I wasn't sure whether to post this here or in the "Road Trip" section. Since the story involves pulling a trailer behind a motorcycle, I figured that this would be the best place for it.

In 2007, I made a cross country trip from Gallatin, TN (near Nashville) to Seattle, WA via Sturgis. That trip in itself is actually another story. I refer to it because I packed so much stuff on the back of the Electra-Glide that the bike was extremely unstable at low speeds.

In the Badlands of South Dakota I met a British fella that was pulling a trailer with his Harley. I had always been of a mindset that towing a trailer with a motorcycle was very "dangerous." We are all susceptible to wives tails I guess. Anyway, I asked this gentleman how he liked pulling that trailer. His response was, "Mate, that trailer has set me free. Before I bought it, I packed a lot of weight on the back of the bike, like yours, and the bike was not stable."

The next year, I purchased a kit trailer on eBay for $180.00.

To be continued.

 

I had to supply a sheet of plywood for the bed of my new flatbed trailer. I bought a trailer hitch and wiring harness from JP Cycles and in no time I was ready to rock and roll.

In 2008, my wife and I set out for Sturgis from Gallatin pulling the trailer. All of the heavy luggage was strapped to the trailer and the tour pack was reserved for fragile stuff like cameras and a couple of laptops. I also put lighter stuff in the saddlebags and away we went. Below is a photo of the bike and the loaded trailer. Take note of the position of the license plate (more on that later). The second photo shows us leaving the house of a relative in Missouri. Notice the little woman has a large cup of coffee in her left hand. She also reads books, newspapers and magazines while we travel.

Now I can't tell you that the trip went without incident because that would not be true. I had two problems and I believe that both of them were my fault.

Prior to the trip, I upgraded the engine to 103 cubic inches. During the final phase of reassembly, I held the alternator stator in my hand. As I looked it over, I remember thinking, "This is the type of equipment that will put you on the side of the road. I should just change it now and be done with it"

Needless to say, I did not change it. Have you ever been to Lusk, Wyoming? It is a town of approximately 1200 people. It is situated about 90 miles south of Hot Springs, South Dakota and 110 miles East, South/East of Casper, Wyoming. These two towns are not exactly huge metropolis' either. Anyway, Lusk is where that stator decided to make me pay for not replacing it when I had the chance.

To be continued.

 

Just before the trip, I installed a Garmin/Harley-Davidson Road Tech Quest GPS on the bike. One of the nice features of the Garmin/Harley-Davidson GPS, all models, is the find feature has a Harley tab. It shows the location of the nearest dealers as well as their phone numbers. I did the search and Casper Harley-Davidson came up among others. That GPS paid for itself that day as it was getting late and I was on a schedule. I called Casper Harley-Davidson and they had the part in stock.

Now I was faced with the task of getting 110 miles out of the battery that was already low. I sent my wife to a hardware store to see if they had a battery charger in stock. We were in luck. They had one left and we bought it. As the jingle says..."Ace is the place..."

I charged the battery for an hour and a half. I took the fuse out of the headlight and tail light socket and lit out for Douglas, which was about half way to Casper. In Douglas, I plugged the battery charger in at a gas station for another hour and a half or so I thought.

About 45 minutes into the charge, I checked progress and Oh No! The charger was off. I plugged it in to a different receptacle and it started charging again. At 6:30 PM I unplugged the charger and headed towards Casper. I had to be there before dark because I had no lights. When I got to Casper, I pulled into a Holiday Inn. As I parked the bike it died. Whew! Close call, I thought. I removed the battery and charged it in the hotel room.

The next day, a nice young man from the dealer started working on the bike before a lift freed up. Say what you want about dealers but most of the techs I have come across are like this one. He had the stator changed as well as the voltage regulator, which I asked him to change, in three hours. I left him a $20.00 tip and we were off again.

The first photo below shows the bike on the charger in Douglas. The next photo shows this young man working on the bike in the drive way of the dealer as he waited for a lift to be free. If you are ever going through Casper, stop at the Harley dealer and buy something. These were super people.

To be continued.

 

Great story it sounds like you made the best of the bad situation and thought your way through it all.

Having a trailer with extra stuff you are able to haul is a good thing. I have a HF trailer myself

 

that is a lot of stuff to pack

 

I have a sister in Longmont, Colorado. Her husband had terminal cancer. The reason for the tight schedule was that we wanted to stop and see them because we might not be able to visit with my brother-in-law again. That is one reason that I was so tickled with the folks at Casper Harley-Davidson. Unfortunately, my second mistake was about to bite us.

A few months before the trip, I replaced both tires on the bike. I figured that was the best way to have no tire worries on this vacation. I check tire pressure frequently and every time I would check the rear tire it was a little low. I asked the young man at Casper Harley-Davidson to check my tires and as usual the rear tire was low, about 8 pounds low if I remember correctly. Even though it had been nearly two weeks since I last checked, the pressure should not have been that low.

