Can am Spyder

[LV Naturist]

Thanks for the pics John. Do NOT TIE DOWN THROUGH THE SPROCKET. YOUR IDEA FOR ROUTING THROUGH THE REAR WHEEL TO A SINGLE TIE DOWN IS THE WAY TO GO!

Jerry, no need to SHOUT! The rear sprocket is pretty darn stout and I only make the straps taught, I don't crank them down super tight. Having said that I see no reason to tempt fate which is why I changed my mind. My rear mud flap will be in the way when I just go around the rear tire, but it is rubber and should squish okay without permanently distorting so i think I'm good there. We;ll be loading the Spyder tomorrow evening for our trip to Utah Thursday morning and I'll take an updated pic then. I prefer to experiment and get the tie-down thought through before actually heading down the road. Thanks for your input and safe travels...

John

[xrated]

Here is a picture of a very secure way to tie down the Spyder. This isn't my Spyder, but I use the same exact method. Two pieces of "E track" secured to the floor of the Toy Hauler (I use the same method in my 6' x 10' utility trailer), straps around BOTH front wheels and the ratcheting straps that directly connect to the e track. The strap is hooked into the e track in front of the front tires and slightly behind the part of the tire that sticks out the farthest. Then over the tire to the back of it. Attached to the e track is a roller that the strapping runs through and it is located "under" the rear of the tire a bit. The strapping is then attached to the Ratchet part of the strapping system. That ratchet also directly attaches to the e track. As you tighten the strap down, ir forms and upside down "C" over the tire and holds the tire exactly where it is. When doing this, the parking brake needs to be released to allow the bike to "center" itself in the upside down "C" of the strapping, then when you have the strap secured/tightened, reapply the Spyder's parking brake. It takes about 5 minutes to drive it up, position it in the trailer where it needs to be, strap it down and reapply the parking brake. Lot's of guys on the Spyderlovers forum use this method and I found it to be the most secure way to do it.



I just add another thought to using this method rather than the methods that Can Am suggest for strapping one down. They talk about putting straps through the front wheels and the ratcheting the straps directly forward to pull against the tie off point of the trailer. To me, this will eventually cause rub mark on the wheels where the strapping goes through the wheel. The other method involves using strapping and going through the lower control arm. Sorry, but I'm not doing that and trying to secure a 1200 lb machine and possibly messing up the front end alignment. The above method that I pictured is very secure and will not mess with alignment or cause any rubbing of the paint on the tires.

[RTJERRY]

Jerry, no need to SHOUT! The rear sprocket is pretty darn stout and I only make the straps taught, I don't crank them down super tight. Having said that I see no reason to tempt fate which is why I changed my mind. My rear mud flap will be in the way when I just go around the rear tire, but it is rubber and should squish okay without permanently distorting so i think I'm good there. We;ll be loading the Spyder tomorrow evening for our trip to Utah Thursday morning and I'll take an updated pic then. I prefer to experiment and get the tie-down thought through before actually heading down the road. Thanks for your input and safe travels...

John

Sorry John, just wanted to emphasize NOT but forgot to unlock caps. Hope you post some pics of your Utah trip.

Jerry

[LV Naturist]

Here is a picture of a very secure way to tie down the Spyder. This isn't my Spyder, but I use the same exact method. Two pieces of "E track" secured to the floor of the Toy Hauler (I use the same method in my 6' x 10' utility trailer), straps around BOTH front wheels and the ratcheting straps that directly connect to the e track. The strap is hooked into the e track in front of the front tires and slightly behind the part of the tire that sticks out the farthest. Then over the tire to the back of it. Attached to the e track is a roller that the strapping runs through and it is located "under" the rear of the tire a bit. The strapping is then attached to the Ratchet part of the strapping system. That ratchet also directly attaches to the e track. As you tighten the strap down, ir forms and upside down "C" over the tire and holds the tire exactly where it is. When doing this, the parking brake needs to be released to allow the bike to "center" itself in the upside down "C" of the strapping, then when you have the strap secured/tightened, reapply the Spyder's parking brake. It takes about 5 minutes to drive it up, position it in the trailer where it needs to be, strap it down and reapply the parking brake. Lot's of guys on the Spyderlovers forum use this method and I found it to be the most secure way to do it.



