Hydrolic jack for motorbike on the back of a motorhome

rebelno · Member

Hydrolic jack for motorbike on the back of a motorhome

Dougwe · Chief one feather

I would be very concerned about all that weight overhanging the rear axle of your MH. If you tow on a trailer, that weight would be on the trailer axle and the only extra weight on the MH would be towball weight, probably not a lot. Just my thought on the subject.

rebelno · Member

Thank you very much for that very good point

rebelno · Member

Would air shockies do any good?

jade46 · Senior Member

You need to be very careful with the overhang. The rules state the overhang from centre of rear wheel to back of MH must be less than 60% of the distance from centre of front wheel to centre of rear wheel ie wheel base. This sounds a lot but as an example on a 25ft Jayco I cannot legally have a 600mm tool box on the rear. I know you see a lot of MH with big boxes on the rear end but I believe they are illegal and I wont take the chance with insurance companies. The attached file shows the rules

Cheers
Dean

www.support.transport.qld.gov.au/qt/formsdat.nsf/forms/QF4550/$file/F4550_ES.pdf

-- Edited by jade46 on Sunday 6th of March 2016 08:44:41 PM

Hey Jim · Guru

Hi Bec & Wayne,

Do you really need the hydraulics. I see carriers each time we attend the Sydney super show, made up from aluminium that carry postie type bikes. plus up to a 175cc trail bike. they have a fold up ramp. They Hydraulics and motor would really add heaps of weight. Some of the new trail bikes are half the weight of bikes of yester year.

There are a few on here that carry bikes and they will reply in time.

Regards Jim

madaboutled · Guru

Just a thought.....

If you can overcome the weight & overhang issues, why not use 12 Volt DC Actuators instead of Hydrolics???

Dougwe · Chief one feather

rebelno wrote:
Would air shockies do any good?

I don't think so in this case as the law comes into it as well. Maybe if a Engineers report was obtained "air bags" might be helpful.

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

Our OKA is right on the limit of maximum overhang.

The 1.8m of overhang is 60% of the wheel base.

Cheers,

Peter

rebelno · Member

Thank you that photo explains it all to me, being a woman when it comes to the technical stuff I am not the best lol. This explained it all in a simple way. Thank you again so much

Bas + Eve · Senior Member

Give Hitchmate a call they have exactly what you want. PH:07 5437 8300. WWW.hitchmate.com.au

We have a 250cc Burgman on the back of our 516 Mercedes 5t Sunliner. Check what chassis you are buying (most are way too light) and check vertical load limit of your hitch This is usually 10% of the tow weight limit.

Watch your overhang, re 60% of WB. This includes body overhang.

IT CAN ALL BE DONE....RING HITCHMATE.

GOOD LUCK

rebelno · Member

Thank you Bas and Eve, this helps a lot we are still looking around of course but will make Wayne ask about the weight of the chassis more and about the

overhang too. Just to be sure. I am going straight into the link you sent me smile

Bas + Eve · Senior Member

Whatever you do DON'T buy one of those aluminium scooter carriers on ebay....bloody dangerous.

Cruising Cruze · Guru

Nearly anything is possible biggrin biggrin

Cheers John

Hylife · Guru

What sort of bike is the obvious question?

Small Scooter/125 Ag/MX bike is not very heavy and really isn't a problem weight wise for a motor home. A van is a different kettle of fish.

But a Cruiser, even a 250 Virago/Hyosung is 180KG+ wet. A HD bagger or Honda Goldwing is close to 400kg.

Even if distance from the axel was not an issue, consider the effects of leverage. All that weight behind the rig's rear axel takes a LOT of weight off the front wheels and puts a lot of see-saw stress on the rear suspension unless the rig is very large like the bus in the picture.

Next time you see a Toy hauler van you will understand why the manufacturers position the axels so much further rearward.

rebelno · Member

We are tossing up what bike to buy and I have been researching weights and widths etc online. We are thinking of a BSA Bantam which weigh from around 82 kgs to 95 kgs dry. We are looking at some more RVs next weekend so I will be asking about hitch weight etc too.