New guy here. Hello from WA state. New owner of a RS Venture and Champion sidecar. Question: Can this rig pull a trailer? Is there a trailer out there that can sleep 2 older portlys, if so what is it? And, glad to be here. Look forward to learning/taking part. Jake
HI JAKE:
Am old geezer. Wife/meself are heavier than when we met, LOL! Have Wing/ FSIII. Would not, personally, ever tow anything with it. Reason for me; brakes. Have s/c brake and it works GREAT[keeps me straight-line in hard stops]. Also installed EBC agressive pads on all Wing calipers. Stopping power MUCH better/distance shorter. BUT, I try to ride with some feeling of security. Towing anything behind 1,700+ lb. rig[Wing/chair/us/camping gear, etc.]would remove that[been in several scary situations; was just barely able to stop WITH the new pads!]. Everyone does their own thing and I wish you All the Best! TTFN and please Pray for our son-in-law Bill in Iraq.....
Old Tom aka papasmurf in NH
My touring rig is a '02 RS Venture and I pull a Bushtec trailer. Although the brakes on the Venture are good for the bike itself, they sometimes feel marginal when I have the fully loaded trailer hooked up. I would suspect a trailer AND a sidecar would be way too much for the bike brakes.
However, if either or both of the sidecar or trailer had their own brakes, that might alleviate the brake issue. But I can only image getting the bike, sidecar, and trailer brakes all properly adjusted for each other would be a pain.
The powerplant on the Venture would not concern me. The bike should have ample power to tug a sidecar plus trailer.
Another weakness of the Venture is the stock rear shock. They fail often even under normal use. If it goes, I would suggest upgrading to a Works Performance shock.
Finally just a personal opinion. I ride a large bike with a heavy trailer often attached. I now also ride a bike with a sidecar. Each have their own unique differences from riding just a bike. Or put another way... each puts different type forces on the motorcycle. I would not want to combine those forces as it would IMHO erase way too much of my margin of error while riding. I would image one could get in deep trouble real fast with a sidecar and trailer combo. But that is just an opinion here.
For more information on the Venture, I would invite you to visit www.venturers.org There are a lot of folks there who could offer opinions on this as well as any tricks to upgrade the bike if needed.
Enjoy the new ride. If it is the one selling here a short while back... she was beauty!
Hi Jake,
I won't try to add anything about the capability of your tug but I will add that my wife and I used to sleep in our Kwik Kamp pop up trailer very well. Towed it with several bikes over the years (at least those we had from '91 on when we bought the KK). Alas, that was one of the items I sold to buy the Liberty for the Harley though. Back to tenting on the ground. Still have the little cargo trailer and my rig pulls it just fine and I seem to have the necessary stopping capability.
Give a shout if ever you're on the far eastern side of WA, we'll link up.
I have a Aspen Sentry which is sold by Trailmaster Inc out of Chicago. Only use it ICW my small SUV but is designed for m/c. Tongue weight is 24 pounds. Sleeps two with comfortable and has built-in vestibule/den so you get be out of the rain/sun in style. www.trailmasterinc.com.
I've pulled both cargo trailers and tent campers behind everything from a 1965 Harley FL sidecar rig, an XS850/Dnepr, and up to a Valkyrie/Ural rig. In most cases with both my wife and son on board.
I've never had an adverse situation while doing so. Anything that happened would have happened with or without the trailer attached.
