4" along both sides of both tires. That's provided you have a trailer with a wood floor.

Good luck with your purchase & trip! I miss not having a motorcycle at times, but I don't miss having to deal with it, too! At this point in my life, a used Mazda Miata (manual of course) may be more fun!

[7milesout]

Dredging it up. Blue truck JUST turned 200,000 miles. Took a ride to Brunswick, GA and back on 12/29. 639 miles round trip, no trailer. Filled it with 34.6 gallons, costing me $128.00. But 18.5 mpg @ 75 mph (GPS verified) cruise control set. It was probably 19 mpg on the way down there, and 18 mpg (loaded) on the way back.

Then this past Friday 1/5 I hauled another son's bedroom furniture to Greenville, SC and back. He's going to co-op with BMW for at least a semester. He's going to learn how low quality crap is assembled, then move on later in life to high quality with Toyota.

There and back, 75 mph, with the utility trailer, gate up hauling, gate down empty. I haven't filled it up yet, but I'm going to guess it did about 15.25 mph on the way there, and maybe about 18 mpg on the way back. Probably averaged 17 mpg or so. 75 mph mostly, both ways. Oh, and I had me, my oldest (Navy) son, my middle son and middle son's GF in the truck, both ways. Bed and trailer loaded full on the way there. Just hauling people on the way back. Helluva truck. Helluva useful trailer. I forget ... what's DEF fluid?

[7milesout]

That friend of mine who I sent this video to, already traded-in his 5.3L Silverado with a 2.7L turbo Ford F-150 turd (a month ago). He had about 35k miles on the Silverado and was scared to own it outside of warranty. So he had that Silverado for about, I don't know, 14 to 18 months max. I don't know how he does it. Or ... WHY he does it.

His wife's QX60 I think it is, mid size SUV just crapped the bed 2 days ago. Transmission. Won't go forward. I would imagine it runs a CVT. Gonna cost him a pretty penny. Who am I kidding? He'll probably just buy his wife a new car. I wouldn't be surprised if he calls me to borrow one of my cars if they're in-between for a while. My family drives our cars conservatively. My wife drives hers conservatively too, she just hauls around garbage in it which annoys me. My friend and his family drive their cars like they're late for a job interview. He's a really good friend, just spends money differently than I. I think he's a hoot!

[Wallythacker]

I suddenly recalled why I have been dragging my feet installing a wiring harness on my Mirage.
No wiring harness=hard to prove I have been hauling a trailer unless one of my neighbors is in the habit of recording my comings and goings. I'm not nearly interesting enough for anyone to do that.

I lucked out and both of my trailers do not obstruct the Mirage tail lights so technically I have the required visible lights from the rear. The HTA doesn't state how close to the rear of the trailer its' lights have to be, the HTA doesn't actually state AFAIK that the trailers lights actually have to be on the trailer. I have magnetic lights I could conceivably plunk on the Mirage roof and use a lighter plug to power them.

I sold my very light but too heavy when loaded for the Mirage 5'x8' aluminum trailer. (And I realized I forgot to nab the higher rated rims/tires it had and slap on older used rustier rims and slightly weathered tires, oh well)

[klroger]

The HTA doesn't state how close to the rear of the trailer its' lights have to be, the HTA doesn't actually state AFAIK that the trailers lights actually have to be on the trailer.

I was a mechanic for a transport company. We had ~75 Class 8 trucks & over 200 trailers. As we also did local & long distance moves, we also had small trailers & pick-ups to use for local work. Transport Canada disagrees with you about not needing lights on a trailer. https://tc.canada.ca/en/road-transpo...n-requirements

A lot of police may turn a blind eye on their way to the donut shop, but watch out for the MTO. These are the guys that will remove your plates for 3 minor safety infractions or 1 serious one Be careful running with no trailer lights...

[7milesout]

Since I was a mini-Shrek, I was always very interested in the lights on vehicles. Long story, but suffice it to say that now, I really enjoy keeping all my lights on my vehicles in working order. I like the original lights. More power to those who like to change things up ... I don't. I see nearly brand new trucks with chimsels that don't even work. And it irks me. Chimsel = CHMSL = Center High Mounted Stop Light. My old 2000 and 2003 truck, the chimsels light up real pretty. Makes the truck look "taken care of" to me.

The point is, I like the lights on the back of my cute little utility trailer too. They are old school lights. And as I can tell, they are just slightly out of sync with the Mirage lights. I like that too. Because being out of sync could help draw extra attention ... so that perhaps I don't get my trailer slammed into.

[Fummins]

I try to keep on top of burnt out lights too. I just got into the habbit cause I didn't want to give anyone a reason to pull me over leaving my old shop at 11pm.

Now cops here don't even need a real reason to pull you over, they can just say they suspect your under the influence and start looking for reasons later. Still, I keep all my lights working. I'm sure if I got pulled over in my van by the right keener I'd get tickets for not having orange reflectors at the front corners and I might not have red at the rear. Probably get a ticket for loud exhaust.
I once got pulled over for a bs reason(had snow covering rear window of truck). Once pulled over they found I was running a dealer plate on my personal truck to move it to the shop....It cost me $500 to have a lawyer go to court and have it thrown out. Plus towing and impound fees too, and I had to miss half a day of work and borrow a tow truck to tow mine back. Good times.