Trailer Brakes Yes or No

I tow a Roll A Home behind my Goldwing. When loaded for travel, I am at about 450-500 lbs. I have had it over 650 lbs. I have about 30K miles of towing with this trailer. It has trailer breaks and I have no problems with them. The trailer has a Dexter axle with Dexter electrical breaks. They definitely help in even normal stopping. I ran with the brakes and got used to stopping with the trailer on. Then for the fun of it, unhooked the trailer wire harness so no power got to the brakes. Night and day difference. With the brakes, it is just like normal stopping without the trailer on. Without the brakes, you had to plan your stop much earlier. I have had a few panic stops with the trailer on, and glad I had the trailer brakes. Without the brakes, you will also wear out your bike break pads much quicker.

I have a Prodigy P2 break controller installed inside the trailer. Billy at Roll A Home installs them this way and it works great. I think I have it set at 6.2 and that is just right. I have a 6 pin round wire plug so there is a power line for the controller and the break line to tell the controller when and how hard to apply the breaks.

I also have a small cargo trailer. Agree, these are light enough even when loaded that they do not need trailer breaks.

I am a believer in trailer breaks when the trailer is pushing the 400 lb. mark. Under that, you are fine without.

1550591672684.png
 
Thanks very much for the input Snowmoer. The opinion of someone who has experienced towing a trailer in the same weight range with and without brakes is helpful. Its also nice to hear that these small electric brakes perform as they should. I might be completely off the mark (because I have no experience towing a trailer with a motorcycle) but if I was towing with a Goldwing I most likely would not even be asking this question. My concern comes from the fact that this trailer will approach 50% of the weight of the ST1300.
 
Jim C-G said:
If you are on Facebook, try the group "Motorcycle Trailer Camping".......................
Click to expand...

Thanks for the pointer Jim but you know all of this is your fault. Ignorant as I may be, until I saw your videos I wasn't even aware that motorcycle campers existed. I always thought that all of those trailers I had been seeing towed behind motorcycles were all cargo trailers and I never gave it any further thought. Now look what you have gotten me into!
 
Andrew Shadow said:
Thanks for the pointer Jim but you know all of this is your fault. Ignorant as I may be, until I saw your videos I wasn't even aware that motorcycle campers existed. I always thought that all of those trailers I had been seeing towed behind motorcycles were all cargo trailers and I never gave it any further thought. Now look what you have gotten me into!
Click to expand...
lol... responsibility accepted. You'll feel much better after a few thousand kilometers hauling it and a dozen nights in camping comfort. Now, we just have to wait for the snow to go.
 
Andrew Shadow said:
Thanks for the pointer Jim but you know all of this is your fault. Ignorant as I may be, until I saw your videos I wasn't even aware that motorcycle campers existed. I always thought that all of those trailers I had been seeing towed behind motorcycles were all cargo trailers and I never gave it any further thought. Now look what you have gotten me into!
Click to expand...

Then, you better not visit the Motocampers forum! http://www.motocampers.com/ The source for all things motorcycle camping trailer related.

It was run by a friend of Joe's, and was about to close up shop, but someone took it over and looks like it's now here to stay. Has much the same feel as this place... good folks over there.
 
I'm curious, as this trailer pulling thing is new to me, what does Honda say about trailers?

Like, are the brakes, tires, drives, steering, suspension up for the task?
 
paulcb said:
Then, you better not visit the Motocampers forum! http://www.motocampers.com/ The source for all things motorcycle camping trailer related.

It was run by a friend of Joe's, and was about to close up shop, but someone took it over and looks like it's now here to stay. Has much the same feel as this place... good folks over there.
Click to expand...
I had pocked around there but became very leery of that site about whether or not it was infected with a virus because it was driving my CPU usage through the roof whenever I went there. I asked about it on this forum a while ago-Is The MotoCampers.com Website Safe To Visit?
I just went there for the first time since I posted the above thread and it doesn't seem to be doing it anymore so it seems to have been fixed. At the time Joe said he had tried to help his friend track down the problem but that they never did. I guess the new guy got it sorted.
 
AV8R said:
I'm curious, as this trailer pulling thing is new to me, what does Honda say about trailers?

