I'm looking for a Waikato engineering firm to build me a motorcycle lift

[MarkH]

Anyone know a suitable engineering company in the Waikato (Pref Morrinsville or Hamilton, but anywhere near could be worth knowing about)?

At the last Burt Munro rally (2021) I took a bunch of photos of this:





It looks fairly straight forward with an electric winch to lift the thing into place, then a couple of steel pins holds it there. An engineering firm near Invercargill made that one, but surely plenty of engineers should be able to make something like this. I don't want to tow a trailer, my motorhome is long enough as it is (11M). I can just start visiting engineering firms and ask if they can build me one, but if someone knows of a good place to approach it could save me some time.

[Laava]

Nice setup!

[MarkH]

Nice setup!

I looked at it and thought "that looks pretty simple" and I think that is the hallmark of a good design - achieving the desired result with a simple design.

I need to get a WoF on the motorbike, while they are doing it I might go for a walk and chat to the people in a couple of engineering shops.

I'll be picking up the motorhome in about 3 weeks and it will become my new full-time home, I definitely want my motorcycle handy. It would be good to be able to travel by motorcycle and not have to drive an 11M vehicle with a Cummins 5.9L turbo diesel engine (I think the motorhome weighs over 8T).

[nerrrd]

Depending on the bike that will be an interesting conversation with your insurer…but sounds like it would be an awesome set up.

[Kickaha]

Unless it's a larger bike there are far less complicated systems to use, FlashG has an easy to use towbar mounted system but that's only a 100kg trailbike

[Grumph]

It's going to need certification too. I worked for an outfit that did the towbar mounted ones and the paperwork to make them legal was not funny.

Design has to be by a properly qualified engineer from memory.

[Laava]

Has been my experience that it is easier to build and then get an engineers approval, than to ask them for a design in the first place. Bearing in mind that if you make it only strong enough for a gn125, it will fail.
Surely it would be relatively easy to have a very solid mount from the back of the chassis on both sides?

[HenryDorsetCase]

Has been my experience that it is easier to build and then get an engineers approval, than to ask them for a design in the first place. Bearing in mind that if you make it only strong enough for a gn125, it will fail.
Surely it would be relatively easy to have a very solid mount from the back of the chassis on both sides?

You have to be really careful about adding stuff to the chassis of these vehicles - a client had a motor home that turned out not to be compliant because the levelling jacks had been welded to the chassis instead of bolted and the design said they were to be bolted. Lot of drama at COF renewal time - I dont fully understand it but it meant his $300k motorhome was not going to be usable for some time. Not a happy camper.

[MarkH]

Unless it's a larger bike there are far less complicated systems to use, FlashG has an easy to use towbar mounted system but that's only a 100kg trailbike

My CRF1000L Africa Twin was already over 250kg before I added the crash bars & pannier racks, I'd be looking for a very strong bike lift that I could be confident in.

[MarkH]

It's going to need certification too. I worked for an outfit that did the towbar mounted ones and the paperwork to make them legal was not funny.

Design has to be by a properly qualified engineer from memory.

Yep, that's why I'm asking about who to go to - I really want someone that can do the job right.

[Grumph]

My CRF1000L Africa Twin was already over 250kg before I added the crash bars & pannier racks, I'd be looking for a very strong bike lift that I could be confident in.

If you're going to be carting something of that weight around, perhaps look at a trailer. Or alter the access to the interior to bring it on board.
That's really too much to hang off the arse of a camper.

[Laava]

Isn't it a small bus tho as opposed to a camper? That is a big bike tho too…

[MarkH]

Isn't it a small bus tho as opposed to a camper? That is a big bike tho too…

It isn't that small, you can get 7M buses like the Toyota Coaster and 9M buses from Isuzu, Hino, Nissan & Mitsubishi Fuso. My new motorhome is 11M and somewhere over 8 Tonne. The pics I showed from the Burt Munro were from the back of a 9M Mitsubishi Fuso bus, the owner told me that the engineer that built the lift had assured him that the lift would happily carry any motorbike and would be fine with 500kg on it.

How heavy an object can a lift on the back of a motorhome carry? Some of these examples look a LOT heavier than my bike: https://hydralift-usa.com

My bike may be fairly big, but the 1000cc twin motor would be less thirsty than the Cummins 5.9L turbo diesel on the motorhome, so I'd happily take the bike for a ride rather than move the motorhome if it was just a day ride. One example would be while the motorhome is parked in Hamilton I would ride the bike to Morrinsville to visit my dear old mum. To visit Cape Reinga I could drive the motorhome to Kaitaia and stay there, then ride the bike to Cape Reinga during a fine day - way more fun than trying to drive a large motorhome on those roads!

[Moi]

Just thinking aloud...
Does putting something like this on the back of the motorhome require certification?
What about insurance? You'd not want it to fall off the back in front of following traffic.

[onearmedbandit]

How heavy an object can a lift on the back of a motorhome carry? Some of these examples look a LOT heavier than my bike: https://hydralift-usa.com

Well see there's your problem. In America if it can be done it will be done. But in NZ if it can be done but looks too hard you'll get told why it shouldn't/couldn't be done.