Tie-down concepts:
This week I had a call from a customer who was looking at wheel chocks for his new deck. He was talking of Condor brand, which I think is great. There's also Wheel Doc and many others, including Tractor Supply and Walmart. It's your equipment so choose wisely.
I don't use wheel chocks so I can be pretty flexible. I'm also not a professional towing company, for what that's worth. Fortunately, while I've hauled quite a few different bikes, mostly picked up along interstates, I haven't had any issues.
Chock spacing? My BMW G650GS is 35" across the handlebars. Side-by-side I could have two bikes on 36" centers. Several people I talked to this week have suggested that 40" between the wheel chocks will provide for most bike combinations. I did demos at Maggie Valley last summer and had a couple with two big Hondas that we had to stagger by 6" so the handle bars, fairings and foot pegs didn't interfere with each other. In that situation wheel chocks would be very convenient.
First thing I do is loop TWO gripping-buckle straps around the front wheel and the bulkhead crossbar. I do two right on top of each other because one might fail... (always assume that something will fail...). With that wheel anchored there is no way the bike is going to leave my truck even if other straps fail.
First thing I do is loop TWO gripping-buckle straps around the front wheel and the bulkhead crossbar. Two is because one might fail... (always assume that something will fail...). With that front wheel anchored there is no way the bike is going to leave my truck even if other straps fail.
Then I put heavy-duty ratchet straps from the frame, or engine guard, forward to the bulkhead
anchor points.I put two heavy-duty ratchet straps from either the foot pegs or the rear frame out to either side. The photo here shows a strap I call a happy strap. Rather than use the hook on the end of the ratchet strap to secure the bike, I put these straps into
the loop of the hook on the strap. Ditto on the end which is secured to the deck. No amount of bouncing will release the strap, even if the bike's suspension creates slack in the strap.
I did add bolt-on anchor points (from Rural King or Tractor Supply) to my SuperDeck-III. One in the front center of the deck and one at the rear center. Adding more is easy and can add options when loading different bikes.
There are less expensive ratchet straps out there, but I've had
more than one fail due to constant bouncing, rubbing on something or just old age. The ones I prefer are 2" wide with #2,500+ rating. Good straps are cheaper than buying a customer's damaged bike.
Whatever you are hauling, just take your time and double check everything before you start out and double check everything after you've driven a few miles or if you hit some rough roads.
That extra strap laying on the floor of your truck could be the security blanket that saves the day!