Hauling a GW in your truck
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I personally havent dont it, but I know it can be done if the bed of the truck is long enough. All you really need is a strong enough ramp and you should be ok. if you get the Wing World, there are a couple of companies that make systems that pull the bike onto the bed, but thats probably if you are going to do that a bunch of times.
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General Discussion - "I'm back in the saddle again..."
Hey All,
As most of you know I totalled my 2005 Goldwing about a month ago. After a nation wide Internet search with the help of a couple of MTF'ers I found the identical bike, new, white, with ABS a mere 600 odd miles from home and bought it via fax and email from Lake Hill Motors in Corinth, MS . My son and I went down over the weekend to pick it up. We decided that my still swollen hip from the accident and the predicted crummy weather warranted trailering the bike back rather than the preferred riding it home. After a lengthy discussion with my son he assures me that rather than renting a trailer we should load the bike into the bed of his pickup as that will be easier than dragging and empty trailer down to Mississippi. We leave work about 10 am. Friday and motor down the flat as a pancake, nothing to see, I39 ,I74, I57,I24 through IL and have a relatively uneventfull trip the highlight of which is a stop in Metropolis and snap a quick picture of his truck in front of Superman. It's dark by now so we miss the scenery in Kentucky, Tenn and Mississippi. We stay over night in Corinth MS and arrive first thing at the dealership to pick up the bike, They are a very good dealership to deal with BTW. They open up 15 min early when they see our car in the parking lot, the paperwork is all set to go and by 9 am we have the bike loaded in the back of the truck strapped down well enough to be safe in a hurricane and we are on the way home. Because we missed most of the scenery we thought we would take a slightly different route back and go home Via Memphis, Arkansas, Missouri as my son had never been in those states. At 10:30am Sat we were on the bypass going around Memphis when the truck engine quits, dies, nada, kaput. I skillfully coast the multi 1000 pound truck, loaded with a multi hundred pound bike, off the highway on to a well placed exit ramp and make it almost to the top of the ramp and with much effort (no engine no power steering) muscle the truck to the side of the ramp. From there a series of calls back to the Chevy dealer in Janesville, who finds a Chevy dealer near us and give us a number to call. We do and find he is the only Chevy dealer in Memphis who has a full mechanical staff working on the weekends and if we can get the truck to him soon he can replace the fuel pump (which we suspect is the culprit as my son has already checked electrical because he is a great shade tree mechanic) for the price of 1000.00 dollars including the tow. I can feel my wallet getting lighter as we call back to the dealer in Janesville to make absolutely sure that there is no warranty left on the 2003 Chevy truck with 42,000 miles on it...Small miracle that when buying the truck the dealer had talked my son into a one year extended warranty, a fact which he had forgot, and we were covered for both the tow and the work with only a 100 dollar deductible. My wallet begins to fill back up again. After a high speed tow thru Memphis, by a very entertaining tow truck driver we make it to the dealership. Truck still on the flatbed, bike still on the truck. Really glad we strapped her down good now. The dealership is very helpful, and promises to get her in as soon as a service bay opens up, about an hour later, they come out to get her and notice the goldwing in the back and tell us that they can't lift her onto the lift with the motorcycle on the back so we gotta take it off. They have no ramp to drive her off so they back up another customers pick up truck to her and we back the goldwing off our pickup on to a unknowingly good Samaritan's pickup. Now the weight of the bike(the front wheel) is resting on the open tailgate of the unwitting good Samaritan's truck so they decide to back another unwitting good Samaritan's truck up to the first good Samaritan's truck and drive the gold on to this one so the weight is now in the front of the truck. The third truck is a brand new one that has just been prepped for the customer and is sparkly clean which cause the guy who has just finished cleaning it to go ballistic when he sees what the other mechanic is up to and a towel throwing contest occurs between them. Our guy wins... By 4pm we got a new fuel pump and filter, the bike three way shuffle has been completed in reverse this time, we are strapped down ready to go. We are now only about 6 hrs behind schedule and on our way back to Wis. BTW the weather man was wrong it is absolutely a gorgeous day for riding and flying into Memphis and hiring a driver to take me to the dealership has now become the cheapest alternative for getting the bike back to WI. The rest of the trip is uneventful, griding out endless miles, eating fast food in the truck as we keep moving, basically the trip home now feels like a SS1000 and about 2:30 am we arrive home. I am asleep by 3am, my son crashes on the couch rather than drive the 5 miles back to his apt. Sunday morning when I finally wake up I really feel like I just did a SS1000, every bone in my body hurts and I spend the rest of the day napping on the couch, pretending to watch football games...;0)
All in all not a bad trip, got lots of heart to heart time with my son, which we had not done in far to long. He got a new fuel pump, I got a new goldwing. Found 2 great dealerships, one bike---one car. Got great memories to share with my son....What more could a guy ask for....
