| Author | Message | ||
     Xl1200r |
Does anyone have any experience with Trailer In A Bag (TIAB)? Aside from the high price, I can't find a single bad review about them. The Bikelug is very similar, but looks a little more complicated (tilting rail for loading instead of a typical ramp), and I've heard more than one customer service horror story online. I know many of you tell me save half of my money (or more) and go with one of the Harbor Freight trailers, but space is a HUGE issue for me. Living in an apartment with very few closets and limited garage/storage space means I need something that will break down to pretty compact size. The only complaints I've read about the TIAB is the small wheels and lack of suspension, but nobody who has actually towed one complains about this stuff. My only gripe is they say the tongue weight is generally 120-160 lbs, which is a bit high for the car that would be towing this. 50-70 lbs seems more reasonable to me, and I'm sure I could do enough to move either the axle location or bike location enough to change this. So - anyone out there have any personal experience with one? | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
What vehicle are you going to be using? I have the trailer hitch carrier and it works very well, but you would need a vehicle that has a pretty high tongue load to use it. I've got a Toyota Sequoia. I know Dobr24 uses a similar rig with his Tahoe. It's really small and could tuck into a closet. | ||
| No_rice |
what are you towing it with? that really isnt a high tongue weight at all. i have a 94 plymouth acclaim 4cyl that tows a 5x8 tiltbed trailer. i hauled my 1125 and xb9r side by side on the front and the gf's blast was stuck in the middle more near the back 6 hours to wisconsin for homecoming and back at about 80mph. im sure there was a good couple hundred pounds atleast on the tongue. yes it made the back sag a little bit, but not a whole lot. plus trailers actually pull better with a little more weight on the tongue. if they are balanced TO much they dont pull as nicely and tend to make the rear of the vehicle wander more. i guess it does depend what your are using for a tow vehicle but i wouldnt flinch at that much weight on the tongue with almost anything | ||
| No_rice |
wow i type slow, lol. anyway, fats do you have any pics of that thing with your uly on it? i have looked at those things a few times but with it having such a small bas i always think the straps would have to run pretty close to straight down from the bike and i wonder how well they can be secured. i would really be pissed if the end gate on my tahoe got banged up by my bike. it would be a 2 for one special that i dont want in on. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
There is plenty of space between the bike and the back of the vehicle. This is what mine looks like:  As you can see, there are extended arms that come out the rear to extend the distance for the straps and provide a more triangular anchor point. I have never had it shift. That one is rated for up to 600lbs. | ||
| Xl1200r |
The current tow vehicle would be Chevy Cobalt SS Supercharged, which isn't rated to tow anything, but other Cobalts say anything up to 1000lbs is okay, but not over 55mph and no more than 1000 miles per year. If I can play my cards right, the next tow vehicle would be the new Camaro, which will likely be able to handle a little higher load. I guess the 150 lbs tongue weight isn't that much, but with the Buell being so short I'd be concerned that nearly all of the weight would be on the tongue. I think I may be able to assemble the thing a little out of order to move the axle up if needed. But anyways - like I said, the tow vehicle(s) not going to able to handle anything more than a class I hitch. | ||
| No_rice |
i guess that looks better than some of them ive seen. most of the ones i have actually been able to look at around here are small ones that maybe have a scooter on them. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
The one pictured weighs 89lbs and is heavy as a mofo. When it's all strapped down, it's as a shick brithouse. | ||
| No_rice |
my recommendation then would be to see about moving the wheel chock back a bit instead of trying to move the axle forward. keep the rear wheel close to the back of the trailer and then decide where the chock needs to be. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
The problem with his issue is that he's looking for a trailer he can stow in an apartment. I don't think the folding trailer allows you to move the chock. It is what it is. The Trailer In A Bag is top of the line. There are other similar options, but I don't think they are as compact. What you don't want is a balance where the load will pull up on the trailer hitch. It, as Tim has mentioned, will make the car do funny things. If you can figure out a place to store the trailer, you can buy one cheaper and with more flexibility of weighting and balance. | ||
| 4_pete_sake |
Ft_B- do you carry the Uly behind the Toyota??? My bro-in-law has one of the tongue loaders but the one he has must be more for dirt bikes it is loaded for 400# max Pete- | ||
| Slaughter |
We have hitches on ALL our vehicles - a Saturn SC1 with 290,000 miles on it and a Dodge Stratus with over 160,000. Neither vehicle is really a "towing" vehicle and yet we still tow with both. We have pulled a Uhaul motorcycle trailer with TWO motorcycles behind the Stratus for a 1200 mile round trip and it did just fine. We have a home-made 1-bike 1-rail trailer that we can pull with the Saturn just fine. We also have a beater pickup that will haul more stuff and a bike when we need to - but the typical lightweight trailer with just a moto or 2 will pull behind a small car just fine (just want to get a tranny cooler if you're doing it a lot) We are probably going to sell the trailer because it's not too practical and we can rent the Uhaul for so cheap that it's not worth the storage space to us to keep the 1-moto trailer any more. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Ft_B- do you carry the Uly behind the Toyota??? Yep. It does just fine. If I did it more often, I would probably install a rear air shock system to even the load a bit. It does tend to make the rear squat a bit. | ||
| Ratbuell |
