hi,

i am new to this forum, just found it 30 minutes ago.

i bought  a new Boulevard s40 Wednesday may 23.

i need some info on pulling a small cargo trailer for just shopping, not touring.

suzuki dealers said i should be able to, as long as the trailer and load are under the 785  weight cap.

the trailer people i have spoken to say they have sold trailers to people with 250 cc to 650 cc bikes.

BUT, no one i have spoken too has had any experience with a trailer, so i am looking for some feedback from ones who have.

hope someone can help

John at Motorcycle Hitch USA (954-784-0119)

http://www.motorcyclehitchusa.com/

says the factory will be motivated to manufacture a trailer hitch for the Savage if they get more interest.

I've been trying for a few months now.....anyone who is interested in a trailer hitch for their Savages, please give John a call.  He has my credit card info and is waiting so he can fulfull my order.

I'm just finishing up a stay here in western N. Dakota. I've been toying with some ideas for a hitch to go on the Thunder Bee. So when I stumbled onto an guy out here who's been welding for 45 years in his own shop, I told him my ideas. Long story short, we came up with a design and he put it together for me in just a couple of days. I now have a quickly removable hitch for my savage at a very reasonable price that looks quite good.

I went out today to get some pix to post so's ya'll could see it and found out my digital camera doesn't work anymore. It doesn't seem to cotton to the environs out here in the wild and wooly west. I'll try to borrow one because I'm sure when you see how simple to put together it is everyone will be doing it. I wonder if it's too late to patent the design.

Jack

Jack,

Any luck on the photos yet.....how's the hitch holding up?

Enquiring minds want to know!

For the benefit of any one else,  at the FSSNOC Thumper Lunch there was a Yamaha 500 cc scooter with a trailer behind it he pulls all over. Hitch is a nicely constructed square tubing down to a trailer ball. Rear seat was removed so a plate could be bolted to that point for the tubing to be welded to. Trailer appeared to be about 2 ft wide x 4 ft long with a plastic cargo box bolted onto it. Tires were the size of small boat trailer tire. He said once in motion he could hardly tell it was there. Didn't try to push the rear end of the scooter out of position on turns even down hill. I think a mounting off the rear fender supports with a drawbar dwon to the a ball would work just fine on a Savage and we know it will handle the extra load because of the sucess of the side car folks. Max

Untill I get pix of my hitch I'll try to give ya'll a rough idea of what I did.

There are two 1/4" thick pieces of sheet steel cut to roughly this shape, a short, squat hockey stick if you will. The one on the left side is just a flat piece. The two stars are holes, the front one uses the lower front hole that goes through the side rail while the back one is drilled through the side rail and fender a little forward of where the sissy bar connects. The "C" shape at the front is a half a section of pipe that's been welded onto the front of the side plate to fit up against the inside of the shock mount (between the shock and the frame) and is then U-bolted to the shock mount with a small muffler type U-clamp with the curved bracket to wrap around the shock mount that's welded to the frame.

Side panal basic shape. Not too critical. Cut shape to taste.
     / ---------------------------.
    /          *                  *    .C
   /        /----------------------
  /        /
 /......../

The piece for the right side has to have two 90 degree bends in the front end of it, one 90 inward and then one 90 forward again (or a 90 degree extra piece welded there) to go inward toward the frame around the right side rail, due to the off-set caused by the lack of the drive belt on this side. The other half of the short piece of pipe is welded to the front of this modified plate piece and also U-bolts to the shock mount in the same manor as the left side. If it weren't for this offset the hitch could be all welded up as one piece and be easily removed in one step.


Top view, right side plate:
                                ----(
                                l
---------------------------

Now all that's left to do is to make a plate to go between the bottom backs of the two side plates to hold the hitch ball and with a couple holes in it for the trailer safety chains. The way mine is done is is that there are 90 degree angle irons welded front to back to the bottoms of the side plates. The cross plate is then bolted to those with two bolts at each end. The lower front side ends of my side plates are actually about even with the rear of the tire. The plate that holds the ball is arched out and around the tire with about 3" of clearance.

To remove the hitch from the bike I just unbolt the two bolts from the right side of the hitch ball cross plate and undo the U-bolts and two bolts that go through the side rails and fender on each side. The left side plate with the rear cross plate/ball still attached just comes off. The right side has to be dropped slightly, the rear pulled out a little and then finessed a bit to get the front end out from behind the top of the shock. It takes a little trial and error work to get the front of the right side plate with its off-set bends to the right size/proportions, but it obviously can be done. Use cardboard templates and take your time.

I hope this helps those who are impatient to get into a shop and see what they can do. My welder guy in North Dakota just sat down with pencil and paper after I told him this basic idea and this is the result we ended up with. I may very well try to start making these things myself if there's enough interest from those who would rather not make a mess in their garage. Patent pending and all that rot.

Jack

True,  I can't really make it out.  Perhaps when you can you can photograph it for us.
Steve

Drats!!!!!!

My lead at:

http://www.motorcyclehitchusa.com/

dried up.  Nice people, but they said they will no longer make trailer hitches for bikes smaller than 750cc.

It's enough to make me wanna sell my little Savage!

Jack, I'm heading to MN in a few months.  Maybe I can swing by your place in ND and take some pics.

I'm getting desperate!