Like, are the brakes, tires, drives, steering, suspension up for the task?
Click to expand...
From what I understand most if not all motorcycle manufacturers recommend against towing a trailer. The ST manual says not to.
Again, from I have been reading, if the trailer is set up correctly and has the proper tongue weight it does not put that much additional stress on the bike. I would think that the biggest change would be the extra wear and tear on the bike's braking system. Hence the reason I am trying to learn about trailer brakes.
 
Andrew Shadow said:
I had pocked around there but became very leery of that site about whether or not it was infected with a virus because it was driving my CPU usage through the roof whenever I went there. I asked about it on this forum a while ago-Is The MotoCampers.com Website Safe To Visit?
I just went there for the first time since I posted the above thread and it doesn't seem to be doing it anymore so it seems to have been fixed. At the time Joe said he had tried to help his friend track down the problem but that they never did. I guess the new guy got it sorted.
Click to expand...

As I understand it, the new guy Derick moved the whole site to another server and a newer version of the forum software. Seems to be up and running pretty well now.
 
Andrew Shadow said:
From what I understand most if not all motorcycle manufacturers recommend against towing a trailer. The ST manual says not to.
Again, from I have been reading, if the trailer is set up correctly and has the proper tongue weight it does not put that much additional stress on the bike. I would think that the biggest change would be the extra wear and tear on the bike's braking system. Hence the reason I am trying to learn about trailer brakes.
Click to expand...

Obviously the braking performance would be much derated due to the trailers extra weight (ie momentum) and the bikes brakes force vectors are in opposition. Add a passenger and luggage, and that's a lot to stop. It's a good idea to investigate trailer brakes.

Does having a trailer also necessitate adding more rise to the rear shock hydraulic adjuster?
 
Most motorcycle makers don't recommend it and warn against pulling a trailer of any kind. About 99% of that warning is for liability reasons. There are a very few exceptions and now there are some mc models that do come with factory hitch set ups. The Spyder comes to mind with a factory provided rear swing arm mounted hitch, harness, and even a matching cargo trailer that you can get from the factory... for a price.
 
AV8R said:
Does having a trailer also necessitate adding more rise to the rear shock hydraulic adjuster?
Click to expand...
From what I have read the pre-load will most likely need adjusting to bring the rear back up but if the tongue weight is correct this is minimal.
rjs987 said:
The Spyder comes to mind with a factory provided rear swing arm mounted hitch, harness, and even a matching cargo trailer that you can get from the factory... for a price.
Click to expand...
I thought of the Spyder when I replied but for the purpose of discussing the effects of having a trailer in tow I don't consider it as a motorcycle due to it does not lean.
 
Andrew Shadow said:
...but if I was towing with a Goldwing I most likely would not even be asking this question. My concern comes from the fact that this trailer will approach 50% of the weight of the ST1300.
Click to expand...

Is there that much of a reality in the weight differences? Just like not that much difference in braking system components. Tire traction from different compounds of rubber might be more a factor then the other two.
 
You're right Tom- I was talking out of complete ignorance of Goldwings as I have never looked in to them. I was under the impression that they were all over the 900 pound mark. I just looked at the specs. for a 2018 and it is listed as only about 50 pounds heavier than the ST1300. So if I had a new Goldwing I might have the same question I guess. I was thinking more of the older Goldwings which are listed as over 900 pounds. That extra 175 pounds on the tow vehicle I would think would help lessen the effect that the trailer has on it. Whether it makes any real world difference on the road or not I have no idea. My lack of experience in towing with a motorcycle is why I am asking about all of this in the first place.
 
Last edited:
Comparing my own experience with a Time Out camper behind a Gold Wing and a Mini Mate behind the ST1100 I really didn't notice much difference in performance. Of course the Mini Mate camper is lighter than the Time Out by about 100 lbs and I did notice just a little difference due to that, but not much. I would have expected no difference between those two combinations due to both the ST/Mini Mate being lighter than the Gold Wing/Time Out and the weight differences cancelling each other (bigger heavier bike pulling heavier camper vs. lighter bike pulling lighter camper) but that was really not the case.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom