Well for better or worse we now have a trailer to carry a pair of motorcycles. The bikes will be an essential part of our trip, but I’m still not over the the moon about towing. Nevertheless, the decision is made, & I’ll just have to get used to driving a rig that is 11 metres total length. As you can see it’s a pop top style purpose built bike trailer, clad in steel ‘Colourbond’ with an aluminium checker plate floor. The lower front sections are clad with an aluminium ‘stoneguard’ (I guess stone ‘dings’ are less noticeable than paint chips & it does give double thickness). The tailgate,ramp is checker plate too, on a steel frame. Internal dimensions are 8’x6’ approx, the trailer being just a couple of inches narrower than the bus. It has a relatively long drawbar, which should make it pretty stable to tow. Bringing it home behind the car it felt pretty good. A longer drawbar also makes reversing easier, so they say! Backing the bus with trailer is something I hope to avoid whenever possible! I can manage backing the bus just using mirrors ok, but with a trailer....hmmmmmm ..... gonna have to find out soon I ‘spose .
The trailer has a tare weight of 400kg & a GVM of 1000kg, & seems reasonably well balanced, but don’t think I’m gonna be pushing it uphill. The jockey wheel makes life easier (never had one on other trailers) but an upgrade to one with a larger diameter pneumatic wheel will probably be worthwhile. when moving the trailer on anything rougher than a sealed car park, every little stone is an impediment. Loading it to ensure there is ‘some’ weight on the tow ball connector is important, but I’d like to keep it to a minimum, to make pushing it around by hand (in tight squeeze situations) easier. To that end I’ll move the spare wheel inside, & leave the drawbar empty, (but with the means of strapping on a bit of firewood now & again). It’s also the first trailer with brakes that I’ve owned. Hydraulically operated ‘override’ drum brakes, with a handbrake incorporated. I had to adjust the brakes, as one side became very hot on the journey home. I took the opportunity to check the bearings (no play) & to repack them with grease, ready to travel the many kilometres ahead. The hand brake works well, handy in our sloping backyard. I spent today, giving it all a bit of rust treatment/re-spray, nothing fancy, just freshened it up a little, it’s almost 7 years old.
The poptop has rubber seals all round, so the interior should be waterproof. A little gap filler in a coupleof spots should help to keep the red dust (or indeed any other colour) out. But that might just be wishful thinking. There are many tales about the the ‘tenacity’ of the red stuff.
Fixing some galvanised steel mesh on a couple of the interior walls will give somewhere to hang ‘stuff’, The satellite dish will be able to travel in the trailer instead of laying on the bed & possibly some of the tools currently stored in boxes in the boot can be made more easily accessible by having them in the trailer too. We will have to be careful not to take on a lot more weight just ‘cos there is now space to do so.
Just a pair of bikesto get now. Ideally we will get 2 road registered Ag bikes, but this is proving a difficult ask.
Most ag bikes sold to farmers are sold without compliance plate, because to do so is several hundred dollars cheaper, however to register for the road, the compliance plate is essential. I am beginning to look at alternatives. Possibly a Yamaha DT 175 for MrsTea & a Yamaha TTR230 or 250 for me. The attraction of Ag bikes is that they have a low, comfortable seat, & come with built in carry racks. Part of me we would like to get ‘sharper’ off road ‘weapons’, but something relatively low powered like the Ag bikes is probably more suited to ‘life in the slow lane’.
Cuppa.
