Anyone had any experience with these?
http://www.pit-bull.com/trailer-restraint.shtml
It looks like a good system from the point of view of simplicity (apart from being expensive), but I wonder if it is safe to use by itself without straps. I'm thinking here in particular if you have to do a bit of a violent escape and evasion maneuver to avoid other road users, wildlife or potholes etc. If you used just the restraint (which pins through the back axle), wouldn't it put a fair whack of stress on the swingarm pivots due to the front end and engine (i.e. centre of mass) being completely unrestrained?
I would imagine that having all that mass free to torque the swing arm pivots and the rear axle in a horizontal plane could produce loadings in directions that are beyond the design spec of those parts, possibly risking cracking or inducing small fractures around these areas?
(and worse than that, small fractures would probably be extremely hard to spot, particularly if they aren't being loaded to open them up and make them more visible).
Anyone actually know if these areas could take that kind of loading without risking damage?
Last edited by No_Style; 30-11-2013 at 01:04 PM.
Got one ... good, but can be fiddly to engage ... appears safe for bike ... Pit Bull are big in the US ... premium bike stands ... doubt they would make anything that's bad.
I no longer use mine since I got aluminium front chocks from Premium Trailers at 1/2 price ... now just use a tyre down and one strap to hold front wheel to chock.
Well just ordered some of the T-Rex restraints and some of their rear axle sliders.
Pricing was:
$60 USD for the axle sliders for a ZX-6R
$45 USD for the axle sliders for a YZF-R6
$90 for the restraint system per bike, so $180 USD there.
Shipping was the bullshit part at $145.
They have 15% off the above prices as well at the moment, and they were good enough to refund me the 15% because I placed the order just before they put up the notification of their sale.
So all in all, averages out at $142.50 USD per bike for parts and $72.50 for shipping. Ended up with a $25 USD refund per bike (which was a bonus) due to their sale, so that brings it down to a total of $190 per bike, shipped to Australia.
The upsides compared to the Pitbull system are:
* You can basically make it work on any bike with axle sliders
* It's about half the price shipped to Aus (even if you have to buy the axle sliders like I did, much less if you already have them)
* You don't have to buy new pin sets at $100 a pop for different bikes.
* You can run axle sliders (the Pitbull system means you can't, or at least you have to take them out and put them back in, in order to use the Pitbull restraint).
My main reason for using this over straps is that I now have a rather small enclosed trailer to fit two bikes in, and getting in there to try and use ratchet straps is bloody hard.
I reckon these T-Rex restraints in combo with a front wheel chock will make the job much simpler and be just as secure (if not more so) and it doesn't compress the suspension they way straps can (depending on how you use them).
Last edited by No_Style; 05-12-2013 at 10:44 AM.
Nice ... I like how they come down vertically.
Very hard to align pit bulls to front wheel chock (it would change per bike too) and without the chock it can be fiddly to engage them on your own. That looks like a way better solution.
Originally Posted by No_Style
Does anyone have one of these for sale , im assuming it will not work if you use an axle slider for swingarm protection?
The T-rex or pitbull system?
Me and No_style have been using the T-rex for a while now. Works brilliantly, only thing I would suggest is get some extra axle sliders in case you crash as I lost one of mine when I crashed in January.
Pronounced Kang-Ah not Kang-Gah
Ill look at the T-rex, never heard of it.
Does the restraint include the rear spool knobs?
Last edited by Kris; 07-07-2014 at 08:43 AM.
I don't think so but if you already have axle sliders you might be ok to use them.
Spool10-url.jpg
Thats what you want with the recess to secure the clamp in place. Has to be a axle slider, can't be used on a swing arm pick up bobbin.
Otherwise I think the actual plastic spools cost like 5 bucks each. I'll get on no_style to chime in and confirm.
Pronounced Kang-Ah not Kang-Gah
Yeah my current axle sliders do not have a recess, ive sent them an email.
Yep talk to T-Rex racing is your best bet, but if you wanted to you could grind a channel into your existing axle slider knobs for the clamps to engage in (the channel is obviously just to prevent the clamp from sliding off the inside or outside of the knob, nothing more than that).
Having some spare sliders (or straps) is a good idea in case you bust the rear axle sliders off in a crash, which could leave you with no way to secure the bike otherwise. That's the only downside I've seen so far, but it was pretty easy to remedy and mostly due to not thinking about it in advance. Spare knobs for the sliders were a bit of a rip off ($40 for 4 of them, plus the bolts into the slider), but not the end of the world. If you hunted around you could probably come up with something suitable for less, but I didn't have the time to look into it then.
Thanks for the info. $40 is cheap compared to what R&G charge you for replacement items that are similiar.
If you break them off, I could always just use my tie down hooks on my subframe, no biggie. I want a solution like the pitbull without the huge cost. Not allowing the front wheel to move by using those wheel locks is a no no.
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