3 Wheel Micro Motorhomes and Campers  By  bandito2 (Read 4,648 times)

Well the first thing you have to be concerned about is IF you want a SCOOTER and not a Morotcycle that would have enough power you really only have a couple of choices. One is the Suzuki 650 and the other is the 600 Honda Silverwing that have the motors for it. Then the next step down are your Ice Bear Trikes that are rated at 300cc but really are about 280cc then of course the 250s and 150s.

But I would not even bother having one converted into a camper I would build a small camper and just tow it. That way you can camp out someplace and still have us of the trike to go into town for stuff or what not.
Alleyoop

I was thinking something as nutty as trailering a small scooter behind it. Mainly I would want the camper to be on the trike or incorporated into the trike like a motor home even if it has a pop up section like a VW Westfalia camper van. It would be so unique for quite a while before very many others had such a thing here in the USA.

I know, I know, I'd get stopped everywhere I went with it.... But I'm used to that... Had that happen all the time when pulling my little single wheel trailer with my Reflex scooter. I must like the attention I suppose.  Folks would surely remember it and take lots of pics......(I'll need to practice posing and story telling. "honey, I shrunk the camper") And for the "Woodward Dream Cruise" we have here in Michigan every year, something like that is just the sort of thing people love to see.

But ultimately it would be used as a camper/motorhome. And yes, my Silverwing just might do the trick. Even so, I might not want to take it onto expressways too much, but roads 55 mph and less should not be too much trouble.

Depends I'd say. On my Reflex with the single wheel trailer it gave more mass to the whole set up so that when semis would go by or gusty winds were encountered, the scooter would not get pushed around nearly as much. I really liked that when doing the 850 mile trips down to Eureka Springs AR. It made the trips so much more comfortable and less fatiguing not getting knocked around by wind. 

When turning, it would get a little wobbly if making abrupt turns at speed. There is a lag in momentum with quick turns. First, it resists leaning over, then once it gets going, the momentum tends to want to keep going so you have to hold it back from doing that. I've had to do that only a couple times in all the miles I've been using it. No loss of control, but it sure was unnerving. Smooth turns don't exhibit that and when pulling the trailer I tend to take it easier in the tighter twisty roads anyway. As long as the turning from one way to another is not too quick, it is pretty steady and I don't really notice the extra weight behind the scooter much at all. I keep a respectable and safe following distance because it does take longer to slow down with the trailer. Not any close calls with that at all, but I don't exactly ride it like an old lady either when pulling the trailer. My Reflex scoot weighs about 375# and the loaded trailer probably weighs close to 120-130# total. That's about the weight limit for that trailer/scooter combo. Any more than that and it feels too heavy even with slow speed maneuvering. I've had it hooked up to the Silverwing scooter and I hardly notice it back there at all except when stopping or making kind of fast turns at speed. But it doesn't wallow nearly as much like it did with the lighter Reflex scooter when that happens.

The connection between the trailer and scooter must be rather precise. Any slop at that junction will ultimately allow the trailer to wag......severly!!! DAMHIK

I don't have experience with conventional 2 wheel trailers on any of my bikes so I have no comments about those kinds of trailers.

Other than all that, pulling a trailer makes the fuel economy suck. Reflex scoot would go from about 70 mpg down to about 50-55 mpg when pulling the trailer. To be honest, I didn't notice quite as much of a drop with the Silverwing. It might go from 50-ish down to the low to mid 40s in mpg.

With the lighter less powerful 250cc Reflex scooter, on level roads it worked just fine, but steep hills could be a challenge. Not much of a problem if momentum could be maintained going up hill. But if I had to slow down any, I would not be able to accelerate back up to speed till after cresting the hill. No such problem when using the Silverwing with the single wheel trailer.

Wow!! Those are some big wheels/tires there in the back and it has a trailer hitch on it too. But it is one of those out rigger variants.

I'll be retiring with this some day.

A friend had the Leyman kit put on his Boulevard which was a true trike with Gillette 50 series tires on it. Looked a bit odd with those super wide tires on the back but it was a real conversion with a driven differential axle.

And probably a little bit of rear track widening as well be it with adapters to set the wheels just even a small amount further out or possibly a way of making it a dual wheel arrangement. But that might make steering harder though.

Building light might not be that hard to do really by incorporating some pop-up/fold down fabric structure rather than full time, full height, non collapsing hard sides. That would help keep the frontal and broadside areas from being affected as much by wind when closed up for travel.

Stretching it more than what a trike kit does to the wheel base already would involve a stretch build to the frame. That would require getting it inspected as a "built vehicle", re-titled with a new VIN, re-registered, re-insured,  etc.  Might be easier to just chunk the idea of a 3 wheeled micro-camper and just get or build a small & light motorcycle type trailer camper and drag it behind.

Dang, but the "Bufalino" still seems like a cool idea... and that idea uses just a dinky little 50cc Piaggio Ape 3 wheel scooter as the basis for it.

 I'm going to need to do some more thinking on this.