Do-it yourself GS hitch and trailer

[Anonymous]

I just spent the last 3 hours picking a guys brain about the trailer hitch he made for his GS1100E. I'd like to get some discussion going if anybody has experience with something like this.

The set-up is appaulingly simple so I thought I'd pass it on. He had a piece of 1" strap steel coming down from the rear signal mounts on each side which met up with a pair of horizontal 3/4" square tubes. But get this, the square tubes were welded onto the bottoms of his centre stand feet! Obviously he can't use the stand anymore but that's a pretty cool idea. If I do it I'll remove the stand and bolt the tubes directly to the centre stand mounts. Then he had a bigger piece of tubing across the back of his bike with a ball in it.

As for handling, he said to get the ball as close to the tire as reasonably possible. It was also good to have the wheelbase of the trailer axle to rear axle be the same as the bikes wheelbase. He said he used the centre stand as part of the set-up because it kept the weight much lower than using the passenger pegs. He also had the ball height a few inches lower than the rear axle as it made the trailer handle better, he did have it at the same level as the axle for a while but changed it. Reasonable sized wheels also helped, he liked the 12" rims over the small ones which really have to spin at highway speeds. He was thinking of going up to a bit bigger car wheels at some point too.

For his trailer all he had was an alluminum T frame. The bottom of the T had the hitch bolted on and the sides of the T had stub axles bolted on. These were the rubber torsion style axles without springs. The real suspension for the trailer was a 3" thick foam floor inside of the trailer. The most important part of the trailer design was to make it a wedge shape. This prevents the exhaust noise from bouncing back at you. His was tapered in from both sides and sloped forward as well.

The most expensive parts of the trailer were the axles and wheels. Otherwise you could build it with the scrap you have laying around your house. It's really got my mind off of mounting baggage on my bike.

Steve

[Anonymous]

Oh yeah, does anybody know where to get a good deal on axle stubs and wheels? Princess Auto wants 200 for the axle pair and about 150 for the wheels and fenders. I may try and buy an existing trailer for 100 and pull the parts off that I need.

[Planecrazy]

Seems to me that if you look around you'll find brand new utility trailers for $200 or less from a lot of places. This strategy ought to save you some time and trouble (and possibly some $$) in finding several of the components you'll need to complete the project, as well as guarantee you have brand new wheels, bearings, etc. You'll also have the lighting kit and lights (although I'd seriously consider changing the trailer lights to LED since they draw so little extra power from our already questionable charging system...

I look forward to pics of what you come up with, Steve!

Good Luck,
Steve 8)

[Anonymous]

Here is a potential utility trailer base for you. It's a mere 3 1/3' X 4'. I have used this trailer for several years now, primarily to tow my tools and race wheels to autocross and track events behind my Miata (it's the only way I can CARRY tools and race wheels with a Miata! ) It was easy to build and customize to fit several of my needs. Just be sure to grind the paint down to bare metal for all electrical connections - the paint's an excellent insulator!

You'd still have to fabricate a custom hitch setup for the bike, but if you can build the trailer from a kit, you've saved yourself some work. The kit weighs about 100lbs when complete - that is, the bits and pieces that come with the kit. Doesn't include the box(es) or whatever else you want to attach to the bare frame, but you can keep those light. For the autocross trailer, I got a big plastic box from Walmart meant for a pickup truck, drilled holes through the bottom of the box and the plywood base I put on the trailer frame, and bolted it on. Worked great, even with some fairly heavy tools in it. It occurred to me that I could've bought a second box and put it on the other half of the trailer instead of my set of race wheels, but I never had the need to do that.

You can read more about my particular trailer here if you're particularly interested.

[Planecrazy]

This is exactly the type of trailer I was referring to as a starting point... see, great minds think alike!

Steve 8)

[Anonymous]

That is a good deal for a trailer, they can be bought at Canadian Tire up here. My design is quite a bit different and is going to cost more because the parts I'm using are lighter and simpler.

So far I've spent 150$CDN on 4 LED lights, light mounts/grommets, turn signal integrator and wiring. The LED lights alone cost me 100 but they use under 12 watts (1 amp) with the running and brake lights on. Without the turn signal integrator and LED lights the trailer will kill the battery over an 8 hour ride according to me friend. It also causes trouble with the factory blinker relay.

The axles I was referring to are the Posi-Flex style. They go for 220CDN for 660# pairs and the 12" wheels are 80 each. I haven't decided on what size of wheels to use yet but 12" appeal to me. They are about 22" in diameter which is fairly close to the bikes rear wheel which is 27". I'm afraid a smaller 8" wheel could snap off if it's bearings overheat.

So, it is going to cost me about 600 - 700CDN with tax for the trailer when it's all said and done. That's about 450$ less than a cheap off the shelf motorcycle trailer that doesn't meet any of my demands.

