How To Load a Motorcycle Into a Truck at RevZilla.com
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00:00Howdy, this is Lemmy with RevZilla TV, here to talk to you today about how to load a motorcycle into a pickup truck.
00:09I love to ride, and my guess is if you're watching this video, you probably love to ride too.
00:13However, we can't always ride our motorcycles to the places we need them.
00:17Whether you've got some upcoming maintenance going on with your bike, or perhaps an unplanned breakdown,
00:21or maybe you just have a bike that's not street legal, a lot of the times you might find yourself needing to transport your bike
00:26in a method that doesn't use its own power.
00:28So we're here to show you how to load a motorcycle into the bed of a pickup truck.
00:32Now keep in mind, there's a lot of different ways to do this, a lot of ways to skin this cat.
00:36We're just showing you one. We're using our motorcycle and our truck, your setup may differ entirely.
00:41So there's two things you need to think about when you're actually transporting a motorcycle if you're new to this.
00:45You need to think about loading the motorcycle, getting it from here to up in here,
00:49and then the second step is securing the motorcycle. You need to think about actually locking it down and securing it to the transport vehicle.
00:54Now if you don't want to hear me prattle on, you can click below and skip to any section in the video
00:58to get right to the meat and potatoes to learn how to do this stuff safely.
01:01Now I have some general thoughts about loading a motorcycle into a truck.
01:04The easiest way to transport a motorcycle with a truck is to pull it with a trailer.
01:08Trailers are a great way to load a motorcycle. It's very easy to use them, typically because they're very low.
01:13The deck height on them is much lower than a pickup truck.
01:16Trucks are very high, that means you're fighting a lot of gravity, and unfortunately, because motorcycles are heavy,
01:21they're hard to control when they're up above you. You're using a lot of upper body strength to move your motorcycle,
01:26which isn't what most of us are accustomed to doing. So it can pay to ask a buddy who has a trailer to use the thing.
01:32One of the other things you want to consider, too, is how difficult this is going to be.
01:36Most of you are familiar with watching our videos and getting a BSD, or Beard Scale of Difficulty,
01:40where we tell you whether or not you can do this, and you can sort of use your judgment to figure it out.
01:44Unfortunately, due to the large variety of trucks, of motorcycles, of equipment, experience levels,
01:49we can't really tell you how easy this is going to be. It really does vary.
01:53However, if you do go ahead and watch our video, use some of the tips and tricks we're going to give you,
01:57my guess is that you're going to have a little bit easier time than if you try and go it alone.
02:01So let's get right into some of the preparatory steps you're going to need to get loading your motorcycle.
02:06One of the first tips I can give you is this. Find a hill.
02:09If you have access to a hill anywhere around the area you're going to be loading the motorcycle,
02:13it's going to make things a lot easier for you.
02:15The reason being is a hill allows you to load down into the bed of the truck from above.
02:20Mother Nature takes care of a lot of the gravity work for you.
02:22Rather than loading up and you having to push the bike in there, all you have to worry about is steering and braking,
02:27not actually propelling the motorcycle up into the truck. If you have a hill handy, use it.
02:32Some of the other preparatory steps, too, are also important. I've gone ahead and done some of them.
02:36Let me run you through them real quick.
02:38The first thing I did, I actually did in the cab of the truck.
02:41What I did was I threw this thing into gear, and I set the emergency brake.
02:44That's going to keep the truck locked into place.
02:46It can be super disconcerting if you have a heavy motorcycle on a ramp, and all of a sudden the truck starts rolling.
02:50Make sure you start with the basics.
02:52The next thing you might notice, too, is that wheel chock that's bolted down there in the bed of the truck.
02:56We just have it ratchet strapped in. Some of you guys might wind up bolting it, permanently installing it.
03:00We've shown you a temporary installation, though, because my guess is not all of you have a pickup truck,
03:04and you may be borrowing one from a buddy.
03:06They may not be comfortable with you putting holes in their bed.
03:08A temporary install is okay if you need it.
03:10Keep in mind, the chock is going to keep that front wheel straight.
03:13That's really important, because that's going to be our main tie-down point to secure the motorcycle later in the video.
03:18The final preparatory step I've taken here is to have removed the tailgate.
03:22You'll notice there's no tailgate, actually, on this truck.
03:24That's important, too, because tailgates can't always bear the weight of a motorcycle.
03:28I used to work at a junkyard, and I can't tell you how many tailgates I sold to somebody who taco'd it,
03:32loading a too-heavy motorcycle on there.
03:34If one of the cables that holds the tailgate up, too, should break, you're going to damage your motorcycle,
03:38you're probably going to get hurt, and you might also hurt the truck.
03:41If you have the option of taking the gate off, I would recommend doing it.
03:44So let's talk about what we actually need to do to get things started now.
03:47I need to get this ramp into place.
03:49So I have a nice, sturdy ramp here, and I'm going to line this up with the center line of the truck,
03:53which, not coincidentally, is also where I have my chock lined up.
03:57The reason I want all this stuff centered is so I don't have to worry so much about steering.
04:00I can get the bike right up in place and really worry about keeping the bike safe,
04:03rather than trying to move it around.
04:05That's important.
