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WHAT HARDWARE TO USE?

Hello everyone! I'm new to the list and have a couple questions. I have a 78 80/7 with a Vetter fairing. I have a Dnepr I want to put on. I just want to use it for around town and short jaunts on the hi-way (speed limit or slower). I have looked at a few of the sites that have hardware to put the two together and wondering if I can just use the clamps, which seems to be used for lite duty or get the sub-frame mounts? Also in regards to the sidecar wheel, how true does it need to be? I am having a hack of a time trying to true them. I’m trying to do this on a budget but I do want it to be safe.

THANKS!
AL

The BMW frame is very thin, It tends to break over time when you simply clamp a sidecar to it. The Dnepr is a very heavy sidecar you really want to use sub frames.
Several companies make sub frames for your bike. Some only supply the lower mounts with the kits. Others require you to move the lower rear mount on the sidecar forward by welding in a new lower rear to the sidecar frame. Our kits supply all 4 mounts and keep the stock locations for the mounts on the sidecar frame.
The Dnepr wheel can be trued to work. We are delivering a Dnepr today that we had to send the wheel out to our wheel shop to be trued. With a wheel that is out of round it puts a lot of stress onto the bike, In the case of the sidecar we are delivering it had been mounted elsewhere and the shop had added a steering damper. We remounted the sidecar at the previous shop had mounted it using clamps that were not tightened enough and it slipped and the location of the mounts were wrong such that the sidecar could move up and down almost 4 inches with out moving the bike. Once we test rode the rig it acted like it needed a steering damper as the out of round wheel was pushing the bike side to side. Over time this could have caused a fatigue problem with the bike, sidecar and its mounts. We also had to adjust the wheel bearings as they were very loose. The Dnepr wheel must have the bearings adjusted. We have other wheels that can be used on the Dnepr. Ural wheels work and keep the brake. We also have cast wheels out of China that work but not with the brake. These wheels look very similar to the BMW cast wheel as used on early K bikes.
We make two different sub frame kits for your bike and sidecar. One has a sub frame on just the rear and uses a clamp for the upper front. It works and was developed to be a little less costly. The other provides two sub frames that give you all four mounting points. With this set up you must cut the non adjustable front lower mount off of the sidecar frame and weld in an adjustable one that we supply with the kit. With the two sub frame kit we attach the sidecar to the sub frame using 5/8 inch hiem joints. On the single sub frame kit we use 30mm balls on the bottom. The two sub frame kit allows you to move the sidecar slightly away from the bike such that it is more stable on right hand turns and you can pull the right valve cover with out removing the sidecar. As the one sub frame kit retains the non adjustable front lower mount often times the sidecar will sit a bit high on the wheel side. An 18 inch wheel helps this. Your Dnepr most likley has a 19 inch wheel but 18 inch Ural wheels will work.
For the BMW /6 and /7 we also have a set of clamps that move the forks forward by 2 1/2 inches. This makes for very light steering with the sidecar. It does not change the angle of the forks so ride height stays the same. The only real down side to these clamps is that they do not work well with frame mounted fairings such as your Vetter. We keep them in stock, They sell for less then 1/3 the price of a leading link. (which we also make for these bikes or can order a Unit brand)
Jay Giese
Dauntless Motors Corporation
http://www.dauntlessmotors.com
jay@dauntlessmotors.com

Jay,
thanks for the info! I will send you an E-mail to get more details.

THANKS!
AL