>Hello all:
>I've been thinking about buying a motorcycle trailer (the kind you pull
>behind a motorcycle) for several years. The wife and I enjoy taking 2-3
>day roadster trips around the Mississippi river area and never seem to
>have enough room. With the roll bar installed and the top down I can't
>even fit a small cooler in the back. With all of the road trip stuff in
>the truck, there's little room for luggage. Anyway, my mailman is a big
>Harley nut and has a almost new trailer for sale including the tow
>hitch. With a little modification the hitch could be installed on the
>roadster. Has anyone installed a hitch to a roadster? If so, how did you
>build the hitch frame? Any help is appreciated.
Sounds like fun, Steve. I'd suggest you find a trailer/hitch dealer in
your area and consider a custom built hitch rather than adapting
something, although the Harley hitch might be used in conjunction with
additional angle iron or square tubing. If you have a hitch built, you
could use a removable draw bar/ball and paint the whole thing flat black.
Without the draw bar installed you probably wouldn't even see the hitch.
I'd think a custom hitch would consist of a couple of roughly triangular
pieces of 3/8 plate bolted or welded to the frame rails and extending
down far enough to run a length of (at least 2 inch?) square tubing
between them. Most commercial hitches have holes cut in the side plates
through which the square tubing passes and is welded on both sides of the
plates. Another piece of tubing is welded (perpendicular) to the long
cross piece to take the draw bar/ball assembly. All of these joints are
gusseted and reinforced. If you can weld you might be able to do it
yourself.
Just thought of something else, wiring. I don't remember if the roadster
has separate stop lights and turn signals, but if the lighting setup on
the trailer differs from that on the roadster you'll need a trailer light
adapter (trailer supply, U-Haul, most real auto supply stores) that
allows towing trailers with single/combination lights behind vehicles
that have seperate stop and turn lamp systems. In any case, run a
seperate ground wire through your harness, don't depend on mechanical
grounding through the ball/hitch, and use a bracket to mount the
connector on/near the hitch. Having the wiring dangling down looks bad
(IMHO) and doesn't do the wiring any good either.
FWIW, Ron
________________
Ronnie Day
rday@airmail.net
Dallas/Ft. Worth
'71 510 2-dr (Prepared class autocrosser)
'73 510 2-dr (Street Toy)
|