In route to Longmont on I-25 a wobble started to creep in. At first I thought that it was the result of a fierce, quartering head wind that was the problem. After thinking about it for a couple of minutes, I realized I had been fighting head winds and side winds for the whole trip. Something must be wrong with the trailer, I thought. I pulled off on the shoulder and almost dropped the bike. I got off and looked at the rear tire and it was nearly flat. We were out in the middle of nowhere on a hot day with a tire problem.

I figured I must have picked up a nail or something and all I needed was to get to some place where I could plug the tire, even though plugging motorcycle tires is a bad idea. There was a sign right next to where we stopped that read, "Fort Collins One Mile." The tire still had some air so I stayed on the shoulder and nursed it to the exit and stopped at a gas station that had compressed air. I put air in the tire and I heard the leak. Now the tire was in full failure mode. I aired it again in an attempt to located the leak. As soon as I got close to it, it blew. Bang!!! It blew almost in my face. Fortunately, the blow out was on the very bottom so I was not hurt in anyway, just surprised.

Well, obviously, we were not going to make it to Longmont today. I called my sister and gave her the bad news. While I was dialing, a young man from the gas station came running out to make sure we were OK. After I hung up the phone, he told me that there was a shop around there somewhere and they worked mostly on Harley-Davidsons. A search in the yellow pages led us to Sanger Cycles.

I called and talked to Kevin Sanger and he told me he had the tire in stock and he could get it changed that day, even though it was getting late. He knew someone in the towing business and gave me a phone number to call. A flat bed truck arrived a few minutes later and the bike was at Sanger Cycles at about 5:40 PM. At 6:50 PM, it was done.

That was amazing. In two days, in two different cities, we had vacation threatening problems with our Motorcycle. Both times, we were rescued by wonderful, professional folks who took it in stride as if they do this every day, and I know that they do.

My mistake was that I should have known that the tire had a defect because it was always low. That tire should have been changed again, before the trip. However, had I done that, I would never have met the Sangers. As it turned out, my bad experience turned out to be a good experience. I never took any photos at Sanger Cycles. I do not know why. I did send the Sangers as nice of an email as I could construct, thanking them for saving our vacation. They allowed us to see my brother-in-law one last time.

Two months later, my brother-in-law passed away. When I traveled back to Colorado for the funeral, I made it a point to go back and visit Sanger Cycles. My email was printed and posted on their bulletin board. I remember thinking, "Gee, these people made an impression on me and I was flattered that they put that email on their bulletin board. Wow! They have real class." I asked Kay if I could have a photo of her since I did not get one a month before. She said sure and I have taken the liberty of presenting it below along with a couple photos I took outside their shop. I checked their web site first to make sure that her photo was on there as well. Go to their site at: http://www.sangerscycles.com/index.htm and check them out. If you are ever near Ft Collins, Colorado, stop in and buy something there. They are the best.

To be continued.

 

One of the reasons that I wrote this narrative was to let people know two things.

First, pulling a trailer with a motorcycle is not inherently any more dangerous than riding the bike without the trailer if you are careful and plan well, both in preparation and in operation. It is actually safer than piling luggage high on the tour-pack or luggage rack and having a top heavy bike with the center of gravity so far back. Except for one small problem which I will get to, all of the problems I had were with the bike, and easily avoidable had I used my head in advance. Had I asked any experienced Harley Technician about alternator stators and their reliability, I would have changed it in advance. I should also have known that a tire that keeps losing air may have a defect. Kevin Sanger showed me the defect in the tire and it was not a puncture induced failure.

Second, if you get in trouble on the highway there are plenty of people available to help you out. Just make sure you have a cell phone and don't get cheap on the GPS. I have since upgraded to the Harley/Garmin Road Tech Zumo 665. In addition to the find Harley dealer search function, it has weather and XM functions. Of course the new smart phones with the SIRI (or equivalent) voice search function will do the same thing (provided you have a good signal).

And now for the trailer malfunction. There are two photos below that clearly show that I had a license plate on the trailer before we started the trip and that it wasn't there when we got home. At first I thought it had been stolen but a closer look showed that it cracked due to vibration and broke off, somewhere in Missouri. I reinforced the license plate when I replaced it. In 2011 I took the trailer to Sturgis again. Somewhere in Missouri, the reinforced license plate broke off again, this time taking the left tail light with it. The Chinese make economical products but they are not necessarily engineered that well.

In 2012, I decided to buy a new Ultra. At about the same time, a nice Bushtec trailer came up on eBay and I was lucky enough to acquire it. I had a nice long vacation with this trailer and no missing license plate or bike brake downs.

That vacation is the subject of another story.

 

I agree we you. I've overloaded my bagger where it was unstable and topheavy, especially at low speeds. I've logged thousands of miles pulling a trailer with no issues whatsoever. I'll be loading up for Sturgis next week. See ya on the road!

 

Over 100K pulling a trailer. It's the only way to travel 2-up. Leaving for Hill City on the first. Ride safe.

 

What were the dimensions on your first trailer?