I just add another thought to using this method rather than the methods that Can Am suggest for strapping one down. They talk about putting straps through the front wheels and the ratcheting the straps directly forward to pull against the tie off point of the trailer. To me, this will eventually cause rub mark on the wheels where the strapping goes through the wheel. The other method involves using strapping and going through the lower control arm. Sorry, but I'm not doing that and trying to secure a 1200 lb machine and possibly messing up the front end alignment. The above method that I pictured is very secure and will not mess with alignment or cause any rubbing of the paint on the tires.

Thanks for posting that! I did see that the other day on Spyderlovers... As well as some back and forth banter between "Superclamp" and other forum members...LOL. My handle over there is "Ready2Retire". I'm mostly just lurking over there to learn all I can about the machine. While I agree that would be the preferred method of securing the Spyder, I'm hesitant to mount E-Tracks in my garage because we do use the area as a living space and I don't want them to be in the way, so to speak. And I wouldn't want one of our fur kids snagging a nail while roughhousing in there. While I could put carpet down to cover the tracks (we tried that), SWMBO didn't like having to vacuum the dog hair and prefers a broom. With that in mind, I think my method is a reasonable alternative. The objective is to keep the Spyder from moving around in case evasive maneuvers become necessary, or god forbid an accident. Otherwise one could almost leave it unsecured and I doubt it would move much. My 45 years experience in automotive fleet maintenance leads me to believe securing from the A-Frames (taught, not super tight) will have no impact on alignment. Think of all the stresses the front suspension experiences just riding down the road, and it doesn't knock it out of alignment. Tying it down is static, not dynamic. Anyway, I'll post some updated pics tomorrow when I load it for the trip.

John

[xrated]

John, the inside of my Toy Hauler garage is probably a lot different than most. I put a piece of 3/4" thick plywood down and it is 96" wide (across most of the floor), and almost 40" front to back. It is secured to the T.H. floor with 4 bolts (one on each corner) and those bolts go through the floor and all the way to the 12" I beam that the trailer was built on and bolted into the top flange of that I beam. I simply attached the e track to that 3/4" plywood with a #14 wood screw in every single hole of the e track....so every 2" on both sides of the track. I understand about having thing on the floor and not stubbing a toe or something that might interfere with a pet's foot and we have a dog also, so a piece of carpet over the floor mounted stuff does the trick for us.

here is a picture of the plywood mounted and secured to the floor. At the time this was taken, we still had two motorcycles and thus the Baxley wheel chocks were there. They have been removed and the e track in now down. I even had to remove the bicycle rack that we had in front of the Baxleys and use different bike racks for them. The Spyder takes up a lot of the garage space for sure, but we like having it and so it had to be done in order to be able to take it with us when we travel....and then want to ride.

[xrated]

Just a little update for loading the Spyder in my Momentum 394. I have found that the easiest way to get the RTL in the trailer is to have the ramp gate elevated roughly 6 to 6 1/2" off the ground, then use my low profile ramps at the end of the ramp to drive it up on. This ~ 6" of lift at the ramp, decreased the angle of approach just enough to drive the Spyder up without bottoming out the front of the Spyder when loading. Until now, I had used three pieces of 6" x 6" wood blocking to place under the ramp and located them at the rubber bumpers that are on the ramp door. Carrying that 6" x 6" blocking, as well as some "shim" wood is kind of cumbersome, so I bought three of these. They are adjustable height from 4.75" to almost 7.5" and these will now replace the wooden 6" x 6" blocking. If I am at a spot that is slightly uneven, and the door ramp needs a bit more on one side or the other, instead of having to add some "shim" pieces of wood and try to get the right combination of height for the rubber bumper is all rest squarely on, I can just simply adjust the height of these to whatever height I need to touch the rubber bumpers. Each one is rated to 750 lb, so three of them (one under each rubber bumper) should be more than enough to support the ~ 1000 lb Spyder......



