Yaris and a motorcycle carrier.

[Lokie452]

Hey guys. I've had my 2009 Yaris for almost a year now. I ride motorcycles a lot and am having to do a lot of driving for school and work. I've considered getting a motorcycle carrier to tow around my little Honda rebel 250cc. It's about 340lbs. So it shouldn't be a problem for the yaris to pull me and the bike but does anyone know if the car or the hitches sold for the yaris could handle the downward weight?

[jambo101]

Why not just drive the car or the bike on your errands? why the need to go every where with both of them?
If driven easy i doubt a bike and trailer will upset the handling too much.
I'll presume you are thinking of something like this =
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...le_Carrier.jpg

And not like this=

http://cdn2.bigcommerce.com/server57...63.300.225.jpg

[Lokie452]

I was thinking of the first one. I've never seen the 2nd, would that actually work? It's not really errands. My school is a four hour drive away, I live in a dorm, and I'm in the co-op program where 3 semesters of interning are mixed in between normal school semesters, that is 6 hours from home and between 4-5 hours from my school.

[Lokie452]

Just a quick update. I just brought my yaris in for an oil change and found out from the dealer that the yaris had a tow capacity of 700lbs, but that is only rated for Canada. Anywhere else is not rated for towing and is recommended not to tow at all. I was also told that tongue weight is usually 10% towing capacity, so I'm feeling like a carrier, while inexpensive, would lift the front tires too much.

[CrankyOldMan]

The problem with trying to use a basket style is that the only hitches available for the Yaris are Class I. The hitch itself is rated for 200 lbs tongue weight (downward force on the hitch) but I'm sure the Yaris is rated for much less. You'd be safer with a trailer that was properly balanced (10-15% of load as tongue weight).

[CrankyOldMan]

The Canada vs. US tow rating is purely a liability issue. There are several LONG threads here already that go into detail about why/how it's not a mechanical thing, so I'll just summarize it here: The US is lawsuit happy and prefers to sell trucks/SUVs for towing, so OEMs don't rate their smaller vehicles for towing in order to protect themselves/boost sales.

[Lokie452]

Thanks for the info. I'm going to look into some small foldable motorcycle trailers or a tow dollie.

[WeeYari]

Trailer is definitely the way to go as tongue weight is indeed rated at 70 lbs.

[jambo101]

Originally Posted by Lokie452

I was thinking of the first one. I've never seen the 2nd, would that actually work? It's not really errands. My school is a four hour drive away, I live in a dorm, and I'm in the co-op program where 3 semesters of interning are mixed in between normal school semesters, that is 6 hours from home and between 4-5 hours from my school.

So basically you a re just thinking about getting the bike out to your dorm so you have the option of car or bike at any given day.
You maybe able to just rent a bike trailer from a U-Haul type place or a bike shop to transport the bike.
This type will probably pushing your weight limit but if driven easy i dont see a problem with a 4 hour trip.

[jambo101]

Or if you plan on frequent towing it might be worth your while to purchase something like this

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by CrankyOldMan

The Canada vs. US tow rating is purely a liability issue. There are several LONG threads here already that go into detail about why/how it's not a mechanical thing, so I'll just summarize it here: The US is lawsuit happy and prefers to sell trucks/SUVs for towing, so OEMs don't rate their smaller vehicles for towing in order to protect themselves/boost sales.

^^^^^ This. If all U.S. states had 'loser pays', then this might change. Our wonderful state now has loser pays.....even with the Texas Trial Lawyers Association spending 14 million USD to try to defeat such progress.

[Lokie452]

I'm actually thinking of going with something more like this.
http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/motorcy...trailers-4.jpg
I've been reading forums all over about them. Everyone seems scared to use them but everyone who actually has used them has never had any issues. Hopefully the picture shows, I haven't used forums that much.

[screenprintr]

Don't know. That's a little scary. I'd prefer a trailer.

[jeeper5usa]

Try this, it is what I found when I was looking into a light-weight trailer for my bike. Never tried it, but this is what I found. The trailer weight and tongue weight all seem to fall into the candian tow specs for the Yaris.

http://trailerinabag.com/index.html



http://www.discount-trailers.com/trailer-in-a-bag.htm

Good Luck! Post pics!

[Lair]

I picked up a Class 1 hitch for my 3 door, and have a vintage Holsclaw three-rail trailer that i use to haul my Yamaha WR250F. The hitch is attached to the rear body panel with four 13mm bolts. That's right - FOUR bolts.

I keep waiting for the rear end of the car to detach itself.

[jambo101]

Maybe a bit of frugal creativity is in order