I am considering adding a motorcycle carrier to the front or back of my Barth. The question is, front or back?

I prefer front for several reasons:
back would block engine access
side radiator stirs dustorms on dirt roads, making bike really dirty
Adding much length to an already long overhang to drag on rear.

I have gone through the calculations. Tires and GAWR's and GVWR are all ok with either configuration.

So considering the weight distribution change:
Current is 31%/69%
front loaded bike is 33%/67%
rear loaded bike is 28.5%/71.5%

Soliciting comments regarding weight distribution change. My thoughts are that the front loaded scenario results in a better weight ratio.

Comments?

Had a bus conversion and had a front carrier. With our Breakaway would also put it on the front do the the weight already on the rear. In addition it would act like a lever all the way back there and add a lot of perceived weight (see the law of levers).

I TOO WOULD LIKE TO CARRY A DIRT BIKE ON THE FRONT TO AVOID ANY MORE REAR HANGING WEIGHT. CURIOUS ABOUT HOW THE HEADLIGHTS WORK WITH THE BIKE IN FRONT OF THEM...SEEMS TO ME THERE WILL BE SOME INTERFERENCE.

I would strongly suggest the front as well. In my discussions with Spartan, anything with less the 30% of the weight distribution on the front will cause ill handling. I am right at 30% on the front and I notice a big difference when the fuel tank is full vs. low, much better when full as the tank is just behind the front axle.

I am even considering trying to move the house batteries up front as well just to get a better balance even thou I will have to run extremely heavy wires to connect to the 3000 watt inverter and loose some very valuable storage space.

Ed, if you do that you will probably want to use 0000 gauge wire. Welding cable may be your cheapest way to go. Better to have too heavy a gauge wire than too light.

Also make them a little longer than you need so that if a few years from now you need to put new ends on them they won't be too short!

I drove 3000 mi this summer with a rear rack and a moderately heavy bike (BMW R1100RT) without any ill handling. I have not seen a bigger difference than without it; yes, the rear feels heavier, but under all conditions I met: highway or small winding road, gusting wind or passing semi, my Breakaway gave me no bad signs. Weight repartition may be not ideal, but if you keep the tanks: water and diesel as full as possible that will compensate for the lever effect. Weight on front axle being already at close to capacity and the difficulty to deal with driving lights made me chose a rear rack and in practice, I am satisfied, so far …

I have 4/0 gauge wire already from the batteries to the inverter and they recommend no more then 10 feet even with that heavy of wire. I will probably run separate wires from each pair of batteries (3 pairs of 6 volt golf cart batteries) to keep the lose to a minimum.

Biggest problem will be to find a location where I can still service the batteries once installed.

Thread hijacked! But that is ok, Ed.

Regarding re-placement of batteries to allow maintenance, I solved that problem whan I replaced 4 batteries and trays with with 8 batteries in the same space by using sealed AGM. Six of the batteries are on their side.

As a starting point for pricing AGM, start at this site: theSolar.biz

Continuing with the hijack of this thread.
When I rebuilt my battery tray and installed the Link 20, I had custom cables built by this guy, and they were really great. Heavy welding cable and terminated, and a reasonable price.
CustomBatteryCables.com