Moto Trailer

WHY A TRAILER? First and foremost, we needed a way to carry our motorcycles. But, another important reason is because we have a lot of tools and gear and without the trailer, there is no way we would be able to bring it all! The trailer is a self-modified Frankenstein rig, worked on by Sam and I. It's ugly, but it does the trick. Admittedly, I was worried about decreased mobility, bringing a trailer with us on a trip like this. However, it has been an awesome feature to have with us, and we have been able to go anywhere we would have gone without it - plus more, because we have the motorcycles!

The whole setup

Originally, the trailer was a 3-railed dirt bike trailer that Sam found on Facebook Marketplace for about $400. Before this trip, we gave it a proper test trip. It was fully loaded with Sam's Suzuki DR650, my Yamaha XT225 and our friend's Kawasaki KLR650, all the way from Metro Detroit to the mountains of Pennsylvania and back. When it made it home in one piece, we knew it was the trailer for us.

Here is a picture of the trailer when we first got it - rusty and gross but trusty - $400

After our trip, there were some obvious modifications we wanted to do to the rig and some pieces of routine maintenance that needed to be addressed. Sam's ability to diagnose what certain squeaks, rattles or other concerning noises mean, found us needing new hubs and to be safe, new wheels. Also, for greater mobility of the trailer - specifically when disconnected it from the van - we added one of those trailer jacks. That has easily been one of the best mods we've done. We were able to get all this stuff from Harbor Freight and Amazon.

Even with the preliminary fixes, we still needed storage. So, Sam, again, skillfully scoured Facebook Marketplace and found us a perfect sized Truck Bed box that we could sandwich on the middle rail. This box, while appearing large, only enabled us to store our motorcycle gear. The stuff is extremely bulky and to stay safe, we ride fully suited up, so it's a fair trade-off.

As mentioned, we like to do our own maintenance, whenever possible. With that mindset, there are several tools we like to keep handy. So, this was another storage feature we needed to add. Going back to trusty Harbor Freight, we snagged a trailer tongue-box that Sam mounted pretty easily. This was the final large change we made. 

Below is a picture of it all put together. As you can see, we have some additional parts/tools that the trailer also holds. This includes a 2-ton car jack, jack stands, a 6 gallon water jug, a 5 gallon jug of diesel for our diesel heater, tarps and a motorcycle jack stand.