Anyone here make a 'hitch' Cooler or Luggage Rack?

[LilBeaver]

Hey Rick, look at this one I built 5 years ago...its easy to build and could be adapted to suit or beefed up for heavier loads.

 

I'll bring it to Lubbock tomorrow and you can look at it and see if its close to what you need.

 

 

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=20353&highlight=hitch+rack

 

Oh hey, that is pretty slick .

 

A member has already picked up materials to build one to my specs.

 

In ALL of the searching I did, I have no clue how I did not run across your thread on this

[leo3wheel]

Larry (Carbon_One) built us a beautiful carrier for our Hannigan trike. Ready for some long hauls now without towing our trailer. Very cool! Thanks Larry!

[dacheedah]

I made one using a 15 gallon Rubbermaid container. Word of advice: anymore than about 40 lbs. will affect the handling of the bike. And not in a good way.

 

I have one and not too bad around town but would rather pull a trailer, you need all the air in the shocks and the tires all the way up if you put much in it. Not a big fan I would also say that you don't want it comming strait back, you want about a 3" rise to keep from scraping. ( i used it loaded 2 up)

Edited July 17, 2013 by dacheedah

[Long Tall]

Here's a post of mine from last year. Made my own. Turned it North and South (long-ways). No light problem. Works great. Use it all of the time to keep cool drinks in...

 

Later...

 

Long Tall

 

Will have with me at the International Rally..

 

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=73303

Edited July 17, 2013 by Long Tall

[Carbon_One]

Here's a couple pics of the one I just made for myself.

Larry

[CaptainJoe]

Mines a cross between Garyn's and CarbonOnes.

the lights are built into

a removable frame with 4 wire pigtail and use a removeable rubbermaid box to keep stuff dry.

 

The harbor fright frames are 1 1/2 " so you'd have to adapt that down?

 

Agree on the need for a three inch rise to prevent dragging.

 

Would need to weld a couple light weight gussets for the three inch rise to make it stronger. IMHO

 

As said before, you can only haul 45-50 lbs before it affects the handling of the bike. I can haul a jacket, medium size suitcase and shoes with no problems. When i get to where I'm going my luggage goes in the motel room and it frees the box up for whatever i need while exploring.

 

 

If you do overload, it takes the weight off of the front tire and gets squirrely, (like an overloaded pickup truck) and that's definately not a good feeling.

 

That being said, I've been running mine for a couple of years now and I wouldn't leave home without it...

 

I also have a cheap $15 tall soft cooler from Wallmart that will easily hold 6 G2's and ice that the shoulder strap secures around the rear seat.

Edited July 17, 2013 by CaptainJoe

[RedRider]

'LilBeaver, I realize this thread is a couple of months old and you likely already have your rack. When I read your original request, my first thought was - How is going to get the gas from the rack all the way up to the tank?

 

When the aux tank is mounted on the pillion seat area, it is above the tank and fuel flows naturally. This will no longer be the case.

 

You will need to add a fuel pump and, possibly, a bung into the main tank. I'm not sure how feeding the pressurized fuel into the line (I assume you currently plumb the line into the elbow right out from the petcock) will be handled. You may need to use the pump to transfer fuel from the aux to the main tank rather than just feed the aux into the line.

 

Here are a couple of additional thoughts worth exactly what your are paying for them.

 

1) Will your passenger be OK with travelling more than 200 miles between stops? I remove the tank from my bike when the wife is riding along. She prefers to stop every 125-150 miles.

 

2) When the TourTank (TT) is mounted on the pillion seat, the trunk doesn't open. However, it is 3 phillips screws and a 10mm nut to remove the backrest from the trunk. Go to your local hardware store and pick up 4 pan head machine screws, 4 matching nylon insert nuts, and 8 special washers that have rubber fused to a steel washer. Mount these in the holes. Your trunk will now open. Not enough to latch, but almost.

 

3) I have seen Ventures with a TT mounted in the trunk. This would take care of the gravity/fuel pump issue. You could then use your new hitch rack to carry the luggage that otherwise would have been in the trunk. Don't know if you can fit a 5 gal TT in there, but a 3 gal will fit.

 

Keep us up to date on how this is coming along.

 

RR

[Flyinfool]

Here is where I am heading on a "carrier" rack.

As shown it is 13 lbs of aluminum for the frame, with a 30 lb finished weight.

I may change all of the sheet metal sides and bottom to perforated or expanded metal to save some weight.

 

Granted it won't be able to carry much more than a small sub sandwich when on the back of the bike. But it will also mount to the trailer tongue and then double as the cooler carrier. I have room to move the box on the trailer back so that the tongue weight will be correct.

 

I am still in the early design and planning stages of this. As drawn it is 21" square and 12" tall. It can not be made to much smaller and still fit everything in there.