Car-Carrying 2-wheelers with trailer? Or arrangement on car?

[Nehmo]

I have the 4th generation 2001 Mercury Sable.
I need to configure the car to be able to carry both a scooter and a heavy electric bike. I haven't done anything so far, so all options are open. I'm also not concerned about marring the appearance of the car. The possibilities:

• Ramps going all the way from the ground to the roof, which I will reinforce somehow. Or some other roof carrying system.
• Usual receiver installed under the car to mount a ball in the rear. Then tow small pull trailer
• Roof mounted ball to accept long tongue of light 5th wheel trailer. Since I don't have the trailer yet, this is a possibility. It pegs the geek meter, but with properly strengthened roof, it would work. The arrangement has the advantage of superior maneuverability, and the tongue weight is positioned over the center of mass of the car.
• Simple attachment atached to a receiver to hold a tray to hold the scooter & bike behind the car

To mount the traditional receiver, should I just get something like a Reese Towpower Class III Multi-Fit Hitch that's typically installed on a pickup and put it on the car somehow?

While I was examining under the car, I noticed this triangular bracket fixed in front of the bumper. What is it for?

 

[John in CR]

I always find cars giving bikes a ride quite humorous. Why not leave the car at home and ride the bike?

 

[Nehmo]

I always find cars giving bikes a ride quite humorous. Why not leave the car at home and ride the bike?

If you are asking seriously, the main reason is for breakdowns. When a bike dies somewhere, even with a small problem, it's convenient to transport it back to the home fort for repair.
Furthermore, the car can travel on the interstate, whereas the bike or scooter cannot.
Finally, I may need to move everything when I get a different place to live.

 

[John in CR]

An ebike should be more reliable than a car. Mine have been since I stopped experimenting with pushing controllers past their limits. While it won't go that far at highway speeds, my daily rider has no problem exceeding them. When I moved a few years ago, the ebikes were ridden to the new home for load space savings.

The only time my bikes ride a gasser is vacations to the beach, because I have to drive the family though much of the way I dream about how to do it on an ebike instead. My favorite iteration of that thought is a big party platform electric trike that can carry the family and load that has 4-6m2 of solar panel roof. It would carry some sport ebikes for myself and the boys who are now getting old enough for them. Once there the single wheel end would detach mate to its other half to form a cargo ebike for going to the store, carrying ice chests, etc.

Once you accept that bikes can look like this, and consider how electric power is easily added, you realize how easy it would be to park the gasser indefinitely. 8)

 

[dogman dan]

Lots of reasons to carry your bike someplace. Some of us just like to take our bike someplace more fun to ride on a weekend. It's no different from those who don't pedal their regular bikes 25 miles to get to the dirt single tracks. We're not all e biking for the planet, though it's certainly better than my old hobby, that burned 50 gallons of fossil fuel every weekend. My car use mileage hasn't really changed, but I sure don't waste as much fuel just getting groceries now. The gas I burn just went from food budget to fun budget.

Nearly every production car has a receiver hitch that will fit it. Look on line, possibly ebay, but don't ignore companies that sell hitches that are not on ebay. You should be able to get a light hitch for as low as $150, and installing them is fairly easy to do yourself. It need not be able to tow a 5th wheel, even the 1 1/4" hitch is plenty strong to tow a light trailer without looking like shit on the car.

Then, depending on the weight of the scoot, a light trailer might be the best option. For just an ebike, get a hitch mount carrier that holds the bike by the wheels.

 

[John in CR]

It's no different from those who don't pedal their regular bikes 25 miles to get to the dirt single tracks.

Exactly my point. That cracks me up too. 8)

FWIW, I'm only half serious and half joking. I do understand needing to give our bikes an occasional ride. The other half is nudging Nehmo (and anyone else) to increasingly adopt the view of our electrics as primary transportation, weather permitting. Other than maybe fully utilized mass transit, they're the most efficient form of transportation on the planet. They're 0 emission. While they can be a pennies a ride amusement park ride without lines, the same vehicle is the best thing to get you from point A to point B.

 

[The fingers]

"•Simple attachment atached to a receiver to hold a tray to hold the scooter & bike behind the car"
You will probably need to add rear load-leveling air shocks to prevent sagging and scraping the tail on driveways etc. when carrying a load with this option. :wink:

 

[Nehmo]

...a 5th wheel, even the 1 1/4" hitch is plenty strong to tow a light trailer without looking like shit on the car.
Then, depending on the weight of the scoot, a light trailer might be the best option. For just an ebike, get a hitch mount carrier that holds the bike by the wheels.

