World's worst sidecar make/mount. How not to set-up.

We have seen many really poor mounting jobs, some done by "sidecar shops" We once had a Watsoinian in the shop that had been mounted on its main mount with no fewer then 5 adjustable pinch tube clamps to get the needed angle. They then welded down the eye bolts so that they could not slip. Another came in with the main sub frame made up out of bed frame angle iron. One sidecar that was built by a company that has been around since the late 1960's came in with both the frame and the swing arm made from square tube with the pivot being a bolt through the tubing spaced off with washers. No bushings, no sleeves, no bearings, nothing! The owner of the shop saw nothing wrong with this and is still in business. We had another in from the same shop as they more then likely do not have a tubing bender they used plumbing pipe and a plumbing elbow to make a bend! Here is a link to an article on a sidecar installation that had the decals of the shop that may have either installed the sidecar or just sold it. In the case of this sidecar they attached the lower rear mount to the swing arm! http://www.dmcsidecars.com/the-result-of-improper-sidecar-mounting-and-the-proper-fix/ We have another bike in the shop right now with a sidecar from one of the larger sidecar makers where they supplied a frame clamp for the upper rear to be clamped around the crash bar with a hole drilled into it and the crash bar to keep it from slipping. It always amazes me the poor quality of design and workman ship that we see not only from people building their own stuff but from sidecar shops and even from the companies that build the sidecars.
Jay G
DMC Sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793

Jay, saying about "mounting to swingarm" I have thought about this setup you had to repair.

This setup is conglomerate of the worst ideas how not to make a rig. Sidecar itself and everything in this work

Someone should stick a thread, so we could post photos of such crap. With shop's name and address if known...

Jay really nice set up jig you have but with as many as you do I am sure it makes it easier on you.

Can't believe someone even accepted something this shoddy. I'm not a great welder, but had to learn back on the farm to keep our old equipment running, too poor to buy much new.

Not only welding. Also used screws that bend, coil spring without any nest to sit in, prolonging sleeve on axle, ground clearance below 2", constantly hitting the ground. Read few first posts in given link.

Classic bird do do welding

Unbelievable what some people will call "custom" work and sell it to someone......I missed a Hitchhiker sidecar a few months ago for sale for $500. A friend found one on craigslist in Hedgesville WV and asked my advice , when I looked it up it was the one I missed. It is now painted blue and he sold it for $1200. The good part is he painted it to match his bike and posted the pics . The mounting job was horrible and I knew it was missing th efront upper mount already and you could see in his pics the lower front mount was turned up and mounted just below the exhaust coming out of the front cylinder. He probably mounted it and tried it out , almost wrecked and decided to sell it . I missed it this time also , I was gonna buy it for the wifes Ultra. OH well . hope the new owner knows how to or researches how to install it properly and gets the uppper mount.

The Hitchhiker is really too light for an Ultra anyway (the single wide is a 145# car). Your early 562 weighs 154#.

Lonnie