Bill
http://forums.delphiforums.com/MCTourer/messages
General Discussion - "I'm back in the saddle again..."
Hey All,
As most of you know I totalled my 2005 Goldwing about a month ago. After a nation wide Internet search with the help of a couple of MTF'ers I found the identical bike, new, white, with ABS a mere 600 odd miles from home and bought it via fax and email from Lake Hill Motors in Corinth, MS . My son and I went down over the weekend to pick it up. We decided that my still swollen hip from the accident and the predicted crummy weather warranted trailering the bike back rather than the preferred riding it home. After a lengthy discussion with my son he assures me that rather than renting a trailer we should load the bike into the bed of his pickup as that will be easier than dragging and empty trailer down to Mississippi. We leave work about 10 am. Friday and motor down the flat as a pancake, nothing to see, I39 ,I74, I57,I24 through IL and have a relatively uneventfull trip the highlight of which is a stop in Metropolis and snap a quick picture of his truck in front of Superman. It's dark by now so we miss the scenery in Kentucky, Tenn and Mississippi. We stay over night in Corinth MS and arrive first thing at the dealership to pick up the bike, They are a very good dealership to deal with BTW. They open up 15 min early when they see our car in the parking lot, the paperwork is all set to go and by 9 am we have the bike loaded in the back of the truck strapped down well enough to be safe in a hurricane and we are on the way home. Because we missed most of the scenery we thought we would take a slightly different route back and go home Via Memphis, Arkansas, Missouri as my son had never been in those states. At 10:30am Sat we were on the bypass going around Memphis when the truck engine quits, dies, nada, kaput. I skillfully coast the multi 1000 pound truck, loaded with a multi hundred pound bike, off the highway on to a well placed exit ramp and make it almost to the top of the ramp and with much effort (no engine no power steering) muscle the truck to the side of the ramp. From there a series of calls back to the Chevy dealer in Janesville, who finds a Chevy dealer near us and give us a number to call. We do and find he is the only Chevy dealer in Memphis who has a full mechanical staff working on the weekends and if we can get the truck to him soon he can replace the fuel pump (which we suspect is the culprit as my son has already checked electrical because he is a great shade tree mechanic) for the price of 1000.00 dollars including the tow. I can feel my wallet getting lighter as we call back to the dealer in Janesville to make absolutely sure that there is no warranty left on the 2003 Chevy truck with 42,000 miles on it...Small miracle that when buying the truck the dealer had talked my son into a one year extended warranty, a fact which he had forgot, and we were covered for both the tow and the work with only a 100 dollar deductible. My wallet begins to fill back up again. After a high speed tow thru Memphis, by a very entertaining tow truck driver we make it to the dealership. Truck still on the flatbed, bike still on the truck. Really glad we strapped her down good now. The dealership is very helpful, and promises to get her in as soon as a service bay opens up, about an hour later, they come out to get her and notice the goldwing in the back and tell us that they can't lift her onto the lift with the motorcycle on the back so we gotta take it off. They have no ramp to drive her off so they back up another customers pick up truck to her and we back the goldwing off our pickup on to a unknowingly good Samaritan's pickup. Now the weight of the bike(the front wheel) is resting on the open tailgate of the unwitting good Samaritan's truck so they decide to back another unwitting good Samaritan's truck up to the first good Samaritan's truck and drive the gold on to this one so the weight is now in the front of the truck. The third truck is a brand new one that has just been prepped for the customer and is sparkly clean which cause the guy who has just finished cleaning it to go ballistic when he sees what the other mechanic is up to and a towel throwing contest