Sidecar mounts need to be checked often. We have recently seen the frustration of a firend after he had crashed his rig due to a mount failure. In this case there was a bolt that came loose and things went down hill from there. Thank God when the thing finally failed he was in a place where all that could be hit was mud and some sugar cane. So what do we learn from this? It has been stressed so many times here and elsewhere that we need to continually check our mounts and mounting hardware. Check bolts with a wrench not just by hand. It is not a bad idea to put some refernce points on the frame or whatever in key places to indicate if a mount has maybe slipped a little of turned slightly. This is especially true of strap clamps on frames and that type of thing. Check the jam nuts on struts to be sure they are snug. Check for cracks that may be appearing here or there. Typically a crack will begin to show as a small line of rust where the moisture has begin to creep in. Keep an eye on these type of things and address them before they become an issue. Sidecars when mounted to bikes should make the whole assembly one solid unit. Flexing mounts can be a bad thing as the flexing promotes fatigue in some cases which we don't want. Getting in the habit of checking things like these should be a given. It is a part of getting to know our rigs which can provide peace of mind. It is just the right thing to do.
I wondering if they would be some torque value available for all the bolts on a sidecar mount. On my BMW GS, every single bolt has a torque value, and fortunately I do not have to check every nuts every other day.
Some other solutions could be Blue Locktite, antilock nut, drilling a hole in the nut, and of course checking every day all these bolts and nuts.
Well if someone has some good advises, choosing one of these solutions, sharing your thoughts, experiences and mechanical skills, it would be appreciated.
Hard for mounts to stay together when they are NOT manufactured well in specs!!!... reading my Blog will tell you about that... and not having a degree in engineering also does not help... if unsure... do not mount the rig yourself as I did, overseeing a problem that was life threatening!
We need to form somekind of a consumer group related to Sidecar manufacturing... I am not the only case with wrong parts... there has to be something we can do...
And yes Didier... BLUE LOCTITE... they gave me a huge bottle of it at the Rally as a consolation prize!!!... and then again... will a gallon of it be enough???
So far Dauntless has ignored my E Mails... actually not really... offered me a bolt... and a new double barrel mount for the upper mount of the front arm... I need more... I need to know that this will not happen to others... Like Didier and his kids riding... David and his wife riding... like Jill and her kid riding... like Steve... and again to myself and Spirit!
Lets wake up folks!!!
Be well... Ara
There is much difference between tne one off sidecar and mass produced machines like your BMW.
Unlike your beemer, most sidecars are using bolts from open stock. Grade 5 and 8 mostly if it is using SAE or NC. If metric the bolt grades go from low 5.5 to high 8.8 or 10 grades depending on positioning and size of bolt used and which one of three thread guages they are.
Torque values are also different depending on the positioning which can involve shear, tension, torsional and compression forces.
Also whether it is a steel to steel, steel to aluminum attachment, cast iron attachment, etc. Charts are available to plot maximum torque values and some MFG'Rs use them. Some racers also will use them but maybe only a handfull of sidecarists have. "Snug 'em up and check 'em once in a while" is most common. ( There are a few "Tighten up till they get real loose then back up half a turn" guys out there too).
Castellated nuts, roll pins, safety wired nuts, nylock nuts and Locktite
are all good insurance but preride inspection is still needed to check for other potential failures. Cracked, bent or broken welds, brackets, frames, through fiberglass or sheet metal body connections. Even that staple the dealer put in your new tire to hold the label on can be a problem down the road.
Lonnie
Claude/Lonnie, I think this is very good advice.
I raced cars (amateur) for many years. As I think back, there were many incidences where stuff just broke.Sometimes serious stuff like suspension points, frames, etc. With hindsite,we amateurs could often determine what went wrong, and theorize on how to prevent it from happening again. However, the next time it was a different car, different circumstances, etc.
Since we were racing, we usually didn't try to fix blame, the adages were "a racing incident", or "sh#t happens". However, we didn't have our families in the cars with us, and we were on controlled road courses. I was also younger and more invincible.
The similarities are as Lonnie mentioned. They were not mass produced, rather they were limited production or one off parts. Every car was different.We were using them in ways the manufacturer never really intended.
I just got my rig back from a friend who intalled a number of farkles, spare wheel, gas can, rear shock spring, handle bars, grip heaters, etc. He is pretty anal, so, without my asking, he checked all the sidecar mounts.
Many were loose, I had never checked them in nearly 8,000 miles. I suppose they could have been loose when I picked up the rig, but doubt it.
Griff put blue locktight on all the nuts, siad he would check it for me again in a couple months. Next time I plan to actually pay attention and help learn to do it myself.
Greg, Racing technology and things we had learned through that sport no matter what form it may have been has been a source for better design and application to things that are now common on the street. We have heard this for years and it is quite true. Checking mounts is an important thing that we all should do. Then if anything is questionable we need to deal with it right away.
i have had two bolts come loose on my hd rigs. one was in about 82? cant remember exactly but found the rear bolt nearly clear out at the top of a pass in oregon on a trip.. it was snowing lightly in august
the more recent was last spring when the center bolt on the front top mount got loose, i could hear a squeaking on hard turns for a number of days but just could not find it.. finally figured it out by standing the foot boards and violently shaking the bars side to side & found the bracket was moving on the frame..
checking those bolts is really important, right up there with tire pressure and all of the other chassis parts. hd has a list of stuff to check each day.. ill bet every mfg does & its important - i just try and pretend its a airplane & check it with that in mind.. hard to do at 5 am when im late for work, but essential. when its cold i put on the parking brake and start it and then check all the bolts by hand and all three wheels before i get on and leave. the result is the bike always takes me 10 mins longer to get to work.. but i ride it just so at the end of the day when the day is a real drag there is something to look forward to.
later
to
Well- I'm sure glad I came upon this posting. I thought I had a POS because a couple of nuts come loose now and then. I felt so isolated and alone...
