I was in need of a way of hauling my XT225 on my 05 Highlander. I considered the princess auto one but it seemed quite wobbly and in my opinion would need modifications to make it usable. I thought why not just build one from scratch. I wanted something strong and stable and suitable for semi-rough roads. Because I'm cheap I designed it around stuff I had lying around. I made the "deck" of 2 pieces of 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 3/16 angle welded together with 1/2 space between. I wanted a solid means of holding the bike forward and backward relative to the vehicle. I used a piece of 1x1x0.100 tube with a 1x1x1/8 angle brace. For the hitch tube I had a piece of 2x2x3/16 hss. I designed it to center the bike on the vehicle ie center between the seat rack and front wheel so that put the center of mass about 2 inches off center towards the rear wheel. I added a brace from the receiver frame to the deck to stabilize it up down and front to back. The book weight of my bike is 235# but in reality is more like 275#. I did a few test drives around town and settled on trying the bike down by a using a ratchet strap twice around the bottom of each wheel and once over the top of each wheel down to the deck and one strap to hold the bike against the pole on which I had added a plywood and styrofoam block covered with denim. To hold the bike in position I used a wooden block with a wing nut between the 1/2 gap at the front tire and made the ramp which was a 2x6 ripped down to fit between the deck, the right length to fit between the front block and the rear wheel. I'll try to add some pics to explain. On my first trip this past week I promptly tested it by unintentionally backing it into a tree. It bent but did not fail and thanks to my guardian angel I didn't damage the bike either. The only thing I had to buy was the lights and the paint. I used a standard trailer wiring kit but it holds the license plate too low. I'll be changing that in future.
Here with the license plate on the vehicle. When in use it was under the left tail light.
The brace.
The ramp
Here with the license plate on the vehicle. When in use it was under the left tail light.
The brace.
The ramp