And in case anyone is wondering why, the intent of having the correct height of blocking under the ramp is...1. To reduce the angle of approach for the Spyder to keep it from bottoming out. 2. Fully supporting the ramp via the rubber bumpers, when you have an uneven surface where the ramp touches down, this keeps you from bending/warping the ramp door when driving the Spyder up the ramp. If the rubber bumper are not all touching something solid, you risk bending/warping the ramp door....and I'm pretty sure that would be a very expensive replacement part.

In case anyone is interested in this, the product is a Stromberg-Carlson JSS-4 step support. These come in several different sizes/heights and have different model numbers for each, but mine are the JSS-4. Lot's of RV parts places sell them, but the best pricing I found is from Autoplicity on the web. Even adding in the cost of shipping three of these to my house, it was cheaper than many places are selling for. Price ranges I found were....$13.50 each at Autoplicity...all the way to $29.95 each at one place (don't remember where)....so shop around if you are interested and want to purchase.

[xrated]

Today was the day that everything came together for loading the Spyder in my Momentum 394. I had no desire to have to unhook from the truck and raise the front end of the trailer to lessen the angle of the ramp, since the Spyder has such a low ground clearance. My Stromberg Carlson adjustable height step supports came in the other day and today I used them to put under the rubber bumpers on the ramp door to elevate it approx. 6 1/2 inches. That gets it to the height of my two front wheel ramps and then I have a "homemade" 3' long ramp board. It is the same length as the Black Widow platic ramps I bought a month or so ago. So here is the Spyder sitting in front of the ramp getting ready to go in the trailer...


Here's a close up of the Stromberg Carlson adjustable step supports...one under each of the three rubber pads on the ramp gate...


Here is a picture of the adjustable step support from Stromberg Carlson...


The next two pics are the Spyder getting ready to come in the trailer, and then what I have down on the floor for strapping it down, once inside....



The Spyder inside, along with our two bicycles....


The strap setup for the front tires. There is one on each of the two fronts......and that's it, other than applying the parking brake when I'm done getting it strapped down.....


A view from the rear...Spyder and both bicycles....


Here are my homemade bicycle racks. I used 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" aluminum angle and attached another piece of alum. angle to the existing HappiJack uprights. There is a bolt that sticks up on both ends of the alum. brackets and then the alum angle is placed on them and a wing nut screws down to hold the long angle in place. I used threaded rod and some "arcade" caster plates to make the base that the Quick fist attaches to. The two Quick Fist clamps hold the bikes in place....one around the front fork tube and the other around the seat support part of the bike frame. I attached some rope type ratchet straps in a criss-cross pattern to make the threaded rod more rigid....and as you can see, the Spyder and both bikes fit very well.....And the grey painted box below is where the leaf blower resides for blowing stuff off of the roof of the slide before I put them in.



So that was a fairly big project to make the bike racks, put down the e track for the strapping base, and get the ramp height setup correct and workable, but it's done! Oh, one other thing I added that is not shown in the pics is a couple of eye bolts on the side of the wooden ramp. When i was loading the Spyder today, the wooden ramp wanted to kick out because of the back tire being powered and trying to climb the ramp. So the eye bolts attach to the side of the wooden ramp and two more small rope ratchets are attached to the ramp gate....holding the board in place.

[LV Naturist]

Nice set-up! Very well organized and a very clean install. If I had any comment it would be on the ramp edge of your center ramp, are you concerned the metal edge could cut into the ramp surface? Maybe put a piece of pinch molding ( https://www.amazon.com/Edge-Trim-Bla...01HV9P3NG?th=1 ) to prevent marring the surface?

John

[xrated]

Nice set-up! Very well organized and a very clean install. If I had any comment it would be on the ramp edge of your center ramp, are you concerned the metal edge could cut into the ramp surface? Maybe put a piece of pinch molding ( https://www.amazon.com/Edge-Trim-Bla...01HV9P3NG?th=1 ) to prevent marring the surface?

John

Thank you John.....and that's a great idea about the pinch molding on the middle ramp.