I think XL1200r needs to be concerned with the 'supercharged' portion of his tow vehicle. My 'other' hobby is late '80's Shelby Dodge turbo cars, so I know a thing or two about boosted engines (and have the piston ashtrays to show my learning curve, lol). A vehicle with boost (turbo, blower, whatever) will react totally differently pulling a load than it will empty. Fuel, spark, and boost curves (the last being less of an issue with a belt-drive blower versus a wastegated turbo) are set for the vehicle and occupants. Add too much more weight (loading the engine) and you can pop stuff because the engine is working harder, with the same timing advance (knock) and boost levels (exponentially increases knock damage). If you're going to tow with a turbo'd or blown engine, do yourself (and your wallet) a favor - add a boost gauge and EGT gauge to make sure things are staying in line. Our '05 Cummins Dodge has boost/egt/trans temp gauges that I put in when it was new, and it's amazing how the readings change when loaded versus empty. And, amazingly, I've left that truck all stock - 610 lb-ft will tow anything I need to move just fine! I have an 87 Shelby CSX, had it running low 12s at the track with the turbo 2.2 4-banger. Wanted a little more performance for the next pass, dialed in three degrees more timing. Next pass, at a 24psi boost setting, I got less than a full second of spark knock - and ended up with zero compression on #3 when I blew a hole through the piston. Extreme example...but used for illustrative purposes. XL - look at the gross vehicle weight rating. Subtract curb weight from that number. That will tell you more accurately how much weight that engine is designed to motivate - and it includes driver, passenger(s), trunk luggage, *and* bike on a trailer. | ||
| Bcordb3 |
The Kendon trailers are great, a little pricey but work fine. I have the fold up standing in a corner of my garage. | ||
| Xl1200r |
I'm not at all concerned with the blown aspect of my motor - I think mine will self-correct itself as much as it needs to with the ECU, where as your older Shelby's may not be able to do that. The car came with a boost guage stock, so I can keep an eye on it, but it has an internal blow-off at 12.5 psi, so it won't ever go over that. My real concern was the suspension - the car has lower and stiffer springs and tigheter valved shocks than a regular cobalt, which is why the others are rated to tow and mine is not. I did a little research concerning my car's curb weight, weight distribution, and looked up the rear axle's GVWR, and found that i can load appx 650 lbs onto the rear axle, so a tongue weight of around 150 lbs shouldn't bother it too much. I think I'll be safe with this setup. | ||
| Northernyankee |
Ft_B you got a class III or IV hitch on your Tahoe? | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
I believe I have a class IV hitch but limited to 600lbs tongue weight. It could also be a class III with a tongue weight slightly higher than the normal 500lbs for a class III. I KNOW the max tongue weight for my hitch is 600lbs. | ||
| Sethbuchbinder |
Im with ft bstrd, The hitch mounted tote style works great. I use a www.mototote.com unit for the last 3 years without an issue from Road America to Datona. If your gonna tow with a smaller car, www.kendonusa.com sells a bunch of nice single and double bike trailers that stand up and roll around on casters. Hey Rat, talk about a small world, I had a 89CSX along with about 20 other Turbo Dodges over the years. Now Im driving a 06 Cummins Ram and building a TIII, 568 85 600 vert. Guess your also on Turbododge.com I towed for years with boosted vehicles without any problems. as long as you have a standard trans or make some provisions to keep your auto tranny happy( trans cooler usually does it). As long as you keep things in moderation youll be fine with the cobalt. Give yourself extra time to accelerate and stop. YMMV Seth | ||
| Xl1200r |
The Kendon's are real nice, but they're twice the price, twice the weight, and will never fit anywhere I'd be able to put one. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Seth - yep, TD.com and turbomopar.com  Still got my 89 CSX (50k miles, autographed, 2 options), going on the road in Jan with Historic tags; and my 91 Daytona CS/AGS, bought that one brand new, 74k miles and documented as 1 of 16 built. 87 CSX is apart right now, new engine almost done (2.5, S70 garrett, 2-pc intake, A568) and I have an 86 GLHS project for sale (barn car). I love boost... XL - if you're coming in that far under the axle weight rating, you should be just fine. | ||
| Xl1200r |
XL - if you're coming in that far under the axle weight rating, you should be just fine. Agreed, but that's also assuming that the tongue weight will be in the specified range with nearly none of the bike behind the axle. Even so, according to everything I've seen, the tongue weight for this trailer (540 lbs with the bike) should be 55-80 lbs (everything I read says 10-15% of total weight), which is less than half of what they say it will be. The range they give seems to be in line for full-dresser HD's and Goldwings. I understand that a negative weight on the tongue is no good (I've done lots of trailering), but there's no sense in working the rear springs any more than I need to. I can play with it - I'm still guessing that I'll be within the limits of the axle, seeing as how the rear suspension is rated to take the entire weight of my bike - but the hitch, being a class I, won't take more than 200 lbs, so I need to be sure I'm under that. I'm going to e-mail the manufacturer and see if the axle position can be moved forward by assembling the parts in a different order. | ||
| Xl1200r |
Okay, the company told me that due to a typical sportbikes wheelbase, the tongue weight is closer to 200 lbs - too close for comfort for the Class I hitch I'll be using. I can switch peices around to move the axle forward, but he says my tongue weight would be around 50 lbs at that point, which is on the light side. The good news is that they're willing to weld the axles on further forward to get a better tongue weight. He said they would even weld on two sets of mounting points so I could choose whichever was best based on the bike I was pulling. I've never seen or used this product before, but they get an A+ rating from me just based on customer service so far. |