04:06Rather than just leaving this thing here as it is and running the bike up it, though,
04:10I'm going to secure the ramp to the truck.
04:12Securing things really is the name of the game when you're loading a motorcycle into a truck and transporting it.
04:17The more secure things are, the less chance for unplanned movement there is,
04:20the better chance you have at safety and a total lack of damage.
04:24So I'm going to use a ratchet strap, actually, to tie this thing to the truck.
04:28And when I set up my ratchet strap, I'm going to set it up so it applies downward pressure
04:31in the same direction that the motorcycle will exert its force.
04:34By locking this thing deep into place here, it's not going to slide up into the bed or perhaps out to the side.
04:40That can be detrimental to your motorcycle's health and well-being.
04:44Now, at this stage, it's time to grab your final piece of equipment, and that's a good buddy.
04:48Now, before you guys attempt to start loading, make sure you have a quick powwow.
04:51Make sure everybody's clear on what it is they're going to be doing.
04:54We're going to utilize a method called the handoff.
04:57Let me show you how this plays out just a little bit, and I'll set it up for you.
05:00You're going to line the bike up.
05:02You are going to handle steering and braking duties,
05:04and your buddy's sole job is propulsion of the motorcycle.
05:07You're going to start getting the bike up into the truck, and as it comes over the ramp,
05:11you're going to notice you hit the bumper of the truck.
05:14At this point, you're going to hold the weight of the bike,
05:16keep your hand on the brake, and keep the balance of the bike upright.
05:20Your buddy, meanwhile, is going to jump into the bed of the truck, and this is where the handoff itself occurs.
05:24You give him control of the bars, he's now going to steer and brake,
05:27and you're going to finish up propelling the bike that last little bit into the bed of the truck.
05:32You're going to know the load is coming to an end when you feel the front wheel hit that wheel chock,
05:35and you hear the chock flip over.
05:37At that point, the load is complete.
05:39Have your buddy get on top of the bike and sit on it, and he's setting you up for the next step.
05:44Spurgeon's on top of this bike, he's keeping it from tipping over or rolling out.
05:47I'm going to get this ramp out of the way, and then we're going to move on to the next phase of things,
05:51securing the motorcycle for transport.
05:54Okay, now it's time to strap down the front of the motorcycle.
05:57Much like loading, there's a lot of different ways to do this.
05:59I'm going to show you one of the methods I employ.
06:01Now, locking in the front is important.
06:03This is your main point of securing the motorcycle.
06:05There's a couple different places you can use.
06:07You can use the frame or perhaps crash bars if you have them,
06:10or we can use the spot I'm about to use right now, the fork tube leg right above the triple tree.
06:15So what I'm going to do is ratchet this thing into place, and I'm having an easy time in this
06:19because Spurgeon is still sitting on the motorcycle.
06:21He's compressing the suspension for me.
06:23Once I get this thing ratcheted down, as I see the suspension start to drop just a little bit,
06:28I can then tie up all these loose ends here to keep this from getting anywhere into the motorcycle
06:33or into the moving parts of the truck.
06:35I'm going to repeat this process on the other side as well.
06:38Ratchet things down, get the suspension compressed, and you'll watch the bike start to draw upright.
06:42At that point, the front end is locked in, and you can have your buddy hop off the bike.
06:47All right, the front of the bike, as you can see, is locked in solid, but we're not quite done yet.
06:52We want to also secure the rear of the motorcycle as well.
06:55Now, the rear of the motorcycle is definitely going to be a secondary attachment point,
06:59but it's important in case something up front goes wrong.
07:01If the bike shifts or a ratchet strap comes loose,
07:03what the rear attachment is going to allow us to do is get pulled over safely before we have any type of damage occur.
07:09It'll give you sort of an added insurance to make sure that nothing bad happens to the bike.
07:13Now, when you're ratcheting down back here, the process is very similar to up front,
07:16but we're not ratcheting down nearly as aggressively.
07:19The reason being is because a lot of the parts of the rear of a motorcycle are kind of delicate.
07:23If you're using your subframe, it's not nearly as tough as the mainframe,
07:26and you can see here we're using a passenger foot peg.
07:28Again, it's a great place to tie down for a secondary mount,
07:31but because it's cantilevered so far off the motorcycle, it's easy to damage things.
07:35Don't get too aggressive. Just watch that suspension squat a little bit, and you should be okay.
07:39Repeat the process on the other side, making sure that you, again, tie off any excess strap material so it doesn't damage the motorcycle.
07:46At that point, you're ready to haul.
07:48Okay, the bike's completely secure.
07:50The only thing I really would recommend you do at this point is take a couple quick laps around the block before you hit the freeway,
07:55and make sure that nothing is shifted at any point in your couple laps.
07:59From there, you're pretty much set to go as far as you need to.
08:02Now, this is just one way to lock a motorcycle down in a pickup truck.
08:06There's lots of methods out there.
08:07Check out my Common Tread article, where we delve into some of the other ways you can move a bike,
08:11and some of the products that might help you do it more easily.
08:13Remember to subscribe to us on YouTube, so I still have a job making these videos for you guys.
08:18As always, I'm Lemmy. I'm outta here.
08:29you