How to Tie Down a Dirt Bike in a Truck? – 4 Steps & Tips for You

Tying down a dirt bike in a truck bed or on a trailer is important when transporting a dirt bike to the tracks.

To tie down a dirt bike, all you need are straps to hold your dirt bike in place during transport. Although not required, having a loading ramp, fork saver, and wheel chock will provide more security.

You want to learn how to tie down a dirt bike in a truck, keep reading this article for the detailed guide.

What to Prepare to Strap Down a Dirt Bike

Steps to Tie Down a Dirt Bike in a Truck

Step 1: Set up your straps

Before loading your dirt bike, make sure all the necessary straps or tie-downs are set up to their attach points, which are usually found in each corner of your truck bed.

For example, if you’re tying down a single dirt bike, ensure you have four straps ready. You must set up two straps in the front and two straps in the back of your truck bed.

Step 2: Get ready to load your dirt bike

Before loading your dirt bike, make sure your truck is parked on a flat surface and that your bike is put in neutral.

Considering the weight of your dirt bike, it’s also recommended to set up a ramp or step to easily load a dirt bike into a truck.

Once your dirt bike is loaded, the front tire of your motorcycle should be put on the wheel chock, if applicable. A wheel chock keeps your front tire in place, preventing it from moving or rolling during transport.

However, if you don’t have a wheel chock, the recommended way is to put your bike in a diagonal position. By having the front tire into the front-left corner of the truck bed, you can reduce the pressure on your bike’s suspension. You will be able to close your tailgate because you have enough space at the back.

Step 3: Strap your dirt bike

The best way to tie down a dirt bike is to use straps to avoid any damage or scratches to your bike and ensure it doesn’t fall down during transport. You may use a ratchet strap as a dirt bike tie down.

While holding the dirt bike in a truck bed, tie down the ratchet straps to the handlebars of your bike. Consider avoiding looping the straps around the wires of your dirt bike to avoid damaging them.

For more stability, you may also tie the tail of your dirt bike down with ratchet straps. Although this is not necessary, it will keep your rear tire from bouncing during the drive, giving it more security.

To secure the rear end of your dirt bike, you may loop the straps through the rear wheel. Another way is to loop the straps through each frame of the tail of your dirt bike for more support.

Step 4: Tighten the straps

Now that your dirt bike is loaded and fully tied down, tightening the straps is advisable to ensure your vehicle stays upright while your truck is moving. However, you wouldn’t want to tighten it very much to avoid damaging your dirt bike and your truck.

Please ensure that each strap is snug enough that the vehicle won’t move easily when you try to shake it. If your dirt bike wiggles greatly when shaking it, try to strap down your dirt bike again to ensure all the straps are tightened just right.

If there are excess straps after tightening them, consider tying them off to avoid unnecessary flapping when driving your truck. Once everything is set, you may now close your tailgate.

Helpful Tips

Aside from the steps above, here are other helpful things when you’re to strap a dirt bike in a truck bed.

• The first tip is to use a fork saver, a tool that is put between the fork and triple clamps. Using a fork saver will protect your dirt bike’s springs and seals from too much bouncing during transport.
• Depending on your decision, you may also use dirt bike tie down systems like the Lock-N-Load Transport System to easily strap a dirt bike to a truck. This tool will allow you to securely tie down a motorcycle in a truck bed without straps.

Now that you know how to strap a single motorcycle, it’s also beneficial to learn how to load more than one bike in case a need arises:

• When strapping down 2 dirt bikes, ensure the front tires are turned towards the center of the truck bed for more stability.
• Once you’re done loading the first bike, you may now put the straps on the handlebars. However, you need to tighten the outer strap more when tying down 2 dirt bikes to allow the bike to lean outwards, giving you more space to load the second bike.

Please check this tutorial video on how to tie down 2 dirt bikes in a truck bed.

• Lastly, if you plan to tie down 3 dirt bikes in a truck, have three dirt bike ratchet straps on each attach point at the front of your truck bed to tie down the dirt bikes securely. Please also make sure there’s enough space between each vehicle.

You may check this tutorial video for the step-by-step guide.

Conclusion

Riding your dirt bike for an adventure is an amazing experience, but to do so, you need to transport your dirt bike safely to the tracks first.

The first thing you need to do is to ensure that your straps are already set up on the anchor points of your truck bed. Once done, you may now load your motorcycle and put the straps on your dirt bike.

Now that you know how to tie down a dirt bike in a truck, you can now transport your dirt bike with no stress, allowing you to enjoy going on adventures.