subject: Motor Homes And Motorcycle Loading Tips [print this page] If you have a large motor home (a Class A type) you can buy a loading ramp that will allow you to load the big heavy bike on the back of the motor home. But, the RV must be designed to take this load. Not all motor homes are designed to take on additional towing loads, but many are. Check with the lift manufacture on how to select a motor home that will accommodate their ramp system. Beware the cost of these Class A motor homes are outrageous. The larger motor home can be ordered to store bikes in a special compartment.
Danger: Loading or unloading a motorcycle onto a gravity ramp is dangerous no matter how many safety precautions you take. If the bike falls on you or the ramp breaks the motorcycle and ramp will entangle and crush you, likely unto death. The best system is to use the automatic loaders that will pull the motorcycle into the bed of a pick up truck. Pak-Rak works well. It will not work for custom bikes with long fork rakes and wide back tires, but for most all production bikes it will work just fine if the wheel base is no more than 67.5" long (but overall length of bike and tire width size needs to be the final consideration if it is to fit on the rack).
All Harley Davidson's and Honda's usually will work fine, but check wheelbase first. Pak-Rak may be offering a larger rack system for custom bikes. Automated ramps are expensive, but a lot cheaper than paying a doctor thousands of dollars in medical fees and dealing with a life-long physical disfiguring or back injury. It is better to pay for a good automatic ramp. Amerideck also makes an automatic lift system (see our links page). JoeHauler also makes a lift that lets you haul your bike behind your car, truck or RV and it is supported by the vehicle tow hitch.
Also, there is another benefit to the automated ramp system that is well worth the price of the ramp many times over. Convenience and ease of operation. It laboring and time consuming to set up ramps to unload and load a motorcycle and many times you will not pull the bike off the truck to cruise around a city or town "because it is too much work to load up the bike." With the automated ramp you push a button and the bike is down and ready to go in about 3 minutes or less!
I have found using these automated ramps permit a higher quality of life because now I can ride in areas of the country I would normally never would have. How many times have you traveled and said, "Gee, it would be nice to ride those mountains" but you could not because unloading the bike would be too much trouble.
You need to discover the weight load limitations of the auto-loader motorcycle lifts and tire size limitations. Today the bikes are heavier and have wider tires, so modifications need to be made to some auto-loaders to beef them up in strength, even for some heavy stock bikes.
So, there you have it. If you want to load your big bike alone without assistance it can be done, but you need to do your research. More motorcycle dealers should have demonstration ramps so customers can try the product before purchasing.
There are new ramp designs always being made that are not covered here. Search the Internet under "Motorcycle Ramp" as a key word. Some use power to pull the bike into the truck, but there is always a catch to watch out for. Can you close the tailgate or if not can you stow it by the truck bed near the back cab? Can you still tow another vehicle with the automatic loading ramp installed?
Will the ramp work with your truck? Is the truck bed size sufficient for the device to be installed into your truck? How large a motorcycle will the ramp accept? What is the ramp's size or other limitations? Can one person operate the ramp or are two persons required? What is the weight limit the ramp can handle? Most may not be able to accept motorcycles with large size tires or extended forks.
