I'm not sure this is the right forum, but having visited a few times I figured it would be the best place to post this. Anyways, I am picking up a motorcycle my buddy bought on e-bay when I am home for Thanksgiving, and will be transporting it about 200 miles for him. I am planning on tieing down to the cleats I have at all four lower corners of the bed, using ratcheting tie downs, and chocking the front wheel.

My question is this: do you guys think I will be able to compress the suspension ratcheting at such an extreme angle, or should I mount D rings in the floor of my bed ?


I'd rather not drill into the bed if I don't have to. What do you guys think ? Can I transport this bike safely with the setup I have planned ? My truck is a 2000 F-150 XLT, so I'm not worried about the weight of the bike affecting the ride at all, as the bike weighs no more than 650 lbs. Thanks for all of your input.

 

Welcome to FTE and thanks for joining us in the Towing forum!

My only experience hauling a mid weight bike like you're describing was tied down in the bottom corners of the bed. So I can't say from experience that the top tie downs would work okay. They should, but that's just a guess.

Let's see what the experienced motorcycle haulers have to say...

 

I have used always ratchet straps when hauling bikes. I put the hooks in the stake pockets and I've never had a problem. I wouldn't compress the suspension all the way but you need to some.

 

Thanks for the advice guys. Unless I hear otherwise, I'm going to plan on using the ratcheting tie downs secured to the lower corners of the bed. Thanks again for the help.

 

I've hauled a number of bikes about that weight with my Ranger. I load the front wheel into the front corner of the bed, and then compress the suspension with ratchet straps using the stock cleats. This works real well, although I have a flareside, so my cleats are considerably closer together than yours... I think you should be fine, though.
I highly recommend wedging the front tire in the corner though, because the bike holds itself up to a certain extent and does not put as much load on the ratchet straps.

 

Deere,

When you say "front corner" of the bed, I'm assuming that you then have one strap up front, one in the rear on the opposite side, and the bike positioned (wedged) diagonally in the bed ? Sorry if I'm totally missreading your post...

 

I have just used the stake pockets with 4 straps with great success.

 

I didn't see any suggestion for, but I think I would have the bike hard against the front of the bed. Braking force is much harder than take off and having the wheel against the front prevents and forward movement.

Use the straps to keep it upright.

John

 

Yeah, the bike is diagonal in the bed. When the wheel is held tightly in the corner, the bike can't tip over unless it moves backwards, too.

I compress the front suspension with two straps on the left (assuming the front wheel is on the left): one is attached to the frame, fairly low and a ways back, pulling the bike forward (and into the corner). The other is mounted high on the fork, pulling the bike downward. You will have to balance the tension on these, since tightening one will loosen the other slightly. I then run a strap across to the other side, but only put a bit of tension on it, in case the bike tips to the left.

The rear strapping will be different in your truck than mine because of the different bed sizes (mine is a shortbed flareside Ranger). In my case, the rear tie-downs fall where the bike is still roughly centered, so I run a strap from each side of the bike to the tie down, in such a way that it pulls the bike down and forward, and slightly to the right (to keep it diagonal). Yours might end up being more like the way I do the front.

Basically, what you want to do is strap it so that it is being pulled down and forward into the corner, then strap it in all other directions, too. Once you have it all strapped down, retighten the straps and try to push the bike over, move it backwards, etc. If you can move it, adjust your strap tension and placement until you can't. All the usual safety stuff, too: don't rely on the straps to hold what they're rated for, make sure they aren't over a sharp edge, etc.

You should be fine, if you just make sure that the bike won't move. Good luck!

(It sounds like you might be picking the bike up from the seller. If he is helping you load and has good advice, take it. If, however, something doesn't look right to you but he says it's OK, take it with a grain of salt. You won't hurt anything by strapping it in too well. )

 

If you're using a wheel chock the bike doesn't have to be diagonal. Even if you don't have a chock the bike can be straight in the bed, but the force of the front tire pushing against the bed may dent it when the suspension is compressed. I use this to prevent that from happening: http://www.ccrsport.com/ but I haul bikes several times a month; if you're only going to do it once, a wheel chock will work just fine.

