Dirtbike hitch carriers

For those of you that have them, how do you guys like your motorcycle hitch carriers? I’m looking to buy one pretty soon here. I’ve been looking on Craig’s, online, stores. Where’d you get yours? I’m planning a trip to Nevada for a couple days and I plan on having my camper on so I need one of these things.

 

I know it's not what you asked, but I thought I'd offer up an alternative for your consideration:

I went with a small trailer. It's a 4x8 semi flat bed trailer (small railing) with a locking box up front and I installed wheel chocks. 3 bikes and tons of moto junk all fit in the trailer. Leaves room for more cold beer in the bed... Plus, I'm not as young as I used to be, so loading in the trailer vs. the bed or the tongue rack is a breeze.

For our delicate little tacomas (without much load capacity), seems like 300 pounds of dirtbike (I ride a pig, lol) 4-5 feet from the axle, plus all your junk in the bed would come close to maxing out the tongue weight, and at least make it sag quite a bit.

 

Not a bad alternative! Perhaps I’ll have to keep an eye out for one of those as well.

 

I use the bed.

 

I have one. Custom made. Big ole piece of aluminum for the rail that holds the bike and a steel frame that goes into the hitch. I LOVE IT!! i use it because i have a camper shell. I used to use a trailer but backing down 1 lane roads in some of the places i ride was stressful, I would have to unhook manually spin he trailer around, turn the truck around then re-hook.

The motorcycle hanging off the back of our little trucks is noticeable but its not that bad. The truck handles it better (power wise) that it did with a 4x8 trailer (real heavy one, not like the ones you get at Lowes or Homedepot).
90% of the racks out there SUCK!! cheap thin materials and most are bolted together. I would never truck my $6k plus motorcycle on one of those $200 hitch carriers so I built the one I have.

 

This is my friend's carrier. It's a harbor frieght things that he returned after using once because it's a piece of shit.

Like Wolfgang123 said....don't trust a piece of shit with your motorcycle.
Edit...I mean that the the other way around...don't trust your motorcycle with a piece of shit.

We carried it about 250 miles with no problems. This is a KTM 640...it's 320 pounds. I'd say this is pushing the weight limit. Just don't go over any bumps.

Also in CA you're limited to 55mph on the highway when you're towing.

Also check this thing out. If your bike is heavy it might be easier to load it by yourself.
https://mojomotosport.com/products/...4WQNHw65BnO8YePGo9FEZWGi58l1pUzQaAlaSEALw_wcB

 

In my experience as with all HF stuff, it can be fine with a little tweeking. Just tack weld the carrier to the hitch tube and that takes the bolts out of the equation. They all like to rock, so strap the carrier on both ends to the rear bumper, so you end up with 3 pts of contact, 2 straps and the hitch. I have a bunch of miles with no drama, but I havent hauled anything heavier than a 250 4stroke.

 

Harbor Freight is great. For the price... Most things are cheap enough to be considered "one time use" like angle grinders, etc... Just bought a $30 5 gallon air tank for a poor-man's on board air system. Works great when coupled with a good air compressor (i.e. NOT a HF one, lol).

I stay away from anything at HF that's aluminum, partly because they generally use cheap/soft aluminum that's riveted together, but also because I can't weld aluminum to fix those things. At least with steel parts, even cheap steel is pretty strong (just heavy), and can always be re-welded and the hardware replaced.

If you have a welder or know someone who does, you could make a pretty indestructible hitch mount for ~$50 in steel, and another $20 in beer.

 

I do that too when I don’t have my camper on.

 

I checked out HF yesterday and they do have carriers but not specifically for heavy bikes, more for like ice chests or other luggage. I saw cycle gear has them for not a terrible price. A welder wouldn’t be a bad investment either.

 

Just tell your wife (if married) that you'll build her some lawn furniture or something. I have yet to make good on that, but you know, gotta finish my sliders first, lol...

 

Where are you? You can take mine for the trip and see if you like using them.

This is the one I have. HF used to sell the same one.

https://www.cabelas.com/product/Mas...VCJJ-Ch2HWQyPEAQYASABEgIXIfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

I appreciate it! I actually just bought one from cyclegear yesterday. Looks identical to yours.

 

Not my truck, but I was looking for a while for a truck with moto in the bed and RTT on top, looks liked it worked fine for this fellow. Posting this incase other folks wanted a visual like me

 

OMG...want. Is this a poor man's toy hauler??

 

Here's mine. It's a bit tough to get on and off due to vehicle lift height

 

I believe this one is called a Black Widow carrier, weight of 600 LBS. I added a chain and some turnbuckles to tighten it up and I had no problems. All over California, Death Valley, Las Vegas,and the desert roads in between. Solid piece that comes with a ramp makes loading and unloading by yourself a breeze.

 

Before I had to sell it all still got the truck tho of course.

 

$20 on craigslist. Modded for bike binderz, loading and binding it down takes less than a minute. Need stronger springs though, truck has that cali lean. Running dakars with no AAL.

 

I too am familiar with Cali lean