| Author |
Message |
Larry Baird (Airhog) (159.115.177.9)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 12, 2004 - 10:43 pm: | |
I have a MC-7 and have a question about hitch weight. I have a friend that carries his 800# motorcycle on the back of his stick house and pulls car also. I copied the plans for the bike rack and have the material but think it will be over loaded on the backend. Another friend of mine has a 90' Prevo and wants to do the same thing, should we be worried? |
Larry Baird (Airhog) (159.115.177.9)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 12, 2004 - 10:45 pm: | |
A copy of the drawing is located at:
http://bairdsigns.com/drawings/walker/hograck.htm |
Buswarrior (Buswarrior) (64.229.208.164)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 16, 2004 - 10:19 pm: | |
Hello Larry.
The rears of MCI 7,8,9 really were only intended to hold up the motor, and barely at that. Engine frame related cracks are popular, with only the weights of the engine being involved.
Seems that we are at the mercy of the individual craftsmen who laid up the jig. Some rust out and fail, some crack and then rust out, some stay tight and last forever.
Adding more weight way out at the end of the two tapering frames that hold the engine through tongue weight has to be approached carefully.
There are retrofit kits for some of these coaches to beef up the engine frames, a popular fix for those that cracked.
Just bolting a cross member in with a receiver tube on it seems to work well for towing a car with no tongue weight, since the forces are fore and aft, not vertical.
Remember, it is the rare fool who publicly announces his stupidity of hanging hundreds of pounds of tongue weight on a coach that has not been designed for the purpose and then breaks it. He just tells us he's been successfully doing it up to the failure point, then we don't hear from him anymore.
As for Prevost, ask around bus people to see what the popular failures of stock coaches were in the engine frame area, or see if Prevost has advice as to the weight allowed out at the bumper for that model. They might be able to tell you straight out what to do, since Prevost caught on a lot earlier to the custom coach market than MCI.
happy coaching!
buswarrior |
Larry Baird (Airhog) (68.127.38.233)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, May 16, 2004 - 11:42 pm: | |
Thank you for the information. I think it would be safer to put the bike in the back of the pick-up and tow the truck. |
Sean Welsh (Sean) (64.81.73.194)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 17, 2004 - 4:03 pm: | |
Just put the bike in the bays, as we do :-)
-Sean |
Larry Baird (Airhog) (68.127.38.233)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 17, 2004 - 6:26 pm: | |
750 lbs. 8' long and too tall. |
Sean Welsh (Sean) (64.81.73.194)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 17, 2004 - 6:32 pm: | |
Larry,
I was being tongue-in-cheek, which is why I put a smiley emoticon at the end...
The 750lbs should be no problem, nor the 8' long. You just need a really loooow rider bike :-)
We have 45" tall bays, and have a pair of 400 lb bikes in one of them.
-Sean |