• Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

Why not a bike trailer? Then I could sell another vehicle....

Coffee

Coffee

CH Owner
Staff member
Seriously considering doing something but would really like a reality check from you fine people.

I've been looking at this: http://www.moto-mule.com/index.html - which is a trailer that can be pulled with a motorcycle.

Background, at the moment I have:
  • A newer Toyota 2wd Tacoma
  • An old Toyota van (pre-Previa), large enough to carry the bike inside, which seems to want to run forever
  • A 4x8' harbor freight trailer.
  • And... my 2006 TE250.

And the current situation is:
  • Live on a large enough place a vehicle is highly desirable to get around, with many hills, some steep - and I need to travel all over this place for a variety of reasons. And I need to carry a variety of things like tools, chain saws, etc - far too much stuff to take on the bike or backpack... so I have been carrying heavy things all over this place which has made me healthier, but is one of the reasons I have been offline so much this year because that takes far too much time... not good.
  • The place also has a steepish driveway, steep enough that both my Tacoma and van spin the tires when going up it, which tears it up which then needs to be fixed annually.
  • I was thinking about getting a cheap 4wd of some type, possibly a geo tracker, or even a Subaru (not really my style though) - to get better mpg than my Tacoma, not tear up the driveway, and haul the previously mentioned things around this place. Then sell both the van/Tacoma, and use the Harbor Freight trailer to haul my bike to riding areas behind whatever I bought.

Then I made the mistake of looking at motorcycle trailers, the type of trailer that a MC can pull around....

Since then I've been thinking about what my needs *really* are... and am considering the following:
  1. Get a bike trailer, suitable for getting supplies at the store 15 miles away which is a fun twisty road, which would take care of 90% of my needs, and the bike is easy on the driveway.
  2. Use the bike & trailer at this place to haul tools & do work - in many ways that would be better than a 4wd vehicle.
  3. All while getting super high mpg and way more fun than driving a pickup.
  4. Then sell either the Tacoma (probably) or van, and have 1 less vehicle to insure.
  5. For long trips or inclement weather, I would use the remaining vehicle.

Obviously my TE250 may not be ideal long term, but there are other bikes available that could pull the same moto-mule type trailer behind that.

Thoughts? I could really use some feedback..

(I guess, in reality, I am trying to justify selling my Tacoma for a TR650 & moto-mule trailer, and hopefully walk away with a significant amount of cash. :D)
 
I realize there are other types of bike trailers like this, Or I could fab my own somehow:
http://www.trailtail.com/order.html

Guess I am more focused on 'why not a bike trailer' concept at the moment, as opposed to the details... I am probably forgetting something obvious, but cannot think of what that might be.
 
Couple of things come to mind right away.
Do you really want to put that kind of stress on the bike by adding a tool trailer, even though there are other bikes to do the job needed?
Could you find a cheap 4X4 Quad to ride all over the land you speak of?
If It was me, I would get a quad for the land, sell the Tacoma and get a less expensive 4X4 Tacoma for minor commuting, get a bike hauler rail for the van for the adventure.
 
Coffee said:
I realize there are other types of bike trailers like this, Or I could fab my own somehow:
http://www.trailtail.com/order.html

Guess I am more focused on 'why not a bike trailer' concept at the moment, as opposed to the details... I am probably forgetting something obvious, but cannot think of what that might be.
Click to expand...

I'm seeing 125 4t machines here pulling 6 or more people along with a side car and maybe more weight added... These are on the street and usually going in 1-3rd gears ... So you are not gonna hurt the bikes' engine and I've said it many times ... these new 4t machines are just chopped\hopped up street bikes with a long suspension ... They'll go fast or slow without issues, on streets or trails ...

But I'm not sure on the hook-up of the trailer at the rear of the bike or what might happen in the case of a crash with one of these things hooked behind a bike ... SA seem to be quit easy to damage due to rubbing and who knows what might happen if that trailer somehow twisted on the SA...

Also, maybe pulling that thing is not as easy as it looks and the rougher the terrain, the more difficult it might be pulling it across without some event happening ... That trailer does look like it has plenty of ground clearance and that should help...

