Trailer MPG experiment, or pickup truck?

[7milesout]

If you really hit your brakes hard, you don't want the cycle flipping up in air forward.

I can't even imagine being able to hit the brakes hard enough to flip the back end up. Would probably be in a crash. Blue trucks's brakes work really well too. The rear of that bike is heavier than the front.

I would make sure the rear straps are angled backwards/to the rear of the trailer (opposite of the front straps).

I used to do it that way. And when I get a proper front chock, I'll probably do it that way again. But with my $4 front "chock," pulling the bike rearward would tend to pull that front tire out of my "chock." With the fronts pulling forward, the rears pulling rearward, the fore-aft position of the bike is close to neutral. And out of the $4 chock it goes when exposed to undulations. All 4 pulling forward kept the bike against the front rail, and in the $4 chock. Otherwise, I agree with you.

It ran real good that way. No problems.

[7milesout]

I bought a front wheel chock that locks the bike in a standing position. It can be sat down on a floor surface, the ground, or mounted. Once mounted it is quickly released. So, I set it up to mount into my utility trailer. However, it is currently sitting on the garage floor with the pictured motorcycle mounted in it.

With nothing on the utility trailer and the load gate laid forward, the trailer puts 87.0 pounds on the hitch.

Based on the fore-aft location where I mounted the front wheel chock, the trailer WITH THE MOTORCYCLE puts 89 - 90 pounds of load on the hitch. Meaning, the motorcycle's weight is carried by the trailer. The bike is centered left - right.

I put the bike on with regular motorcycle load ramps. Which works very well because the load ramps were made longish to be able to load at steeper inclines. But with how low the utility trailer is, it's a very easy load up onto the trailer with those load ramps. No wind drag from the load gate while going down the road. However, without the bike on it, the load gate is still 100% fully functional, and will be used this coming weekend to move my youngest son to his dorm.

I only towed this locally just checking it. It worked surprisingly well. I wish I had had this set up ready for when I bought it. The bike is 1783 cc I believe (just under 1,800). It makes ~120 hp / 100 lb-ft of torque or so. However, it's not even HALF the vehicle that the Mirage is! (That was a complement to the Mirage).

P.S. - I won't be using the Mirage to haul my son's stuff to his dorm. We may try to load it all into my blue truck and *maybe* haul the golf cart on the utility trailer. His college is on the GA coast, and the wife tries to make a beach vacation out of any drive anywhere near a beach.

[Wallythacker]

Dredging this thread up again. Keeping all similar subjects here. In another thread, I was jabbering about towing a murdersickle home with my blue truck. Now I sort of regret not doing that trip with the Blueberry.

However, with the Blueberry, I would want to strap the motorcycle in, back off of the front rail of the trailer. A neutral position, so as to a) not add hitch load to the Blueberry, at least any more hitch load than the trailer itself. And because b) a couple youtube videos demonstrated stability of loading trailers, and loading a trailer carrying all the load on the trailer axle(s) proved to be very stable. I did this with my dad's truck and the ATV and it WAS indeed, very stable. Carrying the murdersickle all the way to the front, but towing with the blue truck, well, the blue truck doesn't care if there's 200 pounds on the hitch. When I loaded the murdersickle on there in Florida, blue truck said, "is that all?"

There is no front wheel chock in my utility trailer, and trying to secure a motorcycle without a front wheel chock is MUCH more difficult than with. That was part of the reason I didn't use the Blueberry, the trailer wasn't ready for that neutral load.

So, the only thing I wanted to add to this thread is, I'm going to begin doing measurements of WHERE to position a front chock on the trailer that would put my newly procured murdersickle in a neutral position. And I'm going to change the location of the angle iron (frame) of the trailer load ramp in such a way that the murdersickle rear tire will not have to sit on that angle iron. In fact, I think what I may do is move that angle iron off to the side, and then add another piece of angle iron symmetrically opposite. Such that the 2 angle irons sort of cup / capture the rear tire of that murdersickle.

Then I can do as Fummins suggested, leave the ramp gate folded forward/down, use my folding ramps to load the bike up and onto the trailer, roll the front tire through the angle irons, onto the wood floor and into that wheel chock. Then strap. The rear wheel would be captured enough, so as to prevent it from going left / right. The weight would be neutralized. Turning the utility trailer into a dual role motorcycle trailer too. And then, I would feel comfortable towing with the Blueberry (as long as the Blueberry has good tires).

I will add pictures as I slowly work on this project...

I'm likely modding my 4x8 trailer to handle garden tractors and my Burgman. I can strap either down but I prefer the idea of chocks. Roll into them, a couple of straps and drive home. To my surprise I had a 450 lb. tractor decide to change location on the trailer. Still scratching my head how that happened. And thinking back I'm amazed I got my Burgman safely home several years ago on a ratty converted camper trailer.

[7milesout]

I prefer the idea of chocks. Roll into them, a couple of straps and drive home.

Me too. That's what I did with the pictured setup. There's a Condor brand wheel chock I positioned in the front. I roll in, and can get off, not worrying about the stability of putting it on the kickstand. A couple straps and drive home. Just after that picture, a big ole nasty thunder storm steamed into town. So I hustled home and unloaded. It didn't take long.