Holly Posted June 20, 2009 #1 Posted June 20, 2009 Just put together a carrier to mount a foot locker, cooler, or most anything else. Pictures in album in my profile.
mini-muffin Posted June 21, 2009 #3 Posted June 21, 2009 I'll post some pics tomorrow of the lights we have on ours. Might help you out on what to do for yours. Margaret
kenw Posted June 21, 2009 #5 Posted June 21, 2009 Looks real good, but it might be a good idea to add a tail-break light to it!
Hummingbird Posted June 21, 2009 #6 Posted June 21, 2009 pretty NICE ! Looks big enough for at least a 3 course picnic including beverages.
Holly Posted June 21, 2009 Author #7 Posted June 21, 2009 I was thinking that I would hang a lite assy under the trunk. Also figuring I would give it a nice black paint job, foot locker included.
Guest tx2sturgis Posted June 21, 2009 #8 Posted June 21, 2009 Is it me or is there an elephant in the room? That carrier, it seems to me, is going beyond safety, and common sense. Unless you plan on hauling only packing peanuts in that thing, your going to be overloading the rear of the bike. Not to mention, the stresses involved trying to shear off the receiver mounting bolts everytime you hit a bump or pothole. Next is the fact that it blocks the rear lighting. Even without all this, assuming you could load 30 to 50 pounds of stuff in there for a trip, I would be amazed if the bike's handling wasnt dangerously affected. Im not saying you cant use a rack on the back, but just keep the weight and dimensions reasonable.
Holly Posted June 21, 2009 Author #9 Posted June 21, 2009 The assy weighs in at 20 lbs, can be made lighter, 30"wide, 15 deep, on a 24" slide, over 9" in receiver. About the same as a small toolbox that is being used. I figure that the carrier would work better and be safer than pulling a trailer.
Guest tx2sturgis Posted June 21, 2009 #10 Posted June 21, 2009 The assy weighs in at 20 lbs, can be made lighter, 30"wide, 15 deep, on a 24" slide, over 9" in receiver. About the same as a small toolbox that is being used. I figure that the carrier would work better and be safer than pulling a trailer. I'm not going to sugarcoat this, my friend. It looks dangerous. I know you spent some time on it. But if you will go load about 30 pounds of supplies in there and take it for a short ride around the neighborhood, I bet you will come back saying...uh oh... I could be wrong. But if you go out there and get hurt, at least I said something. If I'm wrong, or simply hurt your feelings, I can live with that. I cant stay silent when I think someone is asking for trouble. Good luck dude.
mini-muffin Posted June 21, 2009 #11 Posted June 21, 2009 These are the lights we have on ours. Can't see them lit up too well in the daylight on the pics. We have a break light on the bottom in the middle. The chrome ones are running lights then we have the big blinkers which are phillips lockhart batrays if you'd like to get some of those. Harbor freight has an $8 red LED that we are using on the bike it's real bright. We'll be changing out the one on the rack with that soon. Margaret
bigbob Posted June 21, 2009 #12 Posted June 21, 2009 The assy weighs in at 20 lbs, can be made lighter, 30"wide, 15 deep, on a 24" slide, over 9" in receiver. About the same as a small toolbox that is being used. I figure that the carrier would work better and be safer than pulling a trailer. Think I will keep pulling my trailer. Bob
muffinman Posted June 21, 2009 #13 Posted June 21, 2009 I'm not going to sugarcoat this, my friend. It looks dangerous. I know you spent some time on it. But if you will go load about 30 pounds of supplies in there and take it for a short ride around the neighborhood, I bet you will come back saying...uh oh... I could be wrong. But if you go out there and get hurt, at least I said something. If I'm wrong, or simply hurt your feelings, I can live with that. I cant stay silent when I think someone is asking for trouble. Good luck dude. Mini posted pics of my rack on the 86 and I will tell you that I have hauled a Venture frame on it had 8 12 packs of Pepsi on it and even hauled my tools on the rack I figure we have around 15000 miles with the rack on the bike with little to no problems.The corners are getting a little thin from scraping when we are coming out of driveways but as far as dangerous I dont think so.This was my way to get around higher tolls and being able to carry stuff with me.I hate the toll charges for trailers. The biggest thing I will tell you is Lights and make sure you rtag is visible from 30 feet the LOEs will probably chime in on this. The local LEOs are a pain in the *)^ about the tag thing you can check your locals on that though. The rack looks good and you will enjoy the extra room it provides. Jeff
Guest tx2sturgis Posted June 21, 2009 #14 Posted June 21, 2009 (edited) Mini posted pics of my rack on the 86 and I will tell you that I have hauled a Venture frame on it had 8 12 packs of Pepsi on it and even hauled my tools on the rack WOW! Thats impressive! I made a much smaller rack for my bike, just to hold a tent and maybe a small tarp. I took it for a ride and I could feel that weight back there. The rack only weighs about 2 pounds ( its aluminum) and the tent weighs about 12 pounds. http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=20353 As far as anything more than about 15 pounds... close to the normal tongue weight for a trailer... it's hard for me to imagine having THAT much weight back there, levering the frame in such an odd manner. Like I said, I could be wrong. The small trailer I recently bought only weighs 80 pounds empty, will haul quite a bit, and the tongue weight and effect on handling is minimal. Oh well. Thats what makes the world go 'round. To each his own. Edited June 21, 2009 by tx2sturgis
mini-muffin Posted June 22, 2009 #16 Posted June 22, 2009 We don't have a problem with exhaust heat since we have turn downs. Margaret
Holly Posted June 22, 2009 Author #17 Posted June 22, 2009 I put 50 mi on it and didn't feel any heat in the plastic when I stopped, will put some interstate mi on it soon. Will know then.
flb_78 Posted June 22, 2009 #18 Posted June 22, 2009 That thing is HUGE!! Make sure your rear tire is in good shape. I think the rear tire on the Venture is overloaded as-is, let alone with another 30-100lbs of stuff hanging way past the swingarm.
Yama Mama Posted June 22, 2009 #19 Posted June 22, 2009 I remembered that last year Sleeperhawk went out west with a carrier on the back. Here is a photo I got off of Photobucket of their bike loaded for the trip. Maybe he could tell you about his set up. Yama Mama
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