Camping Cross-Country. Need advice and a motorcycle.

Hey all!

Past 3 weeks the gf and I have been living out of my taco and RTT. 90% of the places we've ended up have been off-pavement and/or away from "stuff". It's been a big learning experience and I have so many upgrades I want to make to the truck in the long run. But one thing I really feel like I need right now is a motorcycle (maybe two) to get around after we've set up camp. We'd have to break camp every time we want to visit anything in the area not within walking distance. I've been looking into receiver mounted carriers and bikes. Has anyone used one of these receiver mounted carriers to haul a bike down rough trails and 4x4 roads.

Right now we're in Zion and are heading to Vegas tomorrow to have a look at bikes. Thinking of getting one street legal and maybe one non (depending on their weight). Any advice about carriers, bikes, or even places to see would be greatly appreciated. We just left the Toquerville Falls.

 

I'd like to say "get a ground tent", because I'm in a somewhat similar place. I have an AT Habitat on my Tacoma and I can close it up in less than five minutes, but even that sometimes deters me from heading out. The problem with carrying a bike or two is it really changes the departure angle and adds a lot of weight back there, so you will need to add airbags. The best carrier I've used is VersaHaul, not light, but will hold up where other cheap ones will fail.

Few questions - how far to you want to travel on the bikes? Planning on riding two-up or will each of you have a bike? I have a Yamaha xt250, which is fine two-up for a quick trip or exploring trails that aren't two difficult - for more technical trails I ride solo. The XT 250 is light at 300lbs, but I wouldn't want much more weight back there. We've been thinking about getting two Rad Power bikes, the issue is charging them and limited range.

 

some good carrying ideas in this thread here:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ulers-bed-loading.622109/page-2#post-22991117


also a bunch of good ideas and fellow enduro owners in this thread here:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/motorcycles-bs-thread-2-0.420753/page-803#post-23492097

 

The departure angles are my biggest concern, but I don't really rock crawl or anything. Seems like it's been mostly some intense 4x4 roads to fairly popular destinations with casual offroaders. But I wouldn't want to double up on any of that. If I get a single bike to double up on, we'd just use it on the lighter dirt roads and pavement to get over to some trail heads or local attractions. Of course I'd take it for some solo joyrides. If we do two, I'd probably still want to have one of them road worthy. An upgraded suspension is definitely on my to-do list. But I really don't know when I'll be able to do that.

 

300# motorcycle is LIGHT??? lol

My pig of a DRZ250 weighs like 250+

I am generally not a fan of hitch mounted racks, even for just driving on the highway. For off-road, there's no way I'd mount a dirtbike to my hitch.

IMO, get/make one of these:

 

Bikes seem like a weird solution to the problem and have a whole host of other issues - like where to store helmets/gear, being able to carry things (like groceries...).

Do they make some sort of fold up stand you can leave the tent on and drive the truck?

 

Camper shells have legs that extend down to the ground and you can drive away, but I haven't seen anything close to that for bed racks and RTT's.

This thread brings up the point that maybe RTTs aren't the coolest most versatile thing on the planet. Obviously a major weakness is they force you to break down camp if you want to go anywhere. If you tend to make camp for more than a night or two, the advantages of a 2 minute setup aren't as important.

If you're the type to have a "base camp" and go off on various day trip adventures from there, a trailer with an RTT or just an offroad camper trailer is probably more ideal.

The pic I posted above it just about ideal, IMO. For more than one bike though, it gets rather cumbersome and complicated, not to mention heavy.

Something like this is pretty damn cool, but the CG seems pretty high for offroading.
https://belcocustomtrailers.com.au/trailers/bike-camper/


The alternative is something that's long so the tent can fit in front or behind the bikes. That's not ideal either.

 

Yeah, this is the main reason I don't want a RTT. You can't separate vehicle and living space - which is very inconvenient at times. A ground tent, or even a big big tent with a couple of cots in it would be preferable.

And if you've got just a ground tent, you can throw it and the motorcycle in the bed of the truck.

That said, that second trailer is super sexy if you've got a bunch of people to feed.

 

Yeah, that would make a pretty awesome Moto-basecamp trailer. I mean, it's no luxury toy hauler, but it's also not a massive 5th wheel so it can go a lot more places.

 

I just noticed this:

What is this? a mustard dispenser?

lol

 

I think thats a sink! There's a basin to the rear of the tire!

 

BTW, you were asking about a rack system to leave the RTT behind. I happened upon another thread with this:

https://rubiconep.com/hitch-tent-rack-system

I think it's really not that great of an idea as it seems to create just as many problems as it claims to solve, but hey, they exist...

 

Sheesh. For that price I could buy 6 of my usual ground tents.

 

right?

 

I think bringing a bike or two on trip is great, but don't think it should be based on time it takes to collapse a RTT. I have an AT Habitat on my Tacoma and had a chance to go camping this weekend, and by myself it took 3 minutes and 30 seconds to close up the Habitat and get going ( I waste that much time posting my set-up on Instagram - just kidding, don't even have an account). Maybe it takes a lot longer to close your tent, I've camped near some hard-top RTT and they fold up even quicker than my Habitat.

So what did you decide to do - bikes, rack, etc.?

 

I'd love to stick a TW200 on a hitch rack... but I think with my swingout it would be way too far back

 

Well, it's also a matter of losing your spot in popular unpaid areas. We decided to put the whole thing off and recently decided motorcycles are not the way to go because we might decide to do this full time in between traveling for work. And if that's the case, she's gonna need to be able to handle every aspect of the rig by herself if she has time off while I have to work. Entertaining some e-bike ideas. They're quite a bit lighter than motorcycles.

 

We usually leave some camping chairs and a few items around to let folks know someone is staying at the spot - do that a lot in Anza Borrego - no problems to date. We've been meaning to buy two RadRovers, but the shipping date keeps moving out, too much demand. Best of luck with your travels.