Black

Any thoughts of cutting a square hole in the tube and welding the receiver tube into it? Aside from the added support, it seems like it'd be a "cleaner" look.

Hello, I went with the Draw-Tite 4907 7" bracket kit and the Draw-Tite 41991 hitch. This is a Class V universal fit hitch that's specifically made for heavy-duty and commercial vehicles with frames up to 62". The ratings are 16k lbs gross trailer weight and 1,600 lbs max tongue weight although it can be reinforced to handle more. It's cheaper to buy the components separately then as a kit and all together I spent ~$130 for the hitch and about $15 in bolts.

I'm about 8 years away from pulling the plug although if it wasn't for the lifetime health insurance I get for retiring, I'd probably walk away right now. Charity will be the largest single slice of our budget by far, we're fortunate to be rather simple folks and I can't imagine any non-health related scenarios where we aren't struggling to spend down our nest egg balance. If we run low during a year, we'll just have to scale back for a bit. That said, I'll heed the advice and make sure to maintain a healthy liquid balance for when I get too tired/old of fixing my own stuff and splurge on a new Volvo:)

Just to switch it up a bit, I'm a law enforcement officer (which means I'll retain health insurance) that plans to retire at the age of 49 and full-time for at least a few years, and probably more if I go international. I'm aiming for a nest egg of $4 mil (real estates, stocks, 401k), am married with 5 dependents, and estimate yearly spending of $125,000, most of which will be charitable donations. I'll also be collecting a roughly $38k pension once I retire. In case a bad guy gets me tomorrow, I will carry life insurance until retirement that pays out $875K which means my wife will be able to retire immediately (currently 39) and the kids will all be good to go. All of my calcs and spreadsheets say I should be good but since I've never been there, and many of you have, does anyone see any glaring faults in my planning or have cautionary tales to share?

What about buying a piece of channel iron that is the wheelbase of your motorcycle, welding some drings onto it so you can strap the bike to the channel, and then add some rubber wheels to the channel itself? The process would be to ride onto the channel, strap the bike down, and then winch the assembly into the trailer. Once in the trailer, secure the channel to keep the channel from moving. When you arrive at your destination, unhook the channel from the trailer, winch it back out, and then unhook the motorcycle from the channel. This will let you always load on flat ground, allow you to winch in and winch out, and will be as simple as slowly riding onto the channel on level ground. I imagine a piece of channel is $20-$30, 4 tires from HD are probably $15, and a little bit of time to make an easy loader.