A full truck is a happy truck

I took the truck out for a spin yesterday afternoon -- like y'all said, it was a breeze. I missed one shift on the freeway, trying to downshift from 5th to 4th, but other than that there was nary a snag.

Peter was at hockey skills practice when I got back, so I decided to be really stupid and load the Serow into the truck by myself. It actually went well (the truck's been lowered -- bad news for speed bumps but good news for solo bike-loading). I was glad I weight-lift, though, or I may have ended up wearing the Serow as a hat once or twice. *innocent*

When Peter got home, we left the bike in the truck and ran a couple of errands to see how the handling was affected -- as far as we could tell, it wasn't.

I was going to try to get the bike out of the truck myself, too, with Peter spotting me, but I wussed out. I got it lined up with the ramps and started backing it up, but got really scared. So Peter did it this time, while I watched, and I think I can do it next time. We'll practice this week. I really need to be able to load and unload the truck alone -- I'm trying to be confident about this. ;)

Comments

[Bill]

Hi Carolyn - I have a lot of experience with lowered trucks, currently own one, and if you guys do have problems scraping, or bottoming out the suspension, etc with bikes in the bed, there are a few things you can do to minimize the problems. Does make loading a lot easier.
Good choice on a Toyota, dang near indestructible.

B12Bill

[Eric]

you will be a pro in no time poof. Nice Truck!

[Harry]

When I'm trying to do something like this, I find it useful to stand near the bike/truck and smile at other riders while I'm fluttering my eyelashes. This will usually get the motorcycle off-loaded without _any_ effort whatsoever on my part :-)

Alternatively, backing the truck to a curb or driveway so the tailgate is effectively lower (and the ramp less steep) is also helpful. Keep your hand on the front brake to ease it down the ramp.

[Michael]

You may want to carry two ramps, one for the bike and one for you to walk on beside the bike as you back it down. Don't know if that's practical/possible for you (or if you've already thought of it), but it's much easier when I back mine out of the storage building if I'm at a normal height relative to the bike rather than starting with it up high. If you have one of those wide ATV type ramps this may not be an issue for you.

[john]

warm up the clutch. start the bike, put it in gear slip the clutch. turn off the bike keep it in gear, with two ramps back down. feather the clutch and the bike will stay in control