Hi All,
I am hoping someone has a remedy for my predicament. I have an 18 RTL. I carry it in the back of my 44' toy-hauler. I have tried various methods of securing it for travel on the Americas bumpy road system. I even went so far as spending $10k for better suspension on the toy-hauler. It helped but the Spyder would still move around.
I recently used 9 ratchet straps with soft loops to try and keep it from bouncing around. The result was the bike stayed in one place but the steering shaft below the handle bars bent.
Now I am faced with total plastic disassembly to replace the upper steering shaft.:banghead:
I suspect the main issue is there is no way to tie down the Spyders suspension. I use 3 straps on the rear wheel. 3 straps on each front wheel. 1 strap on each floor board, and 1 to each handle bar side.
Does anyone out there have any ideas or experience hauling Spyders in an RV?
Please, help me!
Richard Wold
Hi Richard, the bit I underlined is
WORST POSSIBLE THING you could do!! :yikes:
The Spyder's suspension will look after the Spyder, after all, it's designed to do
EXACTLY that, only with a load on board! (You! & maybe a Pillion! Plus some gear too!!) :2thumbs:
Basically, you really don't need to worry about tie-ing down the Spyder's suspension, you only need to worry about tie-ing down it's
wheels!! :shocked: Lock the wheels in place using the 'Ratchet strap cinched down over the tire in line with the tread/circumference' method BlueKnight911 suggests, which
IS the preferred method used by the majority of professional auto haulers for road, rail, & air transport all over the World, and once you've locked the tires in place, nothing else is going to move anywhere!
hyea: :thumbup: Just
DO NOT tie down the foot boards or handle bars or anything else that's being carried by the Spyder's suspension!! That's just asking for trouble, and significantly increases the chance of damaging &/or breaking something off!! :banghead: Lock the
WHEELS in place, and leave the Spyder's suspension to look after itself, just like you do when ryding it! :thumbup:
And to do this properly, you don't even need to massively tension the ratchet straps; just tighten them up on the tires & the slight increase in air pressure inside the tire this produces locks them down solidly! As BK mentioned, for most conditions, simply securing one end with a ratchet strap cinched tight on the wheel/s should be enough, but if you are
REEEAAALLY worried about your Spyder moving, there's nothing to stop you from cinching down both front tires & the rear - it ain't gonna move
ANYWHERE then!! :shocked: Adding those 'Guide Rails' he mentions outside the wheels is generally considered over-kill for actually securing the vehicle in place, but it sure helps you to line things up perfectly while your getting it all in place, so that the ratchet strap goes over the tire tread in the middle, and they can also remove
ANY possibility of the Spyder twisting from side to side & damaging steering arms etc.... altho a Heavy Duty Ratchet Strap cinched tight over the tread with a 'D-ring' immediately in front & behind the wheel is probably going to do that anyway!!
hyea:
You can get kits to do exactly this - they generally have a fixed connection point up front & a track with a moveable pin behind, then a couple of feet of track that's secured to the trailer deck with the ratchet part of the arrangement connected to the far end. This means you simply roll the wheel along the track until it hits the front 'D-ring', slip the strap over the wheel & under the fender, secure it at the front, fit the pin into the closest position behind that you can, then hook the ratchet onto the far end of the track & cinch it all tight so that the strap sorta makes the shape of a capital 'P' lying on it's back with the wheel filling the bulbous gap of the 'P'....
Does all that make sense?? :dontknow:
Whatever you do,
just DON'T try to tie down the Spyder's suspension.... not unless you want to break things!! :shocked: The only way that is ever likely to be truly successful is if you
COMPLETELY compress
ALL the travel in the Shocks and Springs, or replace them with 'cut to length' steel bars!! :shocked: This is because if there's
ANY compression left in the suspension, and you hit a bump or pot-hole big enough, that spring/shock
WILL be able to compress that little bit more, make the strap loose for a bit, and then the rebound will subject the strap
AND the vehicle to a
MASSIVELY INCREASED Shock Load!! And
THAT is what causes things to bend & break!! :lecturef_smilie: If you're lucky, whatever you break'll be something replaceable on the vehicle; if you're unlucky, it could be the frame or something else irreplaceable on the vehicle, or it could be the strap itself, leaving you with an unsecured vehicle ricochetting around in or off your trailer!! :yikes:
Sorry about the epic tome, but you
did ask!
:thumbup:
