I've been trying to find weight capacity for a different motorcycle hitches, and browsed a ton of threads already. I've only seen one and it was spec'd for 300lbs.


I'm looking to tow my dirt bike (273lbs) and the trailer set up I'm looking at runs about 170. Total weight will be about 430lbs.


Here is the trailer I'd like to use, with an added ramp. http://motorcycleinfo.calsci.com/Trailers.html


I ride an 09 Electra Glide standard with a tour pack. Not worried about the power at all. Little concerned about having a good hitch but not to expensive and obviously don't want to damage my bike towing the weight. Of course I will adjust the ramp to get the right tongue weight.

 

I would contact N-Line trailer(http://n-line.com/), they not only sell trailers they sell the hitch setups and could probably give you a weight rate. Personally I would not be towing near that much weight on my rear fender supports and frame extensions, 200# would be too high for me. N-line trailer recommends no more than 80# gear in their 80# trailer and that to me would be a stretch.

 

Your going to be right at your limit I think. My time out camper loaded down is probably 350-400lbs, with that and the wife on back, its about all you will want to tow.

 

Call Bushtec they should know

 

Here is what I am using. These were good people to deal with.
http://www.mchitch.com/Harley_Davids...er_Hitches.htm

 

I talked with McHitch about this a while back. They would not commit to any weight limit. Basically, any hitch is after market and Harley doesn't offer it. That means the manufacturer says the weight limit is 0 lbs!

However, the reality is that you can have stuff in the saddle bags and the tour pack and someone in the back seat. Keep all of that in mind. Watch the shocks and make sure you are not pushing them down too much. Keep plenty of play there. That is your weight limit!

As for pulling weight ... I think I have the heaviest bike trailer on the market. It is a Roll-A-Home camper. It is the king size bed version. It is 4' wide and 6' long. It weighs 325 lbs empty and has a capacity of 800 lbs. The tongue weighs about 30 lbs empty. If you put the 10% you should have on the tongue, that means 80 lbs there when fully loaded. And, we have fully loaded it quite a few times.

The bike has enough power to make it move. But, it has a hard time stopping it. Keep that in mind! As long as it's a good trailer with everything straight, you should not have any problems. Keep the weight balanced left to right. Also, make sure you put that 10% on the hitch or it will handle poorly.

I really like my trailer. The wife loves it. It carries all of her camping gear inside. I have to be honest with other bikers though. If I had it to do over again, I would get a Roll-A-Home, but it would be the regular size bed, not the king size. It is a bit heavier than I can recommend to anyone else.

I see it this way. My shocks are OK with the weight. My wife rides her own, so I don't have her in the back seat. I have put a couple thousand miles on over the years and have had no stress problems on the bike.

All that said, if you choose to pull a trailer with your bike, it's all on you. No one can tell you what works with your bike and your riding style!

 

jkane, with all due respect to a fellow trailer puller, I think you need to go back a step and read the entire directions, including weight capacity, etc, that should have been stickered on your hitch.

Eighty pounds of tongue weight? That's a bag and a half of water softener salt in comparison!

The total weight of your trailer really has no bearing on tongue weight. The total weight is your pulling weight. Although I would find it had to believe you are carrying 475 lbs of luggage, you can have your
trailer fully loaded to 800 lbs, perfectly balanced, and you can move it around your garage with one finger under the hitch. Rearrange your load to put 80 lbs on that hitch and you won't be able pick the tongue off the floor with that same one finger. That's the weight you would be putting your Harley's hitch!

As an example, here's Hitch Doc's recommendations:

"Do not exceed the motorcycle manufacturer's Gross Vehicle weight limit when loading and pulling ANY trailer with ANY motorcycle. HitchDoc motorcycle trailer hitches are made with 3/8 inch and 1/4 inch plate steel. ALL HitchDoc motorcycle trailer hitches have a MAXIMUM tongue weight load of 40 pounds. Tongue weight must NEVER EXCEED 10% of the GROSS TRAILER weight including ALL CONTENTS AND CARGO."

Notice they say not to exceed 10% of the gross trailer weight, but the hitch itself has a maximum tongue weight of 40 lbs, or 50% less than the 10% of your trailer.

All you need to prevent sway is a "reasonable tongue weight" on your hitch. 20 lbs of downward force is a good rule of thumb. Put a bathroom scale on the garage floor, cut a 2x4 to a length so that when inserted between the ball hitch receptacle on your trailer and the scale, that the tongue is level. Load your trailer to give you at least 20lbs of tongue weight, but not to exceed the specs of your hitch. Load your trailer exactly the same way every time, and you're good to go.

I ride double and pull a Bunkhouse King Size camper without any problems, with a 20 lb starting tongue weight. Filling the cooler adds about 5 lbs to the tongue weight. I weighed my camper empty (with the add on room) and it was 360 lbs. Bunkhouse's web site says "less than 400 lbs."

 

jkane, the specs on your trailer says it comes from the factory with a 30 lb tongue weight.

I'd be willing to bet that when you have it fully loaded, the tongue weight will not have changed that much, unless you deliberately overload the front of the trailer's storage compartment with heavy items. Most of the storage weight is carried by the trailer axle, not the tongue. The only way you will know for sure is by weighing the tongue as I described.

 

10% is correct (actually 10-20 is the general rule so 10 is low end ). If 10% exceeds the tongue weight max of the tow vehicle then you are towing too heavy of a load. If you ever witnessed extreme trailer sway due to not enough on the tongue - to point where it flipped the tow vehicle - you'd be adamant to follow the recommendations. As someone mentioned, just because you can move it, doesn't mean you can stop it...quickly.

 

I saw a guy on I77 in Virginia towing a full size 4x4 atv on a utility trailer with an Electraglide. Didn't seem to be having any problems but I didn't get to see him attempt a stop.