Having less vehicles is OK for me ... I was finally forced to buy a small truck after going a yr free of this cost... I really like it when that truck sits for a week and I never even have to sit in it ...

You need to hear from someone who is pulling one of these things around to verify it is actually feasible or not to pull one of these trailers through the woods ...

Just go buy a TR ...
 
I'd not seen those Moto Mule trailers before but they do look like a good idea actually.

The mount through the rear wheel spindle puts all the loading in the best place, it would just be a question of how well it rides but having a single rear wheel it should naturally follow the bike. On the video it looks like very well behaved. Marginal extra loading on the clutch and transmission to consider but I wouldn't think it significant with sensible weights being carried.

If you don't need 4 wheels and a roof (or 4wd and a roof) due to the weather then a TR650 with this looks a good option to me.

Dave
 
LandofMotards said:
Do what you have to and get the 650 lol sorry
Click to expand...
We have a winning answer! :D

The goal was to have a bit more fun than I am having now, and save a bit of $/M - and be able to 'go farther' and explore.
  • in theory the moto-mule (with TR650, not my TE250) could carry everything for the Bend OR trip for instance... And that would be $62 in gas round trip, instead of $220+. Tent, full size camp stove, and all the other stuff.
  • And it could also go to the grocery store in town and save gas $ there, and bike saddlebags would really not work for that purpose (large heavy bulky boxes with sharp edges)
  • and also be used off road to haul tools (as shown in some of the videos)... and be used to haul game out.
  • And it could be used with many different types of bikes.
At least that is the current theory... and in theory, the moto-mule would pay for itself in about a year. And if I sold the Tacoma, I could buy the TR650 , and still put $ in the bank.
Actually my current thought is to buy the moto-mule, and see how I like it on my TE250 for a while - then sell it if I don't like it.


UTV/ATV - I have been thinking about those all day as objectively as I can, even though I loath/despise/dislike/hate them... :lol:
The main problem with them is that it would be for the ranch only (not sure how long I will be at this location), and cannot get a license plate for them in California.
In addition, most are expensive compared to something like this which I could actually drive on the road, and get 25mpg:
Screen Shot 2012-10-27 at 2.53.04 PM.png

The problem with getting a proper 4x4 pickup, is they are uber expensive, and most of those 4wd systems don't work in a way that I like (we could get into more detail around a campfire sometime regarding that), and of course terrible mpg - a net increase in $/M which is the opposite of what I was after.
 
The first thing that occurred to me is if you are having traction problems with the Tacoma, the same thing will probably be true with a bike pulling (trying to) a trailer up a loose gravel hill.
 
Dean, you're on the right track........only the wrong company
You see, what you really need is the Borile Multiuso....it has a bigger trailer :busted:
1509_borilemultiuso5_newformat.jpg

borile-multiuso-dc34b779caffd3c495fdb2e1e0215ea2.jpg

MULTIUSO3.jpg

umberto-borile-sulla-multiuso.jpg

Heck, you can even be like those cool kids and pop a wheelie on it.....:lol:
1333461692509_1.jpg


Good luck Dean, I can't wait for the ride report :thumbsup:
 
I'd love to see that bike get that trailer moving in that deep sand loaded with logs.... It probably took all those dudes pushing it to get it started!!! However, that skid plate that protects the saw is way cool!

Coffee, if you rode a 650 with a trailer to the PNW meet, you'd be the man! I'd love to have a little trailer like that (single wheel) to do some trailside remote camping. There is a spot I've been eyeing around here, but everything needs to be hauled in a couple miles on a quad width trail.

Not only that, but you'd get some serious looks pulling a trailer with a dual sport!
 
I pulled a trailer similar to that behind a bicycle on a 120mile trip. It was really sketchy on down hills especially braking. The weight will try to jack knife you.
 
lankydoug said:
I pulled a trailer similar to that behind a bicycle on a 120mile trip. It was really sketchy on down hills especially braking. The weight will try to jack knife you.
Click to expand...

~Muddy down hills might turn into crash and burn declines ... Your rear brake might be untouchable ( to avoid the jack) in this case and you'll just have to carry that speed to the bottom using the clutch to keep the rear tire rolling and from jack-knifing ... It'll be cool to watch someone do this :)
 
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