The idea of mounting a Harbor Freight Hitch Rack to the front of my Aluma 638 trailer to allow me to bring along one of my Ural sidecar rigs and the Yamaha TW200 seemed workable and for a while, it did.
Today, as I finally did a closeup inspection of the underside of the trailer, I found cracks where the tongue mates to the cargo area of the trailer! Dammit.
Apparently, extending the tongue by two feet AND adding the TW200's almost 300 lbs to the tongue of the trailer was too much.
I'd noticed it being a bit "bouncy" on the last trip, had done a cursory check and seen nothing. Today, it was pretty obvious:
Of the three tabs which are attached by welds to the tongue and then to the frame of of the trailer, the rearmost one had separated and cracks had developed.
The other side of that support was cracked as well, and the tab's weld had cracked as well. Not good.
So, my planned departure for a Leaf Peeping camping trip for this morning had to be postponed. I hurriedly checked Google Maps and it showed a welding shop about 8 miles away. I called and the owner Jim said bring it over so he could look at it.
I hitched up the trailer to the URRV and hurried on over. Colorado Mechanical Welding is the name of Jim's welding shop, it's located in a suburb neighborhood next to his home in Parker.
He had been loading some big pipes onto a truck when I showed up, so as soon as that was done, he came over to the street where I'd left the trailer to check things out. He said, no problem, and to leave the trailer with him and depending on workloads, he might be able to get it done today!
I left the trailer after confirming with Jim that carrying 300 lbs of T-Dub on the front of the trailer is not a good thing, so the rack will be coming off.
Shortly before 4PM, I get a call from Jim, the trailer is finished! Martha got home shortly before 4:30PM and I drove her car (it's very tight maneuvering room at the welding shop property) and with Patrick (#1 son), we went to retrieve the trailer.
A very fair price was charged and the rear mount point of the trailer tongue is now "reinforced".
right side
left side
Really happy with Jim's work. Saturday I try to go camping again, and we'll see how the new reinforcements work out. I'll only be hauling Scarlett, my 2014 Ural as she stands out nicely and I hope for many good Fall Colors shots.
I heartily recommend the work of Jim's company: Colorado Mechanical Welding in Parker, CO. Fairly priced work, quickly done and with friendly enthusiasm. He's not only a great welder but he also is a holder of several land speed records on a Hayabusa!
I heartily recommend the work of Jim's company: Colorado Mechanical Welding in Parker, CO. Fairly priced work, quickly done and with friendly enthusiasm. He's not only a great welder but he also is a holder of several land speed records on a Hayabusa!
Jim said he got the above motorcycle up to 247 mph!
Jim Cole welding the mounting bracket, in situ, nice and fast
Update: September 26.
Delaying departure for camping till Sunday; so I took Fiona's port side muffler over to Jim Cole's shop to weld the crack at the base of the support bracket. It was caused by either being knocked off during Fiona's last camping trip or my repeated hammerings on the bracket to get it back to the right angle to mount it.
I expected to drop it off and pick it up later but he took a look at it and the broken mount on the TW200's cargo rack and said if I was willing to wait, he'd do both right then and there! I of course said yes, and both tasks took less than five minutes for Jim! Another fair price was paid and I left a happy camper once again.
Jim did this welding faster than I could remove the
seat on the TW200 to expose the broken cargo rack mount!
7 comments:
I would’ve never expected the trailer frame to crack but the fix looks pretty good.
It was worth a shot....thanks for the feedback
Got Fiona's left muffler's broken bracket mount point welded today, and the broken mount for the cargo rack fixed as well. Pics added.
Damn. Those Ural mufflers have a shelf life shorter than most vegetables??? Is it a production issue or design?? They always seem to be dented or falling off or bent
Diamond Dave, the port side mufflers tend to catch a lot of rocks....just saying.
That added leverage on the trailer put a big strain on the frame, it appears. Similar to a wider sidecar frame can cause cracks due to the added leverage that a normal width can handle.
Have you looked at mounting a carry rack for the TW on the front of your camper?
I had researched it CCjon, and not expensive....but for now will just have to make do with one motorcycle per trip. A comment made by a fellow rider comes to mind....do I want to arrive somewhere with a bug-splattered motorcycle? This option is really the only one left to me aside from a longer trailer.....I’m just not sure I want to increase the length of my transportation.....it’s already somewhat tricky at times to fit where I want to camp.
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