Tow Hitch

[gemmybob]

Any body figured good mount points for a tow hitch on the VS1400. I have pondered on this for a bit and I have bogged down. Delray mount theirs off the battery box and I am not happy with that as I have twice repaired fatigue cracks there. Reading the forum there's some talk of hitchs but nothing on mount points as i see others have built there own i am looking forward to some new input. Cheers hey .

[Herb]

I built a hitch by removing the backrest and running 2 1.5" angle iron braces from the shock mount and the hackrest mount out the back of the bike. I then ran 1 inch strap iron down at an angle to a point a few inches behind the wheel, I then used a special sized angle across at the bottom between the 2 down straps to mount the ball hitch on. I then ran strap iron from the last of the fender mounts to the bottom of the actual hitch.

It requires that a brace is used between the 2 level angle iron, I used a short piece of pipe with all thread to go between the angle irons and to also hold the down straps to the ball mount.

The system worked quite well towing a trailer for thousands of miles while carrying up to 300 lbs on the trailer and 2 up riding.

One thing to caution about, make sure that the top of the ball hitch is even with the rear axle when loaded. I made the bottom of the ball even with the axle and it creates some handling issues. If the tongue is too high, like I made it, if you let off while heading into a turn it will try to stand the bike up then when you add power the pull will pull the bike over into the turn.

BTW I also used the angle iron to mount an old luggage rack with a built in adjustable backrest and mounted a luggage box to the luggage rack and used part of the mounting to mount hard bags to. The trunk and bags are off of an early 80's goldwing that I bought 2nd hand.

[gemmybob]

Thanks Herb. Seems simple enough to build. Here in Aus, Intruders are scarce, and exotic things like tow hitches have to be imported at a cost, so you have pointed me in a really good direction.
If I read right, the top of the tow ball should be at axle hight and that's about the only trap
Thanks for taking the time for such a detailed reply, it's very much appreciated.
Cheers Bobc.

[Herb]

I started this from scratch trying to figure it out. I had some pretty cobbled up crap to start with and this is what I finally ended up with. I hope my discription is good enough.

[gemmybob]

The description is excellent, and on the weekend I will draw it up using a pic from my parts fische, and go from there.
I towed a trailer with my old 1100 Suzy, but the mount points on the VS 1400 ( I call it hannibal) have had me bluffed.
Cheers again and many thanks.