bike/car dolly

[cody]

Jamie and I found a bike carrier tow dolly that is cooler than dog dirt, it's home built by a great guy that was passing thru and he did a wonderful job, the ballance and strength was perfect, the bike rides across the front of the dolly with the car right behind it, the tires had been moved back on the dolly to properly distribute weight, the guy is an engineer and did it right, complete with a tongue crank and a wheel for rolling it around, was the slickest thing, jamie took a couple of cell phone pics and we told him this would be the answer for a bunch of us that want to take a car and the bike with us, thought I'd show it if I can find somebody that I can transfer cell phone pics too that can post them here. I've apparently burned more brain cells than I'm replacing so I don't have a clue how to transfer a cel phone pic to my pc.

Moderator note:  Added photos as requested.

[cody]

What we need to do is to send the pics from her cell phone to another cell phone and hopefully that person could transfer them to the board.  I don't have a photobucket account and last time I fiddled with trying to set up one, my pc landed in the horsepistal with horrible keyboard pains, it was crippled for weeks and had to undergo PCT at great expense, we were concidering putting it out of it's misery a few times but with time it recovered and regained it's strength but I can't bring myself to do that to it again.

[cody]

Thanks mike for adding the pics, as you can see this is a slick setup and the ramp is carried just under the back of the car, it's strong and well balanced.

[Dreamscape]

That's pretty cool! What is the maximum weight limit? And of course..................drumroll...............How Much?

Do you have any other specs like distance between fenders etc........?

Paul

[skihor]

Very Cool set up. It looks real solid and well thought out. Nice choice on the bike too. Just upgraded from my '03 Concours to a 1500 Gold Wing. I would suggest some small, (1 1/2" or 2"), steel wheels under each side of the the front edge. I don't know about your bus but I know our MC 5A would drag that front edge alot. Also I used the rear, (passenger), peg brackets for the rear tie down points.

Don & Sheila

[cody]

The guy isn't interested in building and selling them but he doesn't care if somebody else wants to use the idea to build their own, then a person can figure out their own modifications and adapt it to fit your needs but the basic idea is sound. His is very solid but he had an S&S with a low bumper height so that made the dolly apear to hug the ground, my hitch on my bus is a lot higher than his was, he said the weight on the hitch from the addition of the bike was offset by the new placement of the dolly axle.

[gumpy]

That's very slick.

I'm currently working on plans for a front mounted bike carrier to carry my Honda CX650. It will be set up to raise and lower the bike from/to ground level using an air cylinder or two
and will be mounted to the front of the bus using two standard receiver tubes so it will be removable when not in use or when necessary to get the spare tire out.

I'm considering building a cover on the front and possibly over the bike that will conform to the front of the bus (kind of a short truck-like hood if you will) that will protect the bike
from rocks and bugs. I'm going to try to use the fiberglass caps I removed from the bus when I did the roof raise for the covers. I'll incorporate a deer guard into the carrier, as well
as a set of headlights and turn signals since the bus headlights will be covered by the bike and hood.

Maybe start fabrication this fall or next spring.

craig

[Kenny]

This is an exceptionally keen idea. Would suggest one improvement. Make the dolly axel adjustable front to back to adjust the tonque weight. With the one shown in the picture, a bike weighing 800lbs would put near the same weight on the tonque. Uses for this keen idea are endless. Mount a cab sleeper for the Mother-in-law. I didn't say that out loud did I?
Kenny 

[bevans6]

As shown the car's weight will counterbalance the bike's weight somewhat, you'd have to do some numbers to see what the loads actually look like.  I agree with adjustable axles or simply landing points for the car's tires.  If you were to just carry the car, you would want the tire pads ahead of the axle, not behind.

I measured up my car dolly the other day, with a little modification I can make it into a motorcycle carrier for my sidecar rig!  If I cure my oil leak issue of totally soaking the car in oil, I might even do that sometime!

Brian

[cody]

All my vehicles pull 4 down so it really doesn't help me but I thought the idea was great and might help give some ideas, I don't know if the weight is adjustable on this one but he said that it's well counterbalanced with very little weight on the hitch, he seemed to be well versed on what he was doing.

[Jeremy]

I don't understand this design - as far as I can tell from the photos there is no pivot mechanism built into the dolly. Without a pivot the car will try to wrench itself off the dolly on every corner.

What am I missing?


Jeremy

[cody]

Look closer, the pivot is built into the axle framework.

[Jeremy]

Look closer, the pivot is built into the axle framework.

Possibly - it's hard to tell from the photos - they also appear to show the car tyres strapped down to the fixed frame of the dolly. Even more significant, though, is the fact that the rear of the car is surely much too close to the motorcycle - if the dolly does have a pivot the rear corners of the car would very quickly hit the motorcycle

But then I may be wrong


Jeremy

[cody]

He's been using it for 6 years without loosing a car or bike, but you could be right, it might not work at all.

[Kenny]

Cody, Any chance you could get some pictures without tha car or bike on the dolly? Kenny