help ive need to know how to got my 1400 tow over 35mph whitout goting a tank sl

[alan woolley]

towing a trailer my will not tow over 35 whitout gotting tank slaper

Edit by Admin: "How To" tag removed - The "How To" tag is used for marking threads whee you are advising "How to" do something 

[Blubber]

To be sure I understand your question :

your 14 is towing a trailer?

[Tug]

wild guess the trailer is not running true, pulling the bike, (the tail wagging the dog)

[gsxbarmy]

wild guess the trailer is not running true, pulling the bike, (the tail wagging the dog)

Or the actual towing mechanism on the bike is not running true and aligned with the rear wheel, so pulling the trailer to one side.

[alan woolley]

ok

[KiwiCol]

Hi Alan, I've no experience with our bike being used as a tow vehicle, however, what you're describing is not restricted to your situation, the same happens with cars.


The reason it happens with cars towing trailers is the weight in (on) the trailer is too far back, ie, more weight behind the axle set than in front of it.
Caravans can often suffer this with new owners just stuffing everything into the van & setting off. Wrong. You have to have more weight at the front than at the back. This pushes down on the tow ball & rear suspension, if you have too much weight at the back (after hooking up) it has the effect of wanting to lift the tow ball - taking weight off the rear suspension.


Once your vehicle is loaded as above, it's like a set of weights, heavy lump at either end (engine & trailer mass), ok in a straight line, soon as you turn it sets off the pendulum effect.


Anyway, I digress, Try loading your trailer with more gear forward of the axle as well as checking the towing alignment mentioned above.
If none of the above seems to help, moving the axle on the trailer towards the rear should help the situation.
You don't want too much weight pushing down on the coupling, but you don't want too little either.


There are different opinions as to how much weight should be on the tow coupling, I personally go for 8 - 10% loading (of the overall trailer mass) on the towball. This works well for me & I've been towing boats & caravans & horse float / furniture trailers for years.


Hope some of this is a help to you. 


Cheers Col.

[KiwiCol]

Hey Alan, put a picture up of the bike & trailer combo, I'd like to see it.  Might give me some other ideas for you.

[Kiwifruit]

Alan, i think id be looking at the wheel alignment of your trailer.

[VladTepes]

Alan it sounds like a weight distribution issue to me, as per kiwicol's post.

Is it a commercial or home-built trailer.  Do you know the weight distribution and how much weight is on the towball?

[alan woolley]

it a commercial /Comanche mc camp/ wheel aligment ok on trariler towball out by half a inch on bike steering stem nut loose

[VladTepes]

Well obviously tighten the steering stem nut. But that shouldn't be an issue unless there had actually been vertical movement between the front end and the frame.

I assume it's a proper tow hitch that allows the bike to move naturally while the trailer tracks flat?

Not sure what you mean by "tow ball out by half a inch"


Have you towed any other trailers with your bike setup or is this the only one?  If you've tried others did you have the same problem?

[alan woolley]

towball out by half a inch centre of back tyre ive have tow same trailer with xj900 div had big off at 40mph put towball on the 1400