Finally, you want to compress the suspension some, but don't overdo it on the forks. Too much pressure might blow out a fork seal. The tail gate might have to stay open depending on how long or how short your bed is. If it's a really heavy bike such as a Harley or a Goldwing, I'd take the tail gate off so as not to bend it when you're loading the bike.

You can use a canyon dancer harness http://www.canyondancer.com/ but I prefer softties around the triples.

Good luck,

-R.

 

That bed buddy from ccrsport looks pretty neat.
One thing to watch out for is that the strap doesn't rub against anything or it will fray and break. This happened to me at the end of a 500 mile trip, just as I pulled in the driveway. The sportbike fell over onto the harley. Luckily, only a small ding on the tank of the sportbike.
steve

 

I hauled my Honda Shadow (~500 lb dry weight) in my Ranger with it secured using the four hooks at the corners of the bed. The bike was straight in, with the front tire up tight against the bed and the forks compressed slightly. A chock is a good idea, but I never used one, and I had to leave the tailgate down. I also didn't use ratchet tie downs, just the pull kind, and never had a problem with them. Considering the distance you're going, ratchet tie downs are the way to go. If you are hauling a heavy bike, you might want to consider getting some pocket stakes to supplement the ones attached to your bed. A shifting load is never a good thing, particularly when the load is valuable.

Soft straps are good too. Basically they are just nylon straps looped at the ends that you can wrap around the bike and not risk scratching it up with the metal hooks. I see no need to mount D rings in the bed of your truck, just to haul a motorcycle.

 

I wouldn't use ratchet straps in the stake pockets. That's some pretty thin metal there, and while you may not bend it if you don't overtighten the ratchets, a sudden stop could have that bike tweaking the snot out of the pockets. I've got a ladder rack in mine, and from driving onto rough construction sites, it has bent the top of the pockets slightly and even cracked the metal--and it only weighs about 150-200lbs or so.

For a short, local trip, I'd do it anyway, but anything longer, I'd look into bolting down d-rings in the bed.

Jason

 

I've hauled my '90 HD Sportster 1200 (550 lbs) in the bed of my '93 Ranger. I positioned it as described earlier, with the front tire in the front left corner of the bed, leaning on the jiffy stand (Harley talk for kickstand). I could not locate my ratcheting tie-downs for the 10 mile trip, so I just used some flimsy nylon straps with sliding cam-type locking hardware which I bought for my canoe. In this configuation the rear tire is centered over the crack between the tailgate and bed on the right side. The straps were looped through the stake pocket cargo loops.

All was well until I got about 500 yards from the Harley shop. Hard left turn around a very akward corner banked the wrong way, bumpy, in traffic, etc. My bike fell over to the right and layed on the right side bed rail. By the way, it's not "a good sound". I didn't care for the feeling either.

Three mistakes: 1) too disorganized to find my good cargo straps. 2) flimsy strap came loose. 3) bike suspension not compressed at all.

The result... Not a scratch on the bike or the truck - but I felt very stoopid.

I think the stake pocket hardware might be barely adequate for this particular job - perhaps better to avoid that as suggested earlier. Another issue with the stake pockets is that they are too high, so you can't compress the bike suspension even with the right straps. I never even thought to remove my tailgate to load the bike, the tailgate held up fine more than once with 750 lbs. of bike + rider on it. Next time I might back the bike into the bed for a couple reasons: 1) rear suspension of the bike is much stiffer (and adjustable) and makes for better dynamics with the front of the bed in hard stopping situations. 2) seems like better weight distribution.

I have since found my good straps! Also, my new '06 Ranger has a Ford bed liner which has holes exposing cargo rings mounted in the bed corners a few inches above the floor of the bed. These should work just fine I think. Now I wonder if the aftermarket bed liner in my '93 Ranger is hiding similar hardware that I never knew was there?!?!

 

My experience with using the stake pockets have been good, and you can compress the suspension plenty using this way. My friends and I have hauled bike this way many many times and no problems, several 200 mile plus trips.

Using quality straps is a must.

As for backing the bike in the bed, I believe is bad news if you have a windshield. The wind factor will tear up your windshield.