Weekend before last about a dozen of us loaded up our sport bikes and headed to the incredible BlueRidge mountains of N.C. for a couple days canyon carving.
I had been there before in my '00 LTD in various forms - one bike in the bed , two in the bed and the Tundra handled the trips well.
On this occasion , however , I had the option of borrowing a 12' trailer from one of the guys going on this trip and opted for the luxury of the added room.
I could have used my own 16' dovetail trailer , but as you might imagine , my trailer would have been over-kill for this task.
So we go over the borrowed trailer , checking the usual things like lights as well as bearing grease. We then got the two bikes loaded paying close attention to the tongue weight especially since my co-pilot would be doing some of the overnight driving - having never driven a truck with a trailer before.
I drove the first segment and noticed within the first few miles that this trailer was pulling like a parachute.
More than a third of a tank of gas had been burned in the first 100 miles , at a rate of just 70 MPH - the fastest it would go!
So we pull over to a gas station and remove the expanded steel gate/ramp from the stowed position at the back of the trailer in the vertical position and lay it down in the bed. VOILA!!!!!!!:tu: Now we're able to maintain 75-80 MPH with much greater ease.
I would have never guessed that 5'X5' perferated gate would drag in the wind THAT much.
I had been there before in my '00 LTD in various forms - one bike in the bed , two in the bed and the Tundra handled the trips well.
On this occasion , however , I had the option of borrowing a 12' trailer from one of the guys going on this trip and opted for the luxury of the added room.
I could have used my own 16' dovetail trailer , but as you might imagine , my trailer would have been over-kill for this task.
So we go over the borrowed trailer , checking the usual things like lights as well as bearing grease. We then got the two bikes loaded paying close attention to the tongue weight especially since my co-pilot would be doing some of the overnight driving - having never driven a truck with a trailer before.
I drove the first segment and noticed within the first few miles that this trailer was pulling like a parachute.
I would have never guessed that 5'X5' perferated gate would drag in the wind THAT much.