'96 Dyna suitable for trike conversion?

[bobscogin]

I'd like input from riders who have converted a Dyna to a trike. I'm concerned about the extra stress being placed on the rubber mounted swing arm/engine/drivetrain. Has the additional load caused any problems on your conversion over the long term, and if so, any suggestions on fixes?

Bob

 

[Texan]

Several different companies have Dyna conversions but MotorTrike is the only one I'm familiar with. You'll find that they are fun to run around town on but I would be hitting the highway with one. You eliminate the swing are with the conversion so no issue there. I had a '96 FXLD that I gave some serious thoughts to converting to a trike. You're going to spend $15,000, twice what the bike is worth, just to buy the kit......then labor to install. AND you're going to put another big chunk of $$$$ just getting that Evo's power up to handle it. AND reverse. And triple tree.

Now if you're talking Voyager or one of those, no experience, no thoughts. Sorry.

8~\o

 

[Lee H. Mann]

All of the Evo Dyna's must install a Carlini Torque Arm or it will break the inner primary. There is also a lot of frame flex that is unavoidable. Front exhaust pipe will hit the frame down tube when turning or loaded over bumps. Re-routing the exhaust slightly will cure that or maybe a different front pipe.

http://www.carlinidesign.com/Torque-Arms/

 

[hdfat2001]

Wife had an '01 FXD with a Motortrike Kit. Awesome little trike, but had an issue twice with the swingarm. Both times the swingarm shafts backed out and the side of the trike dropped. Had the installer re do it first time, did it myself the last time. The issue as I see it is the tapered bearings on the primary side. There's way too much stress on them, and if not torqued properly they get loose and the 7/16-20 bolt gets loose and drops out...not good. On hers happened at 10 and 20k after conversion.

 

[bobscogin]

Thanks all for confirming my suspicions. I suspected that the rubber mount design would be troublesome. The touring platform gets away with it because the swing arm pivots are outboard of the swing arm which greatly increases torsional stiffness. Since I want to build my own trike, I think I'll wait until I can find a suitable platform with a frame mounted swingarm that doesn't transfer the load into the engine/drivetrain mounts.

Bob