I have a trailer for my machine but you might wanna check out these........

http://www.bedbolts.com/index.html

John

 

One thing I don't understand about the Louisiana Guard Dog-type solutions: How do they keep the FRONT end of the ATV from bouncing all over the place? By design the towing hitch is meant to permit angular movement between the ATV and the trailer. I'll grant that the ATV's REAR end would be held in place, but they advertise like you don't have to secure the front end at all. What keeps it from bouncing up-down and side to side?

 

Yea just so everyone knows how dumb a newbie is.I found out just how important it is to strap one down in the bed.I had a dump truck,which a co worker left out of gear,roll down a hill and hit the front of my truck and my wheeler was in the back of it.It went through the bac window and actually bent the bed and back side of the cab of my truck,which was totaled out now, from then on,I strap mine down on all four corners,if I haul it in the back of my truck which I don't anymore.I actually bought me a truck and a trailer to haul two of them now that my wife rides too.
Just a thought,always keep her strapped real tight or you may end up with a new truck.

 

If you think about the position of the trailer ball and the fact that it cannot move up or down, or left to right, it makes more sense. For the quad's front end to bounce up, the trailer ball would have to go down. Since the ball can't go down, the front can't come up.

It is technically possible for there to be some left/right movement of the front end, but it would be just the front end and the friction of the tires or the wheel wells would stop most movement. I have never noticed any left/right movement.

I have been very happy with my setup. It is nice to not have to worry about straps, losing the quad out the back, or losing a rear window. Also, if you put a receiver lock in the upright arm, it makes it nearly impossible to steal. Another bonus it - after you unload your quad, you can put the upright arm through your ramps to secure them while your out riding.

 

>>For the quad's front end to bounce up, the trailer ball would have to go down. Since the ball can't go down, the front can't come up.<<

That's presuming the pivot point is the rear axle. I'm thinking of the pivot point as being the ball itself. Let's say the truck goes over a big bump. The bed goes up, and the ATV goes up with it - but since it's pinned back at the ball, the front can come up a lot more than the rear. So the front tires are up the most, and the rear tires are up "only a little". I agree the ball isn't going to change position relative to the truck - but the rest of the ATV can still move around relative to the **ball**.

All of this is true only if the ball is behind the rear axle. If the ball were directly over the rear axle, the rear wheels couldn't raise at all. The more separation between the ball and the rear axle, the more the rear wheels can lift off the bed.

Think of it a different way: Suppose the LGD was installed in the middle of the street, and an ATV was attached to it. What (other than strength [grin]) prevents you from lifting the front of the ATV enough that all four wheels are off the ground? And once they're off the ground, you could spin the ATV around the LGD/ball interface until it banged into the support arm of the LGD itself... nearly 180 degrees left and right.

Am I missing something here?

 

You still shouldnt have any pivot up and down around the ball, your rear axle should still have the parking brake applied. It would take some serious action I believe. I can see the front end going side to side.

 

I think you may be over-analyzing a bit. In every case I've seen, the ball is directly behind the rear axle. If the front end comes up, the rear would have to go down. If you had, say a ten foot trailer ball mount behind the axel, I could see where you would have a point, but it's generally a few inches.
Below is a response I got from LGD when I asked them about movement:

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... when hauled in the bed of the truck, the ATV has very little...if any movement side to side. The way it latches onto the coupler, it does not jump up in front. It rides with the suspension of the truck because it is hooked into the receiver. With the Trailer Dog, because the trailer itself really bounces around, it doesn't hurt to put one strap on it in front just to make the fellow pulling the trailer feel better. You are just naturally going to have a little more bounce with a trailer because of the trailer bouncing behind the truck. However, without a strap, it's still just as secure, it just seems to make the trailer haulers feel better.

Call it design " by accident". When Danny came up with the idea, after losing his own ATV out of the back of the truck, the way it latches on, it will not bounce up in front. In his video on our website, www.laguarddog.com, he can be seen taking his truck up a very steep incline, pausing on the incline and it does not jump up in front. We have had people who wrecked there truck with a guard dog holding their ATV in the back of the truck and after flipping the truck, ATV & guard dog was still there. ATV took some damage, and the upright arm bent slightly forward on the guard dog, but it held. According to the driver of the truck, because of the impact, two vehicles colliding, had the ATV been strapped it would have been a real tragedy.
He felt the ATV would have catapulted into the back window of his single cab truck. OUCH!
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'when I strap mine down I drive it into the truck i drive it close to the front shut it off in neutral and push it against the front of the bed. tie it down thruogh my front rack to each side of the bed then through the back rack to each side of the bed so it cannot bounce or move

 

i saw an intresting and impressive approach to hualing 2 quads in he bed of a truck! now what i saw was long bed (8') full size pick up trk with one yfz 450 pulled up into the bed all the way forward against the cab, the second yfz was pulled up right behind the first with the front half of the bike in the bed and the rear tires were sitting on one of those cargo trays that you put in your reciever hitch, its like a 3'x5' steel tray that hangs off the back of your truck. they were traveling down a bumpy forest road and both bikes looked stable and secure!

 

Its a pretty good idea if you have a hitch. Rather than getting a trailer to pull a 2nd 4 wheeler your saving alot of money . It only costs like $100 for one of those rather than 1,000 for a trailer.