On 6/3/2006 5:40 PM David Bohannan wrote:
> Harbor Freight is your friend:
> http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=42708
>
David, I reckon you are right.

<Begin thinking out loud>

I have a receiver mounted to the front of Mellow Yellow to carry a bike
rack with our two bicycles. It's plenty sturdy for that, but I don't
think a 160 lb (dry) scooter is the smartest thing to mount there.

On the rear, I /could/ mount some heavy-duty receiver to carry a
scooter, but then I'd have that darn scooter in the way when I wanted to
open the back.

So, we're thinking that a small trailer, like those Harbor Freight ones,
is our solution.  The trailers come in two general lengths: 48'' and
96''. 96'' is more than we want to deal with. However, the scooters
we're looking at are about 65 - 70 '' length overall, so the shorter
trailer might be awkward. It could be lengthened, as described by Greg
Potts on his Westrailer project, by welding on some mattress frames. But
I am welding-challenged.

Setting that detail aside for the moment, I don't know much about
trailers, but I bet that you don't want to add the extra length to the
rear of the trailer, as it will cause the tongue to want to go up. The
load probably wants to be roughly centered over the trailer axle, with a
forward bias so that the tongue has a few dozen lbs of downward
pressure. By adding 10'' to the front of the trailer, and 10'' to the
rear, the trailer would be long enough for the scooter, but this would
reduce the clearance between the trailer and MW's rear. Sharp turns
might be messy.

<end thinking out loud>

'73

Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
KG6RCR