Atacama trip, motorbike on rear, suspension upgrade

[alexlindsay]

Hi... Just joined forum... It looks great. OK, I've a 2006 Navara Aventura double cab. RH drive since I live in Scotland. Hard canopy on back. I'm sticking the truck in a 20' container with my Honda XR650R enduro motorcycle plus tents etc and sending it to Chile Sth America. Will be travelling / photographing (my job) for 6 months in Atacama desert, Bolivian Altiplano, Nth Argentina deserts. The bike will be carried on the back of the truck on a 'rack' or 'carrier' as they call them in the US. These are very popular in the US, maybe in Australia also (?) but certainly not here in the UK. Basically a metal bar mounted horizontally across the back of the truck, mounted on tow bar. Can get beefy racks in States (UK ones look more wimpy!) but the US ones annoyingly all fit their 2" receiver system... Which we don't use here in the UK.

My issues...

(1) Concerned about strength of these ready made carriers... They are designed to be taken on/off trucks v quickly and are all mounted just on the central tow point. I could mount something permanently, doesn't bother me as long as I can open rear gate of Navara. My guess is that I'd be better off with a custom fabrication in steel to provide a seriously strong system to support my Honda (weight about 150kg loaded)... For the dirt roads I'll encounter. I'd have thought wise to mount rack to chassis at either end as well as the centre.

(2) Then concerned about Navara rear suspension. My truck has 74k miles, but pretty well all highway, gently treated. But rear leaf springs seem completely flat. Might be fine / perfectly normal, but I suspect that 150 kgs hanging off the back of the truck might mean a suspension upgrade would be wise. Any suggestions for what I should do and get, keeping costs down? Navara will not be put through extreme off-road duties, that's what the bike is for, but I don't want a disaster in the middle of the Atacama desert. Roads out there can be very corrugated.


(3) Would really welcome any heads up on known problems with the D40 from 2006 (2.5 litre turbo diesel) that I should be aware of?


Cheers, Alex.

 

[nakedape]

Hey bloke -- you've gotten me all jealous about the trip, so no advice for you.

Nah, only kidding -- welcome to the forum.

Suspension -- 2" lift all round plus 400kg load rated leaves, matched with quality shocks should set the beast right. It will seem a bit stiff unloaded but with all your weight it will drive nicely.

A few blokes on here have made some really beefy rear bars to carry spare wheels/ jerry cans - do a search for them & maybe use them as a template for your bike rack.

Post up some picks of both the build & the trip.