A question for Everyone who pulls a trailer with their bike

[nortman]

I have just put together a HF trailer for carrying our camping gear, and was wondering what the consensus was on having a swivel hitch or tonge on the trailer.  What are other people using, and what works.  Also the Lady came with a HitchDoc hitch on it, but I don't see anywhere to hook the safety chains.  Any Suggestions .

[Master Blaster]

You wont need a swivel, regular tongue and ball works fine.  Shouldnt be too hard to rig for safety chains.  Ask Psycho what may happen if you dont use them.  I think it wouldnt be much trouble to weld a couple of loops each sideof the reciever, or even under it.

[fudgie]

I have a standard hitch, no swivel. Never had a problem with it. Hooks up to the trailer even with bike on the side stand. Some say if you drop the bike with it on it may twist the tongue. But yes, put chains on it. You don't want to chase your gear down a mountain! Weld some loops on the bottom.

[Jeff K]

You may want to go for the swivel hitch. I have one on mine and when I laid my bike down in 2" of hail I was glad it was there. Trailer stayed upright and there was no damage to the tongue or the hitch.
I once saw a goldwing with a trailer and std ball type hitch go down and he twisted the tongue bad. We couldn't stand the bike back up because of the twist in the tongue.

[R J]

Swivel hitch,  I used one and it flipped my trailer over on it's top.   BUT, MGM staid upright and I was able to bring him to a halt with damage only to the trailer........

Chains:   I added a holder that I bought at the Trailer hitch company here in town.  Yup, if is Chrome and also holds my bell.



The step down is now gone, no more Bushtec Trailer, but the loop with a hole in it is now on the top ball for my chains, be sure and criss-cross the chains under the tongue.  That will keep it from dropping to the pavement and doing an end over end on ya, should the receiver come lose from the ball.....

[PAVALKER]

You wont need a swivel, regular tongue and ball works fine.  Shouldnt be too hard to rig for safety chains.  Ask Psycho what may happen if you dont use them.  I think it wouldnt be much trouble to weld a couple of loops each sideof the reciever, or even under it.

Correct, you will not need a swivel hitch.  I use the Hitchdoc Hitch and a HF trailer.  The Hitch should have a hole under the fender where you can place an EYE BOLT  (eye facing down) and attach your chains to the EYE.  I use one ring for both chain ends and twist the chain and hook the ring to the eye bolt.  The ring is actually a chain link with a nut on it that you can open/close the link.   

[sandy]

The HitchDoc has 2 holes under the hitch. I bolted two eyes there and hook my chains to them.

[nortman]

at the hitch under the fender and found the holes for the eye bolts.  Thanks again everyone .