I need to be able to carry both, for which I would use 200 kg as the design requirement. The car is capable of carrying this, but a trailer would be less stressful on the vehicle. I'm thinking about all ideas at this point, but for discussion I should separate them.

If I'm going to put a hitch on the car and make a trailer to match, I'm thinking it wouldn't be much more of a task to make the trailer a 5th wheel (I never liked the term). I wouldn't use the king-pin type of hitch that 5th wheels normally have; I'd just use the ball system used on pull trailers (I don't like that term either; all trailers are "pulled"), and mount the ball on the (reinforced) roof of the car .[youtube]JT_2-Lww5r4[/youtube]

To repeat a question of my original post (see the pic above), what are those triangle brackets in front of the bumper for?

 

[dogman dan]

Light trailer might be the best option then. for 200kg. That's a lot for any receiver tray, heavier than one small engine MX motorcycle for sure.

I carry two ebikes, without battery on my small receiver and bike rack, but that adds up to at most, 150 pounds with the batteries off the bikes.

One thing I have learned about trailers, too short is not so great to tow, or back up. Easier with a long trailer, so look at light trailers at least 8' long. Mine is even longer, since it's a repurposed boat trailer. As I back it up, I can see it before it's totally jackknifed, and on the road it wags less than extreme short trailers sometimes do.

 

[Drunkskunk]

One thing I have learned about trailers, too short is not so great to tow, or back up.

Exactly! I recently bought a 4x8 trailer to haul a riding lawnmower with. I thought it might also be a great way to haul my bikes, too. It isn't. It's too small to back up with easily, impossible to see out any of my mirrors, and bounces around at road speeds from having too short of a wheelbase from tongue to axle.

I use a motorcycle rack mounted on a 2" receiver hitch to carry my bike. It's rated up to 450lbs, and easily can carry a scooter or medium sized motorbike.

 

[Rassy]

My experience is a little different than some of those posting above. My car is a 4 cyl Honda CRV with a 1 1/4" hitch receiver. I purchased a little 4 X 8 tilt trailer with 4.80-12 tires from Harbor Freight, added a plywood deck, and couldn't be happier with it. It also folds up for easy storage.

No problem with pulling the trailer, even at freeway speeds. The Honda still gets 30 MPG with the trailer loaded with two 100 pound e-trikes. Because the Honda is smallish, the tail lights on the trailer are right on the edge of visibility in the rear view mirrors. Backing is no problem, unless the driver has no experience backing trailers, in which case any trailer is a challenge to back.

The trailer is also handy for other hauling chores.

Good luck with whatever solution you choose.

 

[Hillhater]

! I recently bought a 4x8 trailer to haul a riding lawnmower with. I thought it might also be a great way to haul my bikes, too. It isn't. It's too small to back up with easily, impossible to see out any of my mirrors, and bounces around at road speeds from having too short of a wheelbase from tongue to axle.......

.... I have had various sizes, lengths, weights, of trailers, for boats, bikes, karts, dirt, camping etc.
They are all tricky until you get them set up properly.
Tounge weight, needs to be set ( sometimes you have to move the axle, EG for fixed loads like a boat) , otherwise find the best distribution for the load. You need weight on that tow hitch.
Put a flag or broomstick on the rear corner so you can see the location of the trailer.
Use low tire pressures to suit the load on the trailer ( 8-12. Psi is a fair start, for small trailers) ...to stop bouncing.
Reversing gets easier with practice, try just using the mirrors !
.. But, yes , the hitch bike rack is a better solution if you are just hauling bikes.

 

[dogman dan]

Most trailers will tow ok, however short. Unless they get bent.

8' long trailers not so hard to back up. But oh boy those 4' ones! Can't see them at all without a flag, and by the time you do see them, it's jacknifed. Tiny trailers work better with tiny cars, rather than big pickups.

I used to tow a short narrow tool box trailer for work daily, or a 20" construction trash hauler. Much preferred the 20".

I have two trailers now, one a half pickup truck for hauling dirt, gravel, etc. The other an old boat trailer used to haul canoes, bikes, windsurfers, etc. That one has a super long tongue, that you can jackknife all the way to 90 degrees. That makes it easy to back up into tight spots.