Nov 282010
For months I have tried to figure out a suitable way to carry my Moped with me on my adventures. I could have had a rear hitch welded up on the trailer but that would have been expensive and things can take a beating bouncing around on the back of a trailer. I was going to put it in the truck bed in front of the hitch but since that is where I am going to put my generator it wouldn't fit. I finally decided to install a 2" front mount hitch and get a scooter carrier to go into it. Of course these things are never as simple as they would appear.
I purchased the Draw-Tite Front Mount Hitch Receiver and a Rage PowerSport MX600 Steel Motorcycle Carrier from eTrailer. Once installed I found that since I have a 2 wheel drive truck that the hitch was only about 7" above the ground. With the scooter carrier sticking out another 2' there was sure to be clearance problems on almost any type of hill. The Moped also stick out way too far in front of the truck so I wanted to figure out how to get it closer to the front of the truck.
The solution for the clearance problem was to get a hitch riser. Back to eTrailer to ordert an 8" riser. Once I got all of the pieces together it was time to figure out a way to get the Moped mount closer to the front of the truck. I first had a new hole drilled in the riser where it mounts to the hitch to shorten it as much as I could. I then had the mounting tube of the scooter mount shortened as much as I could. Since the riser mount tube is solid I took everything down to a local shop to have the hole drilled, the mount tube cut, then had the two pieces welded together. Welding the carrier to the riser eliminated one place that would allow slop and rocking in the mounting system.
Once this was all done I did a trial fit of everything on the truck. As you can see it all fits fine. Only the handlebars stick up above the hood and once the anti-rattle clamp was installed it was solid as a rock. I wish I could have gotten the carrier a bit closer to the truck but can live with the setup.
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Great post – been thinking about doing this for our 1959 Vespa GS150. Good to know you were able to come up with a modification that works… we tow an Airstream so a front mount would also be the best solution for us.