Voyager Kits

[bigjoey38]

No Problem Capt Chaos... I know........and the bumper looks good!

I really need to take the bike on a rode trip. Might have to wait until I get back from NYC.

 

[kvfd35]

Hello, Im new here and hope someone can steer me in the right direction no pun intended. I just had a Voyager kit installed on my 1988 Kawasaki Voyager, 1300, Like the Goldwings. Looks great.My question is, we set it at 1/2 inch preload. When me and my wife are on it, probably little over 400 some odd pounds. Steering it through a curve is a BEAST. I havent really had it in a curve over 35-40 mph because it is so hard to steer, feels like I am going to over shoot the curve. I have road for years. THere is no lean, it is stiff like I would think a trike should be, But it is a Beast to steer, I couldnt imagine riding more than a hour or two, I would be down for days recouping from muscle strain. I have the compressor on my bike, any suggestions on what I should set the front and back levels to, or anything else. I sure hope you all have the answers for me. Its really quite dis heartning right now. Please let me know. Thanks in advance.

BRian :blush:

 

[Nana]

Brian, welcome to TrikeTalk. Don't give up too quickly.... we have a number of trikers who are experienced and very happy with the voyager kits. I'm sure you'll get some help and pointers that will maximize your enjoyment!

 

[Gorilla]

Brian Just wanted to say welcome aboard. Maybe John will give you some guidance when me gets back.

 

[trike lady]

Set up of a Voyager is critical, if done correctly and to the letter it handles like a dream, if poorly installed a nightmare. The air suspension must be set, the preload must be right and the bike tires should have normal tire pressure.
Set up is the key to a good ride, seriously.:yes:
:clan:

 

[The_Captain]

kvfd35, if you haven't done so already, try setting your preload at 1". Not knowing how much weight you load your bike with, I know your bike is no lightweight by itself. I have found that the more weight you have, the more preload you need to support everything. I had to go to 1" on my Volusia 800 but we put a minimum of 480 lb. payload on top of the bike. It was really wobbly until I reset the preload to 1". Also you need to experiment with tire pressures. Solo, I get the best response at 16 lb., two up has to go to 20 lb. My kit is a "D" kit which means it is longer than the standard "A" kit. I think yours might be also. Don't know if that makes a difference in the setup but I do know when I made those two adjustments my problems pretty much went away. I am still having trouble when it comes to sharp highway curves. Slow down and never, never use your front brake in a sharp curve. You will just go straight and end up in no mans land.

 

[bsickels]

We owned a HD Electra Glide with the Voyager kit attached. We just traded it in for a 2011 HD TriGlide. Let me say that I am much happier with the TriGlide. The Voyager Co. does make a good product. It IS an inexpensive alternative to the cost of a trike as long as you understand how the product works. I am well aware of the issues of turning and the feelings of instability. The "inside" wheel does come off the ground in a turn. Centrifugal force does force you to the outside as it would in a car. However, understanding these issues, you can learn to ride the Voyager without much difficulty. First, I learned to lean into the curve much as I would do on a two wheel. This helped counteract the centrifugal forces. Also, have your passenger lean with you. This helps. Remember, this IS not much different than riding a bicycle with training wheels. Second, you will learn quickly that steering is a lot like steering a snowmobile, only more so. I found myself using a great deal of upper body strength just to get the front wheel turning in the direction of the curve. The Harley Davidson TriGlides have moved the front fork out in order to make turning easy. Bikes with the Voyager kits are attached for the most part to a standard frame which is designed to be turned with pressure and not brute force. Overall, I enjoyed riding my Electra Glide with the Voyager (more so than my girlfriend who always thought she was going to fall off), but am much happier with the move up to the HD TriGlide.

 

[The_Captain]

Folks, I got my first Voyager in June of 2010. I was getting pretty upset about how it rode and handled. Through the posts on this and other sites I found that there is a way to make your Voyager behave and handle the way it does in the Voyager company videos but you have to experiment with your payload on board. The preload is the key and is totally dependent on the sprung weight of your machine when loaded. In my case, I had to increase my preload to 1" and reduce the pressure in the Voyager tires to 16 lb. This gives me the ride and handling you would expect from watching the videos. The tech at Voyager told me about reducing the tire pressure, but I had to figure out my own preload for the weight. If you have too much lean on curves or on a crowned road, more preload will fix that. As for pin breakage, that occurs when you slide the forks too far over the receiver pins and do not have enough "give" over extreme bumps or on tight corners. Leave the pins just 3/8" inside the forks. They will not rattle or feel loose if you have the right preload and air pressure. If you have too much pull to the left or right, loosen the belly bracket and shim the low side up, that is if it pulls right put a 1/4" bar stock piece between the frame and the belly bracket and tighten everything back up. That will in most cases be sufficient to stop the pull. Mine does great now that I have done these adjustments. Hope this helps someone who is experiencing the problems of a poor handling Voyager. Even though they are less money than a trike, they are too expensive to just give up on. Once you get it right, you'll be very happy with your Voyager.

 

[Gorilla]

Glad to read that you got it figured out and are now out there.

 

[John Luciano]

Wow I forgot about the shims . I did do that to mine when i had it . I went to a body shop and got Door shims. i think they also use something like it in Front end alignment shop . Look like a thin flat horse shoe

 

[davem]

hi from dave.m in delaware put a used voyager kit on my 02 road king been about 500 hunderd miles and love it

 

[Nana]

Hello Dave, and a big welcome to TrikeTalk! Looking forward to seeing pictures and hearing about your triking adventures . Just make yourself at home and join the discussions here.

 

[denviola]

hi from dave.m in delaware put a used voyager kit on my 02 road king been about 500 hunderd miles and love it

Hi Dave, glad you are enjoying your Voyager. Would you share your preload and tire pressure settings? May help others. Most if not all of us are higher than factory on preload and lower than factory on tire pressure and found it works.
Enjoy the ride.
Denny

 

[Gorilla]

hi from dave.m in delaware put a used voyager kit on my 02 road king been about 500 hunderd miles and love it

Welcome aboard davem. Glad you found us.

 

[bigjoey38]

Welcome Daven..

Great people here!

The other day while looking at pics on trike talk I noticed a trike with splash guards ( backoff). Cant remember exactly which character was on there. Went to ebay and found
a set of 8x8 splash guards ( taz backoff ) for $ 6.00..with shipping came out to about $11.00
Got them yesterday, had to do some trimming and put them on today.. I don't think it looks bad at all on the voyager..

Before

After

 

[Simdog]

Welcome davem..

Great people here!

The other day while looking at pics on trike talk I noticed a trike with splash guards ( backoff). Cant remember exactly which character was on there. Went to ebay and found
a set of 8x8 splash guards ( taz backoff ) for $ 6.00..with shipping came out to about $11.00
Got them yesterday and put them on today.. I dont think it looks bad at all on the voyager..

Thanks for the pic Big Joey.

I'm finding that for these kits, the more stuff you add onto and around the bike, the less the kit stands out as being a separate piece. What I mean is ... the more you've got going on, the more the kit blends in and appears to be a permanent part of the bike. I'm looking for a trunk now, but I'll be adding more stuff as I go. I've seen some voyager kits on goldwings, loaded down with lights and chrome, that I never noticed as not being a traditional trike until I got a voyager kit myself. Of course, now I look for them.

 

[trike lady]

bigjoey38,
Looks nice, great job.

 

[bigjoey38]

Thanks, I added a before pic..

 

[davem]

hi from davem in delaware have a 02 road king with voyager kit bought it used so no papper work i put pre load at 1 and1/4 tires at 18 psi must have got right the first time took about 2 hr to put on with the help of my good friend ron

 

[Nana]

Hi Dave. Welcome to TrikeTalk. Nice to have a good friend like Ron, huh? Sounds like you guys figured it out with no problems

 

[Southern Man]

Can someone here tell me exactly how wide a Voyager kit is for a Harrley Softail?

Outside of fender to outside of fender.

 

[davem]

hi from davem voyager uses two kits for harley MODEL A KIT AND MODEL B KIT I THANK A KIT IS SOFTAIL IT IS 55 IN OUT SIDE 36 IN SIDE THE B KIT IS 60 IN OUT SIDE 41 IN SIDE HAVE FUN RIDE SAFE

 

[Capt Chaos]

To all you voyager riders, has anyone delt with their steering problems, by putting raked trees on your bike?

 

[denviola]

To all you voyager riders, has anyone delt with their steering problems, by putting raked trees on your bike?

No, and probably won't. Still enjoy 2 wheeling, and consider the Voyager a temporary solution for touring with the wife. The Voyager does come off and go back on easily. Planning on a trike in the near future, and want to keep all options open with the EG, including selling it with or without the Voyager.

 

[treeboston]

I cannot imagine three pages of feedback on the Voyager kit. I have one on my Royal Star three years now. It was and still is a disaster. I have revised and remanufactured brackets, the originals kept snapping and falling off, front right side bolt snapped I went into the curbing and ruined a wheel and cut the tire. Fortunately I was just about to pull into my driveway and was at a low speed. Otherwise I may be dead. I get under this monster and wrench every bolt and nut before going anywhere, On and on and on. I agreed not to harrass or cause any more trouble by naming the dealer and the manufacturer in settlement of damages. If you have enjoyed your Voyager kit I am really happy for you. You are in the minority. I just purchased a full trike and will happily retire this Voyager. There is more loktite and welds holding it together than you can imagine.

 

[John Luciano]

That was my experience . It is a hate love relationship. Mine was reinforced 3 times. People that have them love them and I am glad that it keeps them in the wind and they come on here and talk with us.

 

[trike lady]

I hate to say this but in all the years I have mine I only had one part break. I believe it may have to do with how old they are. Mine is a second generation and all I did was replace the two main mounting bolts after one broke. Now they're grade 8.

 

[Loner]

A good time to relate my experience it seems. I've been riding trikes for over forty years now so I sort of know myself around with them. Back in April I bought a Voyager kit to put on my '08 HD Street Glide, and since I have a decent mechanical background (and lots of trike experience) I wanted to install it myself (bought it off Craigslist). Installed the kit exactly as the manual says to, and set preload exactly as instructed (1/2" as I recall). In two words - hated it.

Since then I've moved preload slightly + or - 1/4 inch at a time, and still hated it. Then recently I read John's post about setting his preload 1" higher than instructed. Bottom line is that as of a couple of days ago I ended up with my 'ideal settings: Voyager wheels (and frame) are set forward about 2-1/2" and pretty much align the wheels with the rear mc wheel (I needed the motorcycle as short as possible to work on the lift on the back of my motorhome)); I put the rear wheel on a 2x4 board (which, since it was planed gave me about 1-1/2" preload); mc was checked for vertical alignment; all tire settings are per the installation book (20 k=lbs in Voyager tires). I now LOVE IT!!

The additional preload as recommended by John Luciano stiffened the whole unit up enough to stop the bouncing back and forth and make it responsive and comfortable. Thanks, John, and I highly recommend that other Voyager owners learn how to align and set preload on their units - and go up on the preload if it feels the least bit spongy or sloppy.

Now if I can just find some needle bearings to replace those loose, sloppy bushings in the Voyager brackets that chatter to some degree every time I use the rear brake. I have two different mount kits (old style and new style bushings) and both have sloppy, loose bushings (and one is a brand new kit). Got a solution for this, John?

 

[John Luciano]

Loner aren't you glad you paid your Trike Talk dues .OH wait this is a free sight. as for the front bushings a lot of grease. they could be machined and a bearing pressed it I guess. One of my biggest complaints was all the banging and noise. Thanks for the Kudos.

 

[Gorilla]

Loner aren't you glade you paid your trike Talk dues .OH wait this is a free sight. as for the front bushings a lot of grease. they could be machined and a bearing pressed it I guess. One of my biggest complaints was all the banging and noise. Thanks for the Kudos.

John we are a free site but we encourage contributions. Support your TrikeTalkcom