[Roadrash]

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.

 

[dsrtrcr01]

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.

Yeah it basically is a parachute. We used to catch birds, bats and other critters with ours.

 

[skinny2]

Yep, I've got a 12' with swing-up ramps and that baby pulls like 5,000# on the highway. I've never actually pulled that trailer with my Tundra on the highway, but it used to dog my 5.3L Chevys, and would just beat the tar out of my Jeep. My next flat-bed will have stowable ramps that fit under the deck.

 

[ICON]

I'm really surprised it dragged that much being expanded steel. That might explain why when my buddy and i were heading up a state forest in Mass here w/our quads, mine in the bed and his on his trailer(the one in my sig), i noticed my truck struggling w/slight grades on the pike. I realize that i had 650lbs in the bed plus a trailer w/650lbs on it wasn't light but the tranny kept going for 3rd. The large piece of plywood that my friend has as a ramp would deffinately be to blame.

 

[johnsnowkornar]

Yep, I've got a 12' with swing-up ramps and that baby pulls like 5,000# on the highway. I've never actually pulled that dog bike trailers with my Tundra on the highway, but it used to dog my 5.3L Chevys, and would just beat the tar out of my Jeep. My next flat-bed will have stowable ramps that fit under the deck.

Could the problem with the airbag light mean something is messed up electrionically that could be effecting the trailer lights? Could a blown fuse be effecting the trailer lights even though the van lights are fine?