Can You Haul a Dirt Bike with a Car? Racks, Trailers, & More

Your dirt bike was made to go on adventures. Sometimes that means you have to transport your bike to these great adventures. Depending on your car or truck situation, it can be pretty easy to transport your dirt bike wherever you need it. You didn’t buy your dirt bike to just have it collect dust. However, you may not know the first thing about transporting your dirt bike, especially with a car.

There are a few different approaches to hauling your dirt bike with a car:

By reading on, you can learn all about the best ways to transport your bike. You will learn how to safely haul your bike with your car without damaging it, so that you can enjoy your next great adventure.

Can You Fit a Dirt Bike in a Car?

While having a truck is the easiest way to transport a car, you can use your car to haul a dirt bike. If you don’t have a hitch-mounted carrier or a trailer to transport your bike, it is possible for you to fit your bike into a car. This is a question commonly asked by beginners to the sport, who may not be sure they want to invest too much money into this activity yet.

The first question that needs to be answered is: “What kind of car do you have?” The smaller the car, the more innovative you need to be to fit the bike in the car. This will take a closer look at fitting your dirt bike not only in your sedan or hatchback, but also how to fit it in your small truck.

Fitting a Dirt Bike in a Sedan

This can be a very difficult task to do without completely disassembling your dirt bike to do this. This is somewhat possible to do with a sedan if you have a wider car. If your car is wide enough, there is a chance that you can take the front and back wheels off and can place the body of the bike in your car. However, this could take some effort and planning to fit the bike in your car properly. You also run the risk of causing damage to your bike and car.

You do have a few options instead of placing the dirt bike in the car. You could invest in a trailer or a hitch-mounted carrier to transport your dirt bike. This can be a much easier solution, as these are easy to set up and don’t require you to disassemble your bike to haul it anywhere.

Our opinion? Don’t put your bike in your car. It will waste A LOT of time and increase the risk of damage to your bike and car.

Fitting a Dirt Bike in a Hatchback

The first thing that you want to do is to measure the dirt bike before anything else. You don’t want to go through the trouble of dismantling your bike if you can’t fit the bike in even if it’s in pieces. If you can fit it in with the bike dismantled, you will want to start by folding down the back seats to increase the available space in your car. This may require you to lay the bike on its side, which is more complex than just laying it down on its side and not having anything else to worry about. This is a topic that will be addressed later on.

Again, just don’t do this.

Fitting a Dirt Bike in a Small Truck

Fitting the dirt bike in a smaller truck may not be as simple as placing the bike in a large truck, but it’s still far easier than any of these other approaches. Using a product like a dirt bike transport system or rack to help keep the bike upright in the back of the truck. This may require you to keep the tailgate down, butmounted transport systems for the truck bed are meant to keep the bikes stable in the truck while you haul the bike.

Is it Bad to Lay a Dirt Bike on Its Side?

As previously mentioned, when transporting the bike inside of your car, this may require you to lay your bike on its side. But is that the best idea? The ideal position for transporting a dirt bike is upright. There are a lot of different liquid systems that rely on gravity and the design is vertical, so if you go outside of that you are risking basically dumping all of the liquids out of your dirt bike. As stated twice before...don’t do this.

It is possible to lay a dirt bike on its side as you travel, but you want to make sure that you drain out all of the fluids before you do. Otherwise, you run the risk of having these fluids leak all over your car. It’s also important to make sure that the cooling system and battery are properly sealed before you lay the bike down on its side. It’s also recommended that the bike is laid out on a soft, padded surface to protect it from getting scratched up.

How Do You Transport a Dirt Bike without a Truck?

You can use your car to transport your dirt bike, with the right equipment. It’s not recommended to haul the bike inside of the car. This can be very difficult to do, especially with smaller vehicles, as it requires you to dismantle the bike. The good news is that you can transport your dirt bike without having a truck. In this section, you can get a closer look at the best options for transporting a dirt bike without a truck.

Hitch-Mounted Carrier

This is probably the simplest approach that you can take when transporting your bike. You just need to hitch this carrier onto the rear of your car by using its receiver tube. Then you just need to load the dirt bike onto the mount and fasten the bike. You just have to remember that when you use this approach that you need to be sure that the bike and carrier doesn’t block your tail lights or that the hitch has its own tail light if it does.

Dirt Bike Trailer

Another option is getting a dirt bike trailer. With a flatbed trailer, you are able to transport multiple dirt bikes if needed. You can rent one rather than spend money on purchasing your own. If you take this approach, you will need to find a way to secure your bike whether you use a special dirt bike transport system like theLock N Load Pro that can keep your bike upright and secure without tie-downs, or you need to find other means like ratchet straps to secure your bike on these trailers.

How Much Does a Dirt Bike Trailer Weigh?

The exact weight of the dirt bike trailer can depend on the type of dirt bike trailer you get. If you get a larger, enclosed trailer this will be significantly heavier than a flatbed bike trailer. For the flatbed trailers, you can expect them to weigh around 300 lbs. There are a lot of factors to consider, including how many bikes the trailer can accommodate as well as the materials used to make the trailer.

Conclusion

Your dirt bike wasn’t meant to be stored away or barely used. Your dirt bike was made to take you on incredible adventures. In order to live your best life as a dirt bike rider, you need to be able to haul your dirt bike to whatever tracks or site that you want to enjoy your bike on. However, it’s important to know how to safely transport your bike so that you don’t damage it or your car as you haul it to your next adventure.