It's a big, heavy truck and a relatively lightweight motorcycle (350 Lbs-ish), so I could hang it off of the nose, but, I'm concerned about blocking my lights. On the back, I suppose that I could use a pivoting mount to make egress to the camper unit easier, but I'm not in love with either option. Has anyone done this? And what are your thoughts? I'd rather not pull a trailer.
In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :
One time, or regular occurrence? I've seen a guy pull the wheels and forks and stuff the bike in the rear seat of a crew-cab pickup. Not ideal, but maybe OK for a one-off.
I occasionally haul a bike on the front of my E350. I don't do it enough to worry about blocking the lights, but it would seem that a rig similar to snow plow lights could be made pretty easily.
I have a friend who made a really nice rear rack for his travel trailer. The bike was super-secure. So secure in fact, that when the camper ended up on it's side due to the weight of the bike hanging off a lever on the back, the bike stayed strapped in place.
My vote is front hitch and work out a good lighting solution. Good luck!
I looked into this kind of seriously when we had a truck camper, but I was dealing with a 500lb bike, with thoughts of buying a lighter trail bike if necessary. I never found a hitch mounted carrier that I was comfortable using for 500lbs of bike. Even with a light trail bike, it's a lot of extra weight hanging on the front if you mount a front hitch. Be sure to check your front axle/tire weights (with the camper mounted) to see if you're within safe limits. As mentioned, the rear carrier can block the camper door, so you've got that issue to deal with. I never saw any hitch mounted carrier that looked all that well made.
Ultimately, the few times I ended up taking my bike, we were already taking a car, and I have my car trailer set up to take a bike across the front in front of the car.
When I was road racing bikes, I used a 6x12 enclosed trailer, and if I were back in the situation of taking a bike with a truck camper I'm pretty sure that's what I'd do.
Is there enough room to load it through the door of the camper and strap it down?
low_n_slow said:Is there enough room to load it through the door of the camper and strap it down?
That would be a chore, if doable at all. - especially since part of the time it'd be single handed. This is very close to the rig I've got if I were to front mount it:
And this is my rig with a large trailer. I'm thinking that a small trailer is probably the ticket.
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