Steve

Here are some quick measurements I made on my 1100E:

Measurements:
Bike axle to axle: 61?
Ball to rear axle: 15?
Trailer axle trail: 3?
Tongue length: 2?
Rear wheel diameter: 27? +- ??
Chain adjustment: 1?
Handlebar width: 31?
Grab bar width: 15?

Length of trailer main tube:
61? ? 15? ? 3? ? 2?
41?
Width of trailer frame:
31"

UPDATE:
It turns out that the 660 pound axles do not react to the road unless they've got about 400 pounds on them. I am now looking at buying a pair of 2 leaf springs and removing the second leaf if necessary. The cost of parts will be less with this design but the frame will cost more to have built.

Another option is to buy a set of wide/short high speed tires and run them at a low pressure. This allows you to skip putting a suspension on the trailer but has some serious drawbacks.

One option for connecting the trailer to the bike is to use a tie-rod end. You weld one end of the tie-rod to the end of the tongue and bolt the other end to the bike. The toe-in adjustment is left loose so that the trailer can swivle further than a typical 1 7/8 ball. This setup does not have any play in it so braking is smoother.

My bike is now wired for whatever trailer I end up making. I'm going to see about having the trailer hitch made within a weeks time.

[Anonymous]

Bike Trailer

Hey guys I was just thinking of doing a trailer these last few days since I saw a Kaw_____ki sport bike with a trailer just last weekend and it gave me the idea to use one with the GS. Post some pics and details to help us less fortunate riders to show us ur progress.
best of luck Archie

[Anonymous]

No actual building yet but today I bought a pair of double-leaf springs for 10 bucks each and three 12" tires for 25 bucks each. Tomorrow I'll pick up the wheels and hubs. I've been travelling all over the place looking for somebody to build the trailer hitch for me and so far I've been quoted 200 bucks or more.

Steve

[Planecrazy]

Come on down, Steve!! I have a MIG welder -- we can make a project out of it. No promises on how pretty the welds will be (in fact you can do the welding yourself if you like) but I will vouch for the fact that I've not had a weld break on me yet...

Of course it'll probably cost you more than two bills to do the round trip to the Chicago Area and back!! 8O

Regards,
Steve 8)

[Anonymous]

Phew, the hitch/transport bumper is made. 200 bucks got me 5 hours of labour and the material. The design is pretty simple but the guys didn't listen to me at first so I had them make me a second hitch as the first one would have got me into an accident. I also got them to make a few mounts on the hitch so I could mount my rear carrier on the bike. I'll visit them again later with my ammo boxes so that they can turn the trailer hitch into a rack for them as well.

Oh happy day!

Cheers, Steve

[Anonymous]

Today I had the hitch hit the ground on a hard left hander with a bump. I should have made the hitch as narrow as possible behind the wheel.

Steve

[jlmoulto]

So what are some of the final measurements of the trailer?

Any pictures yet? When hou wired the bike, can you explain what you did?

Thanks.

[zmike]

Looking for a hitch for your bikes..??
Check this..:

http://www.classicind.com.au/

Got mine here,easy to fit,and it is very strong..!! I know,because I got hit by a car and flew off the road. Wrecked both my bike and my trailer,but the hitch still looks like new..!!

Zmike.

[Anonymous]

I'm pretty close to being done now, I just have to get the frame welded up tomorrow. The box is 78x25x24 although with the fenders the width will be 40". This is a bit much but I don't feel like making custom fenders at this time and the extra width should add stability. My handlebars are about 31" wide so the trailer won't protrude too far but I'll have to remember not to bump curbs or drop the trailer off of the side of the road. I took some pictures of a Hayabusa and a Kawasaki both pulling trailers too but it will take time to post the pictures.

One thing I did figure out is that the easiest way to pull the back tire off of the bike is to park on a sidewalk. Then spin the bike around so that the back tire hangs off the side so you can drop the tire below the hitch. It's much less work than removing the hitch, you could probably dig a hole under the back tire too.

As for accidents, my trailers tongue is only held on by two 1/4" carriage bolts. If the trailer gets hit it will be LONG GONE before I even feel it. That's the plan anyway, my safety chains are on the tongue too so they don't really do anything.

Steve

[Anonymous]

JLM: The wiring is fairly simple. The goal of the operation is to combine the brake lights with the turn signal lights. One older cars and 4-prong trailer hook-ups the turn signal wire is also the brake wire. One our bikes the turn signals don't get affected by the brake light, it has it's own bulb.

To fix this you buy a Reese converter for about 25 bucks. To wire it up you need to ground it to a black/white tracer wire. Then you connect the turn signal and brake wires to it. The black wires for the turn signals are the ones you want, but solder onto them on the frame side of the plug. This way if you have a mishap and break a signal you can replace it without soldering any wires. Then you connect the brake wire (find with a test light) and the running light.

The best place to do this wiring is under the tail section. Then leave about 2" of the trailer plug sticking out from under the tail. You'll have a whole whack of extra trailer lead under the tail but it is very unsightly to run it down to the trailer ball area.

Cheers, Steve