Finishing up the new Race Trailer. (Pic heavy!)

Over the last two installments of the race trailer build I was just assembling the kit a little at a time according to the instructions. Since I was squeezing in the shop time during the work week, it took me a little longer to get through. I had a long weekend coming up for the Veteran's Day holiday and I was determined to finish the trailer and get it ready for the DMV process. After a bit of time last weekend and a full day yesterday I can say that I did it. Follow along as I complete the work.

Last weekend I had a few hours to finish off the assembly and get the trailer ready for wiring. In the pic above I was playing with and idea or two with regards to the mods I'd need to make to get the trailer ready to haul a bike. With the sale of the old TX750, I had my roller dolly kicking around the shop. I also had the floor chock my wife got me last christmas. I toyed with the idea of using the main body of the dolly combined with the floor chock to make a motorcycle rail and tie down points. In the end I decided against this plan, not because it wouldn't work. It would have worked very well, but it would have been much more difficult to get the trailer assembly to fold up and roll into the garage. If I didn't have to worry about space and could leave the trailer unfolded, this would be the way to go. I would weld the dolly body to the trailer rails with the floor chock at the front. Welding up the trailer seams would also be in order and is something I'm thinking about doing after a few hauling miles anyway.

After all of this work, I wanted to be sure to protect my investment. The tongue has a hole for a pin to lock the latch closed to prevent an accidental separation of the trailer and tow vehicle. Most auto parts stores also sell locks for the tongue that prevents someone from disconnecting the trailer from your vehicle and making off with it. Most of the locks are pretty flimsy and I had this armored hasp lock kicking around. I drilled the tongue holes out a bit to fit the lock and here you go. No one is getting this trailer without a bit of a fight. I also have the receiver locked in place and I run a cable lock through the bike to the trailer to keep my machine with me.

The trailer sat most of the week jus like this. I did lay out the wiring to come up with a plan for the routing. I had to get out and buy some electrical supplies so I could do a a really good job with connecting up all of the lights. I wanted to spend the time up front with the electrical to get trouble free use in the future. I will detail a final total for all of the trailer costs in a future post, but I did spend at least $40 on various butt connectors and some split loom in addition to some shrink wrap I already had in the shop.

On one of my store runs I swung by the Harbor Freight and picked up another motorcycle wheel chock. Here are all three types that HF sells. My first thought for the trailer was to take the large black floor chock and bolt it to some plywood sheeting on the trailer. The only problem is that the Ninja doesn't have a kickstand. Once I get the bike off the trailer at the track I can lean the bike against the trailer until I get my rear stand under it. At home its nice to get the bike unloaded and run it up into the garage and park it in the floor chock. The chock in the bottom of this pic is one I got for another project. It is the lightest duty and good for a spare or if I need to add a temporary second bike capacity to the trailer. The new chock in the middle is the one that will be attached to the trailer. If you search the net for Harbor Freight Motorcycle trailer pics, you will see quite a few of these. For the money and the convenience, they can't be beat.

Here is the wiring finally! I was equal parts looking forward to and dreading the wiring job ahead. It is not hard, but you have to be a bit meticulous to get it right. I used heat shrink insulated butt connectors to connect all wiring splices and then wrapped those with extra heat shrink as you can see on in the pic at the left. In that pic if you look closely and see that I connected the wiring up wrong and had to start over. There was a bit more correcting of errors during the whole wiring process. Remember I said you have to be meticulous? In the right pic you can see the final, correct, result. I fed the wires into some 1/4" split loom and wrapped the ends with electrical tap. Now any water or grit will have to work its way past three layers of protection to mess up my splices.

This is the wiring for the side marker lights. I ran the wiring from the rear to the front so I could be certain that I left myself enough slack to get around the fold in the middle of the trailer. I ran an extra ground wire all the way from the taillights to the flat four pin connector from the tow vehicle. You can see the tape and split loom like the pictures above. The split loom was a pain, but in the end the final result was well worth the effort.

Extra slack for the center folding hinge section. I ran a few zip ties in strategic spots to keep the wiring loom from dragging low. I tested the fold a few times and made some adjustments as needed. I got the whole trailer wired and had the extra wiring gathered around the tongue. I trimmed the excess and made a nice connection to my tow vehicle. I was sure to take my time with the splicing and heat shrink here as well.

Success! All the lights worked as planned. I did have some problems with the connector pins coming  loose that was easy to fix once I found the problem. The wiring took me another 3 to 4 hours on top of the assembly process since I took it slow. Even so I made a few mistakes that added to the process. Once I had the wiring done I took the trailer for a spin around the block just to test it out. My tow vehicle, a 2008 Honda Pilot, didn't even know it was there. I couldn't see the trailer unless I was turning and that was only in the side mirrors. After a break to congratulate myself on a job well done it was time to tackle the decking.

I bought a 4'x8' x 5/8" piece of exterior grade plywood from a big box store for the decking. I also picked up some extra carriage bolts and other miscellaneous hardware. I had the store cut the sheet of plywood in half and I cut the corners off at home with a jig saw. In this pic I have just finished bolting up the rear deck sheet to the trailer. It was an easy, but messy job to cut the corners, mark and drill the bolt holes and climb underneath the trailer and tighten it all down. In place of two carriage bolts I used eye bolts to make some tie down points for the rear of the motorcycle. By this time of the build I was starting to get a little worn out so there aren't any more pictures of that process.

You can see by the low light and the grainy picture that I finished it up right around sunset. I started at 6:00 am and finished about 5:30 pm with a break to run to the store for the wood and some lunch. After bolting up the chock and the spare tire mount, I loaded up the Ninja for a test. The chock is a little big for the skinny Ninja front tire. My wife assisted with handing me the tie down straps so I'll have to figure out a way to do it alone at the track. Once strapped in everything was solid so off I went for another successful around the block test. It was less noisy with the extra weight of the bike and wood on the trailer to quiet things down. The plywood also made the whole trailer assembly much more solid by tying the trailer frame together as one complete piece.

I will eventually seal the deck with some textured paint sealant and I need to get a spare tire. I want to brace the chock underneath the wood deck with some large fender washers or metal strap. I also want to secure the fenders better as they will eventually break off that way they are mounted now. I may make some side rails or come up with a way to solidly mount my ramp to the deck surface, but for now it is ready to haul my bike to the races or a track day. This morning I went out and touched up a few minor things and tested my ability to fold and stand the trailer. The result, not going to happen. The trailer isn't too heavy, but it is awkward. My garage floor is slick and the trailer slides too much to safely get it up on the casters. I have enough space in the shop to store the trailer and both bikes and still be able to work on them so I am satisfied.

If you are looking for an easy solution for light duty track bike transport, you can't go wrong with this set up. Thanks for following along!

Blue

UPDATE: I got an idea from my neighbor & riding partner on folding the trailer. I pulled it out to my driveway which has a rougher finish to the concrete than the garage. I was easily able to get the trailer lifted, folded and stowed in the garage in the folded position when the trailer wasn't sliding out from under me. This gives me much more room to work on the bikes and access all of my motorcycle related gear in the shop. I think I even have space to mount the chock even though doing so will make the folded trailer much bigger. I need to get a track day scheduled so I can work on setting up and breaking down the setup to learn the process, but I am really happy with my new race trailer.