Mounting motorcycle carrier on the front of the RV?

[mackerman]

Ahh, the bliss of ignorance....soon to be dashed by the reality of knowledge....

Ok, here's my question for the wise ones on the forums - we'd like to mount two motorcycle carriers on our American Coach, front and rear (what, you thought it would be on the sides?) I've been through the Blue Ox calculations and will have no weight issue with mounting a carrier on the rear to carry my bike - however it seems to me that by placing a second carrier on the nose to carry her bike that we'd offset some of the weight transfer to the rear axle.

I've already gone to the scales and we have plenty of excess weight capacity to carry both bikes/carriers/our 9 lb. chihuahua and her food. (What else could we possibly need?)

I have a welder standing by to create the ultimate in custom mounts, but I thought that it would be wise to see what words of wisdom would pour forth from those that have gone bravely forth into such madness before me.

Anyone ever mounted a motorcycle carrier on the front - successfully or otherwise?

Please take a moment and share your opinions and/or experience regarding this project. The riding season beckons just around the corner!

[FlyingDiver]

Are you sure you've got enough capacity on the front?

joe

[DAN L]

many years ago, i got a ticket in calif for "obstructing the headlites with a motorcycle" on the front of my camper. it was a honda 90. i had to remove the motorcycle and if memory serves, i had a narrow time window to have the camper inspected at a chp office. there was no fine as i stayed within the time limit. nowadays, they might not be so nice.

[JoeH]

For many years I carried a Harley Sportster on the front of my P30 Chevy chassis motorhome. I built the setup myself out of a combination of steel channel for the frame extensions and cross braces and aluminum channel for the base the bike sat on and for the ramp I used to ride up. I had a support on each side theat the pegs slid into and with that and 4 rachet straps we were very secure. It was an easy on/off setup. I even used the original bumper on the frame extension.I had no temperature problems on the front engined gasser, I beleive you have a diesel pusher so that concern goes away. I did have to mount a set of auxiliry headlights as the bike did block the original headlights. I made many trips from Florida to the North east and to the west coast.

[Hyall]

Quote:

Originally posted by mackerman: Ahh, the bliss of ignorance....soon to be dashed by the reality of knowledge.... Ok, here's my question for the wise ones on the forums - we'd like to mount two motorcycle carriers on our American Coach, front and rear (what, you thought it would be on the sides?) I've been through the Blue Ox calculations and will have no weight issue with mounting a carrier on the rear to carry my bike - however it seems to me that by placing a second carrier on the nose to carry her bike that we'd offset some of the weight transfer to the rear axle. I've already gone to the scales and we have plenty of excess weight capacity to carry both bikes/carriers/our 9 lb. chihuahua and her food. (What else could we possibly need?) I have a welder standing by to create the ultimate in custom mounts, but I thought that it would be wise to see what words of wisdom would pour forth from those that have gone bravely forth into such madness before me. Anyone ever mounted a motorcycle carrier on the front - successfully or otherwise? Please take a moment and share your opinions and/or experience regarding this project. The riding season beckons just around the corner!

try this

[UPS 34]

That would be real hard on the vehicle. Also unsafe.

[tmar10]

I have seen some front mounts but did not get close enough to get any details. The one I saw on a 1 ton PU did not look safe on many levels...vision and weight distribution.

[Doggy Daddy]

My father had a 30' Apollo RV and did it for over 10 years without problems. The bike got alot of bugs on it and some rock chips in the paint though. Auxiliary removable headlights can be mounted to the rack if needed or lower on the front of the RV in lieu of driving or fog lamps.

[JoeH]

Quote:

Originally posted by UPS 34: That would be real hard on the vehicle. Also unsafe.

Not sure why you say it's hard on the vehicle and unsafe. I had mine on front for about 8-9 years and covered the US many times over with 10's of thousands of issue free miles . Never had a problem.

What is your experience that resulted in that statement?