With Daytona Bike Week running now through next weekend, my buddy and I are going to be attending next week. We'll be at the TT race at the Speedway, last year on the way to our seats we encountered Willie G and Nancy Davidson as they went to their suite in the scoring tower VIP seating.
My buddy and I have been attending about 34 years-on, and the anticipation of attending is almost as-good as being there. We always have a good time, even if it's raining. My friend has had a hip replacement, and I'm retired (that would be, 'elderly') so we don't ride to the event, we take the bikes in his full-sized GMC pick-up.
To make a safer trip we decided to buy a pair of Harbor Freight roll-in front wheel chocks
https://www.harborfreight.com/1800-lb-capacity-motorcycle-standwheel-chock-61670.html
but the front cross-bar to stabilize them laterally and which has eyelets on the ends, was going to be too-wide when the two wheel chocks were placed side-by-side. Sure, we could stagger them a bit, one-behind the other so the bars could overlap. But I wanted to try something else.
We put a pair of bikes in the bed of the truck, and placed them where they would fit.
I got a piece of steel 2" X 2" X 1/8" L-shaped angle iron to fit side-to-side at the front of the pick-up bed. We removed the wheel chock cross-bars, and mounted the wheel chocks to the L-angle iron, drilling holes and using short machine screws.It's about 58-1/2" long.
For the opposite end of the pair of wheel chocks, to hold them parallel to one-another, I made a simple 1/8" X 2" steel strap bracket, with two tabs (about 1-1/2" X 2") on opposite ends, welded in-place. I used my Harbor Freight flux wire-feed 120 volt 90 amp welder. The U-shaped bracket fits between the inside of the wheel chocks' closest points. I drilled holes about 2" from the ends of the wheel chocks, on the vertical plane of the steel brackets. Again I used short machine screws to bolt it together. If you look at the rear of the wheel chocks in the pick-up, you can see the bracket holding them spaced-apart. It's about 24" long.
In years-past, we've made the same trip using ratcheting tie-downs front and rear, to secure the bikes in-place. I believe this will provide us with an as-secure placement of the bikes, and allow us to load/unload much-more quickly. We will use the GMC welded loops in the four corners of the beds, they're just-above the floor, and the removable rings (but who-ever removes them?) located just-below the top of the sides of the pick-up bed, all the way-around.
It didn't take long to-do, and it will make loading/off-loading easier and quicker.
First pic: welding up the spacer steel strap which locates the wheel chocks parallel to one-another, at the end opposite the L-angle.
Second pic: showing the front of the wheel chock where the L-angle has machine screws bolting the pieces together. The vertical wheel bump-stops have been removed to show the bolt mounting points.
Third pic: the wheel bump-stops are replaced.
After it was all-together, we decided to make a bit of a change in the HFT hardware. We got some 1" split pins to replace the small-gauge hitch pins that HFT supplies for each side of the pins that mount the wheel brackets to their frames. We also bought heavier-gauge hitch pins to replace the HFT pins. Each of the adjustable wheel chock brackets originally-used two hitch pins for each round rod locating the movable wheel brackets. Now the removable pins for the adjustable wheel brackets are replaced with a stationary spring-steel split-pin on one side, and a stronger, larger-gauge hitch pin on the opposite side.
My buddy and I have been attending about 34 years-on, and the anticipation of attending is almost as-good as being there. We always have a good time, even if it's raining. My friend has had a hip replacement, and I'm retired (that would be, 'elderly') so we don't ride to the event, we take the bikes in his full-sized GMC pick-up.
To make a safer trip we decided to buy a pair of Harbor Freight roll-in front wheel chocks
https://www.harborfreight.com/1800-lb-capacity-motorcycle-standwheel-chock-61670.html
but the front cross-bar to stabilize them laterally and which has eyelets on the ends, was going to be too-wide when the two wheel chocks were placed side-by-side. Sure, we could stagger them a bit, one-behind the other so the bars could overlap. But I wanted to try something else.
We put a pair of bikes in the bed of the truck, and placed them where they would fit.
I got a piece of steel 2" X 2" X 1/8" L-shaped angle iron to fit side-to-side at the front of the pick-up bed. We removed the wheel chock cross-bars, and mounted the wheel chocks to the L-angle iron, drilling holes and using short machine screws.It's about 58-1/2" long.
For the opposite end of the pair of wheel chocks, to hold them parallel to one-another, I made a simple 1/8" X 2" steel strap bracket, with two tabs (about 1-1/2" X 2") on opposite ends, welded in-place. I used my Harbor Freight flux wire-feed 120 volt 90 amp welder. The U-shaped bracket fits between the inside of the wheel chocks' closest points. I drilled holes about 2" from the ends of the wheel chocks, on the vertical plane of the steel brackets. Again I used short machine screws to bolt it together. If you look at the rear of the wheel chocks in the pick-up, you can see the bracket holding them spaced-apart. It's about 24" long.
In years-past, we've made the same trip using ratcheting tie-downs front and rear, to secure the bikes in-place. I believe this will provide us with an as-secure placement of the bikes, and allow us to load/unload much-more quickly. We will use the GMC welded loops in the four corners of the beds, they're just-above the floor, and the removable rings (but who-ever removes them?) located just-below the top of the sides of the pick-up bed, all the way-around.
It didn't take long to-do, and it will make loading/off-loading easier and quicker.
First pic: welding up the spacer steel strap which locates the wheel chocks parallel to one-another, at the end opposite the L-angle.
Second pic: showing the front of the wheel chock where the L-angle has machine screws bolting the pieces together. The vertical wheel bump-stops have been removed to show the bolt mounting points.
Third pic: the wheel bump-stops are replaced.
After it was all-together, we decided to make a bit of a change in the HFT hardware. We got some 1" split pins to replace the small-gauge hitch pins that HFT supplies for each side of the pins that mount the wheel brackets to their frames. We also bought heavier-gauge hitch pins to replace the HFT pins. Each of the adjustable wheel chock brackets originally-used two hitch pins for each round rod locating the movable wheel brackets. Now the removable pins for the adjustable wheel brackets are replaced with a stationary spring-steel split-pin on one side, and a stronger, larger-gauge hitch pin on the opposite side.
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