By Steve Willey
My Ford E450 chassis motorhome, like most, comes loaded within 200 pounds of maximum rear axle weight. I could not hang a 400-pound motorcycle on a rack behind without adding far more than 400 pounds to the axle load, due to the leverage of rear overhang far behind the axle.
A standard, fully enclosed utility trailer might be great for weather protection but we really needed the ability to back into a driveway to turn around, back into a campground space without disconnecting a trailer, and maneuver back and forth in gas stations, U-turns and parking lots.The answer? This single-wheel trailer does all that. It cannot swing right or left behind the truck, even backing up, because it connects to the RV frame at two points. The wheel under the trailer steers itself like on a stroller or grocery cart. We back up and turn around with no possibility of a jackknife. And it cannot fishtail going down the road.
The two connections to the vehicle are by two standard trailer hitch balls on a bar that goes in your single receiver hitch. It has optional crank jacks on the front corners so these regular ball hitches can be released, jacks cranked up, giving you the ability to roll the whole trailer aside by hand. The single wheel supports over half the trailer load, which is about a 600-700 pound limit.
This trailer came as a metal mesh flatbed platform. I added the plywood floor, motorcycle wheel tracks and a front wheel chock, and then added railings around for tie-down support. The railing tie-down angle works much better than tying straight down to floor hooks, which have to be so tight to hold the scooter vertical that it can damage the fastener points. I added lightweight loading ramps from discountramps.com. Note they are three-piece, but not folding. The three sections lift easily and their pins drop into matching holes on the edge of the trailer floor.
I purchased this outfit from smarttrailers.com, shipping from Florida for about $1,500. They make bigger and heavier models, too.
