Ballast

Back and outboard

Place soft or secured ballast material behind (or under) the seat. To the rear of the body and to the right side (US) if you can.
Movable hard ballast can severly damage the body if it shifts during a hard maneuver. Weight in the front end can cause the the car to dip it's nose into the sand, or worse the pavement, if braking in a hard left turn, or downhill.
I've seen many URAL rigs with road scars under the nose since they have little wheel lead and are heavy cars.

Lonnie

Weight in the front also increases the tendency to shake the handlebars (tank slapper).

Thanks for the info. Will let you all know how it goes. Also, looking to get a headlight for a Velorex 700 car. Any suggestions?

Hey Bulldog:

I'm a little slow to respond, but I have a 25 pound barbell weight positioned as far out and back behind the seat of the Texas Sidecar as I could. It is zip-tied several times to a piece of thin plywood cut to fit, painted black and bolted to the floor by the main body to frame bolts, with the weight wrapped in black "trunk carpet."

I would rather have the weight mounted to the frame under the car, but I can't weld or fabricate, so was my compromise using extra stuff lying around the house/shed.

i do something similar with a lead brick. it is about 25lbs, and i also have 25lbs bolted under the frame. i bought a piece of 3/4 iron plate and had it cut about 3" by 40?" had holes drilled and have it attached toward the out-board using the bolts that attach the body to the frame. this makes the sidecar weigh about 175lbs. i have to have half my ballast portable because with the sidecar being so light the suspension is too weak to handle a total over 375lbs with passenger. so when she is with me i stow the lead brick on a luggage rack mounted to the rear fender of the bike.

Little follow up. If I want to use the bags of shot, where is the best place to get it. I have seen it as much as 3.45 a pound. The best so far was on EBAY and that was 2.45 a pound. Any help would be appreciated.Ebay shipping can be prohibitive. Usually the best source is a local gunshop, or put a wanted ad on Craigslist. Someone out there will have a reloader and big stock of shot. I used to buy 10 bags at a time and got it for about 1/2 price.

i got a 50lbs of sand at homedepot under 3 dollars
i used sip lock bags large
full the wieght 10lbe to much bags brake open
then i tryed halk full 5lbs work find
i used two bags to make sure that they don't brake
i spread out 10 bags under seat and in trunk
i carry 50lbs all the time i also have anouther 10 bags
for when i need them at 5 lbs i know how i am putting
in or out

i cut a pice of carper to cover don't even know that is there
cost under 10 dollars

The fabric tote bags from Home Depot, Walmart, etc. will hold 50# of sand wrapped in plastic bags and are easily handled. I used to use pickup traction sand tubes for my new clients to start out with but these are much easier to lift into the sidecar trunk. Inexpensive and no potential body damage with these.

lonnie

that was my first try
imoved seat back rest to open trunk
i tryed to put the tote 50 lbs in
i ended up pulling my back out, didn' do much for a few days
have to brake down the weight
i do use the totes 4 per tote and they still lay flat

Going to look into that. Not having much luck in the shot department. Found some on Ebay but they want a lot on money. Thanks for that info. I am sure I will have more questions as I go along. This is a great site and forum for infomation, glad I found it. Everyone ride safe. Thanks again.

I use a 5 gallon water jug from the camping supplies dept. of Academy. At 8.345 lbs. per gallon, the 5 gallon jug weighs just over 42 lbs. Add more to suit. There is no chance of damaging body work with these.

If you pick up a passenger just empty the water and off you go. Refill when necessary.

Terry

I checked Midway USA, a mail order, internet shooting supplier a couple of months ago, their price for lead shoot was pretty reasonable at the time. I haven't ordered any yet but, it was the best price that I could come up with. My thoughts were to put it in 3 inch clear vinyl tubing from Home Depot with wooden plugs secured with hose clamps on the end, in lenghts that would make up about 25 pounds so that I could handle it. Don't know if this would really work, but it sounded reasonable to me.

The shot usually comes in sturdy 25# bags.

Lonnie