Hitch Carrier

After having the highways take my Conti TKC80s down to about 30% I decided that it may be more advantageous to have a motorcycle carrier to lug my 2016 Kawasaki KLR650 around with. In addition, I truly enjoyed my camping experience up at the Devil's Creek Rally, although I could never carry all the gear that made the camping fun on the motorcycle. Fortunately, the Devil's Creek Rally was so close I could run my camping gear up in my Rav4 and then go back and trade the car for the motorcycle.

I estimate that my KLR650 tips the scale at a max of 454 pounds. That reflects the curb weight (including all fluids topped off) of 432 pounds, the Nomad Bars 15 pounds, the DirtRack Bars 4 pounds and the net increase from the Ricochet Bash Plate of 3 pounds. If I transport with an empty tank I can knock 36 pounds off that number.

So I needed a carrier rated at well above that and I didn't want to have to pay a lot of money. I found a decent looking carrier on Amazon for $178.95 with free shipping. It's a TMS T-MC-M800C 600 Pound Rated Carrier bill for sport bikes, but it looked like it would handle my KLR pretty well. It requires a Class III receiver. The construction is steel and it has a loading ramp, four tie down points and a front wheel lock.

Assembly was as simple as it looks. After I assembled it, I set it up on some blocks and ran the KLR up on the rack to see how it fit and start planning my tie down arrangement.

The motorcycle was a little difficult to get into the wheel lock and I suspect that it's going to be harder when it gets up in a the receiver. However, pulling it back out of the wheel lock was much easier for some reason.

I have a couple handle bar straps that always worked well hauling my dirt bikes around, but I ran into an issue with the KLR. As you can see the bar straps aren't strapped down because the fairing is so fat the straps would rub on the panels. So for now, strapped it down using the front crash bars. I can easily use the rear Dirt Racks bars to strap the bike to the rear latch points. As for the front, I think I'll double up with the crash bar and I'll work something out to get the handle bars strapped down; prolly just some padding.

One of the nice features of this carrier was that it came with an anti-tilt bracket. Tilting and wobbling is always a problem with these carriers, so I'm hopping that this little bracket will help. In addition, Curt makes an Anti-Tilt Bolt Kit for under 20 bucks that I may also get to prevent wobbles.

The next thing I'm waiting on is a new Class III receiver for my Rav4. I currently have a Class II, but all these carriers required the 2 inch receivers. Tracking has that showing up late tomorrow. Photos with the loaded bike later in the week. Stay tuned....

Update:

Well, the hitch receiver came today via UPS. It was a Hidden Hitch Model 87697 that has a significant 675 pound tongue weight rating. That's important as many of those hitch receivers have low tongue weight; more focused on pull weight weighting relative to trailers. Anyway, it showed up damaged. The box was trashed and I think it may have fallen out of the plane and caused the left side mount bracket to bend. So we'll be having a little delay as I wait for the replacement to show up.

Update:

Although damaged, my son and I got the new Class III trailer hitch installed on my 2007 Rav4. The hitch receiver still needs to be replaced and the replacement is coming this Tuesday via UPS. However, I wanted to test the overall weight on the rear suspension. I first note that it was relatively easy for me alone to get the KLR650 rolled up onto the ramp, although it took some work to get it in the chock. It was much easier to roll the motorcycle out of the chock and bring it down off the ramp. The anti-wobble clamp seems to be a little questionable. I can't really gauge yet how effective that is until I can get the whole thing out on the road.

The most important observation is that the additional 550 pounds on the rear suspension is too much. I tow a large, enclosed utility trailer with the Rav4 and it's been borderline relative to the rear suspension, but naturally the tongue weight is higher with this set up. In order to use the carrier, I'm going to need to shore up the suspension a little with some variable air suspension that I can add perhaps another 5-6 inches of lift. That's probably a good idea anyway with the trailer towing. These air kits aren't real expensive, but they are an absolute pain in the rear to install...or else, believe me, I'd have done it already. Most require a coil compression tool. I think the Firestone Air Bag will do the trick. I'm still looking over options, though.

As to how the width of the setup looks, the right side clearly hangs out more than the left, but not enough to be a big concern. Definitely something to be very aware of. Some colorful flags are certainly in order, too. Also, the tail lights are going to be blocked out, but I already have a set of auxiliary tail lights with a 4-pin trailer hookup to the car. Those can be mounted on top of the car such as in the above photo.