Loading Trike on Tilt Flat Deck - Mechanical Breakdown

ron49th · Mar 26, 2019

I was wondering if anyone has had the experience of having to load their Trike on to a tilt flat deck truck - without any engine power. I have been looking for a solid 'hook on to spot' on the front and rear. The rear does have two hold down hooks that would work if you could tie them together with a recovery strap and then attach a tow line and tow from the rear. Looking at the front - the drivers foot boards supports are attached to the frame - not sure if they can be used for towing from the front. Any suggestions/experience would be appreciated.

Ron

Burnerboy · Mar 26, 2019

ron49th said:
I was wondering if anyone has had the experience of having to load their Trike on to a tilt flat deck truck - without any engine power. I have been looking for a solid 'hook on to spot' on the front and rear. The rear does have two hold down hooks that would work if you could tie them together with a recovery strap and then attach a tow line and tow from the rear. Looking at the front - the drivers foot boards supports are attached to the frame - not sure if they can be used for towing from the front. Any suggestions/experience would be appreciated.

Ron

Do you have a trailer hitch? How about putting a strap on the hitch using a "come A long" and pulling the bike on trailer backwards? (just a thought here for you)

Ronnie

ultrafxr · Mar 26, 2019

Not sure pulling onto the tilted deck from the rear of the trike would work. Suspect the mufflers would contact the deck.

Burnerboy · Mar 26, 2019

ultrafxr said:
Not sure pulling onto the tilted deck from the rear of the trike would work. Suspect the mufflers would contact the deck.

How about a strap around the front forks, and using that same come-A long to hoist it up....Just trying to think 4 you without seeing your situation with my own eyes

Ronnie

ShapeShifter · Mar 26, 2019

To get mine onto a rollback tow truck, the driver used a small angled wedge (thin flat piece of metal would work too) at the edge of ramp with a generous amount of dishwashing liquid under the wedge or flat piece of metal. Won't hurt to squirt some liquid along the center of the bed. Then Tow Strap through front wheel and connect strap to winch cable or "come a long". Gently take up slack till front wheel slides up on wedge or flat piece of metal. Once the slack is taken up, then hold the front brake as the trike is winched up the bed using front wheel on the wedge or flat piece of metal.

To get off just hold front brake as bed inclines downward, then gravity will do the rest. Put down more dish liquid for smoother slide. Hopefully, the dealer will then have the wherewithal to actually get it moved into the maintenance shop.

rhino 2 · Mar 26, 2019

ShapeShifter said:
To get mine onto a rollback tow truck, the driver used a small angled wedge (thin flat piece of metal would work too) at the edge of ramp with a generous amount of dishwashing liquid under the wedge or flat piece of metal. Won't hurt to squirt some liquid along the center of the bed. Then Tow Strap through front wheel and connect strap to winch cable or "come a long". Gently take up slack till front wheel slides up on wedge or flat piece of metal. Once the slack is taken up, then hold the front brake as the trike is winched up the bed using front wheel on the wedge or flat piece of metal.

To get off just hold front brake as bed inclines downward, then gravity will do the rest. Put down more dish liquid for smoother slide. Hopefully, the dealer will then have the wherewithal to actually get it moved into the maintenance shop.

Good post.........:clapping:...

azbob09 · Mar 26, 2019

If you put it on backwards there's a very good chance of the wind catching the windshield while in route & breaking or cracking the windshield & upper fairing. I saw this happen on a friends trike a while back. Just a warning.....

Burnerboy · Mar 28, 2019

azbob09 said:
If you put it on backwards there's a very good chance of the wind catching the windshield while in route & breaking or cracking the windshield & upper fairing. I saw this happen on a friends trike a while back. Just a warning.....

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa a very good suggestion, OR a better warning, didn't even think about that.....Thanks for your input..... and that was my idea, to do that, glad you mentioned it....:blush::blush: Thanks again!

Ronnie

FuzzyWuzHe · Mar 28, 2019

ShapeShifter said:
To get mine onto a rollback tow truck, the driver used a small angled wedge (thin flat piece of metal would work too) at the edge of ramp with a generous amount of dishwashing liquid under the wedge or flat piece of metal. Won't hurt to squirt some liquid along the center of the bed. Then Tow Strap through front wheel and connect strap to winch cable or "come a long". Gently take up slack till front wheel slides up on wedge or flat piece of metal. Once the slack is taken up, then hold the front brake as the trike is winched up the bed using front wheel on the wedge or flat piece of metal.

To get off just hold front brake as bed inclines downward, then gravity will do the rest. Put down more dish liquid for smoother slide. Hopefully, the dealer will then have the wherewithal to actually get it moved into the maintenance shop.

Pretty sharp tow dude ... very safe method ... I wonder if all the tow dudes carry dish soap ... I think probably or some similar stuff. If your towing a car that's been wrecked and a wheel won't turn ... voila. Easy to clean up .. .just hose off. I like it. If you're like me and use lemon pledge to clean the windshield, that would probably work too.

rhino 2 · Mar 28, 2019

About ten years ago my Spyder chewed up a front sprocket and shaft, And i managed to coast to the side of this busy main road and off in the grass, So i called my Son to come get me with my trailer....Well we were struggling to push it on the ramp of the trailer what with wet grass and all, When all of a sudden the Spyder just flew right up and in the trailer...What happen was some good samaritan pulled up behind us in his car , And unbeknownst to us grabbed hold of the Spyder with us and helped push it up and with out ever saying a word , And just as fast left with out even saying a word...All i could say was ;

Who was that mast man......My Son just shrugged his shoulders and said i haven't the slightest idea....:xzqxz:....Moral, Just two guys couldn't get it up the ramp...But with a third it can be done and was done....:clapping:..

ShapeShifter · Mar 28, 2019

FuzzyWuzHe said:
Pretty sharp tow dude ... very safe method ... I wonder if all the tow dudes carry dish soap ... I think probably or some similar stuff. If your towing a car that's been wrecked and a wheel won't turn ... voila. Easy to clean up .. .just hose off. I like it. If you're like me and use lemon pledge to clean the windshield, that would probably work too.

Yea, I told them mine was a trike in parking lot with forks locked left and ignition won't unlock. That driver was a biker also and had lots of experience recovering two wheels. Said mine was his first trike recovery. That was a much better experience than my previous one....that driver wanted to use metal hooks on forks to winch.....I squashed that and we tied two smaller straps through front wheel. I now know to ask that the driver dispatched have two lenghty straps at a minimum, one for winch up and the second to put through both rear wheels to tie down the back-end to rear of tow vehicle. Over the years I've learned we have to be unyielding as to how they recover our vehicles.....too many just want to yank, drop and move to next $$$$.

ShapeShifter · Mar 28, 2019

rhino 2 said:
About ten years ago my Spyder chewed up a front sprocket and shaft, And i managed to coast to the side of this busy main road and off in the grass, So i called my Son to come get me with my trailer....Well we were struggling to push it on the ramp of the trailer what with wet grass and all, When all of a sudden the Spyder just flew right up and in the trailer...What happen was some good samaritan pulled up behind us in his car , And unbeknownst to us grabbed hold of the Spyder with us and helped push it up and with out ever saying a word , And just as fast left with out even saying a word...All i could say was ;

Who was that mast man......My Son just shrugged his shoulders and said i haven't the slightest idea....:xzqxz:....Moral, Just two guys couldn't get it up the ramp...But with a third it can be done and was done....:clapping:..

Pretty sure you've paid that forward many times.ThumbUp