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How
to load your motorcycle by yourself |
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Prepare your
motorcycle: if you are using extension loop straps around the
lower triple tree, have those in place and ready to attach your tie
downs to them before you start to load your motorcycle. On large
touring motorcycles do not attach tie downs to the handlebars. The
lower triple tree is the most secure place, as shown in right photo. |
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Time to load your motorcycle: line your ramp straight in line with your wheel chock; you do not want to come in at an angle to the chock. Push your motorcycle straight into the chock. At this time you can either put the bike in gear or hold the front brake to keep the motorcycle from rolling back. Put your side stand down. We recommend starting with the left tie down first, snug this enough to get the slack out of the tie down. Now go to the right front tie down and tighten, at this time the side stand should be off the floor and should be put in the upright position. Now that the motorcycle tie downs are snug take a minute and look to make sure the sides of the front tire and brake rotor/s are clear of the wheel chock. Should you notice the side of the tire touching on one side of the wheel chock we |
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| recommend that you realign the bike so that the tire is in the center of the wheel chock. Should you notice the brake rotor touching the wheel chock we recommend that you use a different size wheel chock as we do offer alternate sizes. Tighten front tie downs evenly and very securely; do not be afraid to tighten the tie downs tight. Depending on the motorcycle, we’ve used as much as 80% plus of the front suspension travel and have had no problems with suspension wear over many years of traveling. When the motorcycle is secured with the front tie downs the bike should be standing vertically straight or the same angle as the trailer/truck if leaning in either direction left or right. We also highly recommend the use of tie downs on the rear of the motorcycle. Pick a high-suspended area on the chassis for the best leverage to attach the tie downs to. These tie downs should pull down and slightly forward 1”-2” of your attaching point, thus keeping the motorcycle pulled down and forward into the wheel chock. Make sure at this time the motorcycle does not rock forward, backward or sideways. If so, tighten all tie downs more. If using cam buckle tie downs it is best to have someone compress the rear suspension while tightening the tie downs or use ratchet style tie downs on the rear as well as the front. On some motorcycles you could gain 60%-70% of the tie down stability using this method on the rear. | ||
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If you have to load your motorcycle by yourself on the left side of an enclosed trailer we have some suggestions. First if your motorcycle has a lot of lean angle you will want to get a small block of wood to put under the side stand. This will aid in keeping the bike from leaning into the wall of your trailer. Mark the floor ahead of time where the block is to be placed, or drill through the block and floor to drop a bolt or pin through; this will keep the block from moving. Harley Davidson’s with spring loaded side stands can be difficult to put on the block of wood. If you cannot lean the motorcycle over far enough to get onto your block, we recommend that you use a piece of small diameter rope connected to the outside edge of the side stand. We then put a loop in the center to grab onto and finally a loop that went over the handlebar end. While loading the motorcycle you can pull up on the rope and rest the side stand directly on the block, as shown in bottom right photo. Please feel free to give us a call with any concerns. |
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Copyright by Pingel Enterprise, Inc. All rights
reserved. |
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