I’ve got a few ‘plans’ over the next couple of years where having a cargo trailer would be a benefit. I am at the point where I’m pricing out options and starting to read/watch videos on towing.
This video is extremely helpful and very educational…
But I think I’ve figured out a few other things as well about my wants.
Why a trailer?
I own a lawn tractor and a motorcycle that periodically require service. I live in a somewhat rural area where many of the places that can perform such services are hundreds of kilometres away. Although I can ride my motorcycle to a service place somewhat more easily than my lawn tractor, I’m left without a vehicle while the work is performed on my bike.
I also have plans to replace my bike with a newer model Road Glide and have that newer bike converted to a trike. The ‘best’ place I’ve found for the conversion in Western Canada is Pair-A-Dice trikes in Sunnybrook, Alberta. This involves a lot of back and forth: taking my old bike for negotiations/trade in, bringing the new bike to Pair-A-Dice, then picking it up a few weeks later when it is done. I’ll be talking more about this on my Geek on a Harley blog as the plans solidify,. A trailer would make this practical.
The final rationale for having a trailer is to have a ‘bug out’ option. The first full year Irene and I were in Castlegar we had to evacuate ourselves and our animals during a forest fire. Since then we’ve talked about how we would get our five cats, dog, ourselves, and a small amount of essentials to safety if this happened again. We’ve considered an RV but aren’t really ready for that big of a commitment. A trailer with the right features could provide us with an emergency evacuation capability that includes all of our critters.
What type of trailer do I want?
I initially was thinking about a flat deck trailer, but as the reasons for having such a utility vehicle added up that seemed inadequate. I’ve settled now on a cargo trailer of sufficient size to accommodate a motorcycle, trike, or our evacuation needs.
The size I am looking at is 7 feet wide by 12 or 14 feet in length. It needs to have a ramp for loading/unloading the bike, and ideally would have dual axles for stability. Hitch pull is sufficient for our needs as we would not have more than a thousand kilograms (2,000 pounds) or so of weight inside. A side exit door would be a nice-to-have feature.
Some more details about how to tow
A few more ‘serious’ (and less funny) videos on how to tow a trailer follow:
- Backing up a trailer (U-Haul)
- good guidance on pivot points
- Trailer towing tips for a pickup
- How to tow a trailer (Autoguide)
- includes good tips on adjusting brake ‘gain’
If you are going to use it for critter transport you need to consider cooling in summer and heating in winter. That can be as simple as solar powered fans or a battery powered heater and a cargo blanket, but it takes up weight and space.
The only other thing I will mention is that here in Alberta anyway, they are magnets for break-ins but the poor crooks and seemingly are stole more frequently than credit card numbers. The wheel locks, axel locks, hitch locks, chains etc I see on those things would not be out of place in a Houdini show.
Yeah, ‘critter transport’ is something we’d need to give some thought to for the climate related reasons you mention. It would be an emergency thing, so who knows what the weather would be: given the most likely reasons around here being fire evacuation, it would likely (?) be summer time. But I think that is all ‘doable’, and the starting place is having the enclosed trailer.
Theft and Houdini-level prevention: I think we are a bit better off here just because our area is more sparsely populated. There are still criminals, but they aren’t around every corner. I’d probably put a hitch lock on, and maybe a ‘texas boot’ style wheel lock just to discourage passers-by. I don’t think we’d leave anything inside it most of the time, and from what I’ve read the best thing to do if it is empty is to leave the doors unlocked.
Break-ins by the poor crooks and stolen more frequently than credit card numbers by the rich crooks…. I hate typing on my phone