occurs between them. Our guy wins... By 4pm we got a new fuel pump and filter, the bike three way shuffle has been completed in reverse this time, we are strapped down ready to go. We are now only about 6 hrs behind schedule and on our way back to Wis. BTW the weather man was wrong it is absolutely a gorgeous day for riding and flying into Memphis and hiring a driver to take me to the dealership has now become the cheapest alternative for getting the bike back to WI. The rest of the trip is uneventful, griding out endless miles, eating fast food in the truck as we keep moving, basically the trip home now feels like a SS1000 and about 2:30 am we arrive home. I am asleep by 3am, my son crashes on the couch rather than drive the 5 miles back to his apt. Sunday morning when I finally wake up I really feel like I just did a SS1000, every bone in my body hurts and I spend the rest of the day napping on the couch, pretending to watch football games...;0)
All in all not a bad trip, got lots of heart to heart time with my son, which we had not done in far to long. He got a new fuel pump, I got a new goldwing. Found 2 great dealerships, one bike---one car. Got great memories to share with my son....What more could a guy ask for....
Bill
Joined
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589 Posts
A friend has a Dodge Dakota that he uses. He also has an electric hoist thing-a-ma-jig. You ride onto a flat piece of channel iron which is then hoisted into the truck. He has taken his bike from Vancouver Island to Arizona in it. It seems to work fine.
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1,729 Posts
A friend and I left Birmingham Al at 8am in my F-250 LWB drove to Lake Michigan picked up bike. We got lucky and found a drainage ditch that would put the tailgate even with a driveway. Got back home at 10am the next morning. The bike did not move a bit. It was kind of scary falling asleep and waking up with a motorcycle in your rear view mirror. It sounded like a good idea at the time but I would not recommend it, it was one of those things that sounded good at the time. Getting it off was harder than getting it on. NOTE dented tailgate.
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455 Posts
I recently made a post about loading an 883 HD into pickup trucks several times. (this was done by hand-4 hands) This does not make me an expert on a MC that weighs twice as much, a Goldwing, but I did learn a few things... A couple of thoughts.
1. Those cables that hold the tailgate in place can rust out and fail in just a couple of years, you dont want that to happen with your $20,000 MC in the lurch. I once owned a pickup on which one of the cables failed when opening the gate to sit on, and I am not that heavy. (F150 1992)
2. It follows that if your truck bed is shorter that the wheel base of the MC you will need a sturdy piece of metal, a beam of some sort.
3. I guess the big issue is finding the right loading dock, berm, for on and off loading.
Just a few thoughts.
:shock:
1. Those cables that hold the tailgate in place can rust out and fail in just a couple of years, you dont want that to happen with your $20,000 MC in the lurch. I once owned a pickup on which one of the cables failed when opening the gate to sit on, and I am not that heavy. (F150 1992)
2. It follows that if your truck bed is shorter that the wheel base of the MC you will need a sturdy piece of metal, a beam of some sort.
3. I guess the big issue is finding the right loading dock, berm, for on and off loading.
Just a few thoughts.
:shock:
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318 Posts
I loaded mine in the back of a Chevy S10. I used a piece of 6" wide channel iron the length of the box and tailgate. I backed up to a burm and rode it on and backed it off at a loading dock using reverse and walking beside the bike, with a helper on the other side just in case.
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Thanks but the tailgate won't be a major issue because both my pickup trucks have a regular 8' bed so the tailgate can be closed after it's been loaded. Just have to use care when actually loading and unloading. TerryWicked said:
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