If you have a garage with enough headroom you can make some sort of pulley system to raise and lower it. How are you planning on storing it when it's off?
A trailer would be less hassle and better for the cap and the bike overall. The more you remove the cap the more likely something will get damaged. I put my bike in my truck twice and without someone else with me I didn't feel comfortable doing it.
What bike are you getting?
I am pulling a camper, no trailer
Have no room in ceiling, have a platform, was hoping to jack up the center and pull back on platform
Just never did this
Wanna ride more on my camping trip
Getting a triumph 800 tiger adventure
Lacking overhead lifting facilities, crawl in the bed and stand up lifting the center of the cap on your back/shoulders. Might take a little adjusting to get it balanced. Then just walk out the back. I assume that you have ramps to get the bike on and off right? walk down them with the cap on your shoulders.
This is how I used to do it on my last truck if I had access to a small hill to back the truck up to.
But, my preferred way was back in to the garage, un clamp topper, slide ratchet straps under topper and hook to ceiling joists, tighten the straps enough to lift topper off bed rails and drive the truck back out. I would just leave it hanging there for the short time I would need it off.
Someone more proficient with the search tool than I am may find the detailed writeup done here in the past year or so of a DIY lift system in a garage. It was cleverly executed and there were excellent pictures. I've looked but couldn't find it.
The pictures brought home the fact that great care must be taken to avoid damaging the vulnerable lower edges which seem not intended to hold the weight of the shell.
I've done this before. What I used was sliding garage door hardware and tie-downs. I installed a C channel on the ceiling, mounted a couple Ibolts on the rollers and was done. Worked great. Battalion Hanger, Door, Track 4PE62 | Zoro.com
for $130 you can get one of those ceiling mounted lift storage shelf, just use some 2x4s or hooks to adapt you your cap/topper. If you have platform maybe do like a half a system like this...and add some kind of roller to get it under lift it then push it back on your platform.
I pull my shell off regularly to load my motorcycle in my bed. No damage to the shell. No hazard loading bike solo. I guess I do have a light weight dirt bike. THe trick with the bike is two ramps. One for the bike one for you to walk on. Power walk the bike up. Front brake the bike down.
Since you do not have over head space you can use a side load camper hoist. I think they are called camper jacks.
down and dirty method for supporting cap temporarily
It also depends on whether the cap is aluminum or fiberglass as to how heavy it is. Mine is fiberglass and I only have to remove it occasionally. I used to find a friend to grab the other side and just set it somewhere for a while. What I do now is put a sawhorse on either side of the truck, raise the cap up on blocks of wood until I can slide two 2 x 4's under it from side to side. I then attach the cross pieces to vertical pieces attached (clamps or screws, lift the boards a few inches off the truck) to the sawhorses, then drive out from under it.. Not especially elegant, but works well and doesn't require any permanent fixture.
It shouldn't need to be said: make sure the wheels will clear the saw horses as you drive out and in, and center the weight of the cap over the supports.
As mentioned you may actually be overweight with the bike in the back. Another alternative however is that if your trailler supports installing a rear hitch (not to B train illegal unless it's a 5th wheel etc) but to install a hitch on the trailer and install a basket into the hitch.
This would also allow you to skip taking the cap off when not pulling the trailer as you could also mount this right into the truck's receiver and leave the cap on.
here's another option if you have an engine hoist & are handy (or have a friend with) a welder. Engine hoist has plenty of lifting capacity, vid maker points out obvious point of keeping weight behind front wheels of lift...
Or you can do like this ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mleIlpa2TU ) for years, way back when, Dad & I did both (the walk it off & the 2x4 saw-horse) over the years. You could do it for as little as the cost of a set of ramps, which you will need for the bike anyway, and a pair of saw horses...
Was going to buy this 16x14x36" motorcycle stand (169.00). Pick up from the inside middle and roll out onto my platform.
I will order and let you all know
By the way, how has nobody suggested lifting his truck enough that it's level with the platform?
When I think about it, if you can park your truck so it's backed into the platform, if you were to get some carpet couldn't you just lift it half on and slide it the rest of the way?
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Nissan Frontier Forum
1.9M posts
113.3K members
Since 2005
Welcome to our Nissan Frontier Forum! A premier community to share your mods and builds. Chat with like-minded Frontier owners.