Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Has anyone looked into putting a bike rack on top of their tear? After getting our tear roughed out and our hitch installed on our Ford Focus, i dont think we are going to have enough room to put our bike rack on back of the car and still have turning clearance to the trailer.

I was thinking of putting mounting brackets on top of the tear to attach the bikes to. Some of the issues might include being able to open the hatch with the bikes still on top, being able to open the ceiling vent with the bikes on top, and structurally how to support the bikes.

I was thinking that if i put the rear mount just in front of the bulkhead that would support the weight, and the front mounts would have to hit a roof spar, which i thought i would double up and possibly run an extra 1x2 down the sides to the floor. I was thinking i would put the bikes on facing backwards, so the front of the bikes are by the galley door, otherwise the back wheels might get in the way of the door opening. As far as the ceiling vent goes, i think i could space the bikes far enough apart to have room to open the vent.

How does this sound? Any other ideas? The bikes weigh about 25 pounds each, and we need to put two of them up there.

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The problem with the bike rack in the rear is we would have to take the rack and bikes off every time we wanted to use the galley. We are planning on being on the road for about 3 months, and we wont be using the bikes everyday. I want a way to bring the bikes and have them easily accessible, but not in the way of normal camping activities.

O.K. use marge's swing out continental kit / table idea and mount the receiver on the passenger side of tear use an arm to swing rack to center and lock when you want into the galley swing the rack like marge's table out of the way.

Getting it setup correctly on the top so everything works would probally be the most difficult part, but people here have done it for kayaks and bicycles.

Thule and Yakima will make a system that will work for your application. For two bikes you are looking at approx $400 if you buy brand new...otherwise watch ebay!!

Put something like this on the side and then you can connect the bars. This is what they use on the side of truck caps/toppers.



Otherwise you could just get a rack for the top of the car and it would be a little more usable and make the Focus look cooler!!!

BobHenry, i love that idea, but i think it might be a little bit beyond my fabrication skills. Also i think it would mess up my trailer balance which i have spent a lot of time working on.

elmo, thats also a great idea. I dont know why i didnt think to put them on the top of the car, im so used to having a roof top cargo thing there, but we arent taking that on our trip. Ill check on ebay and see what i can find, thanks.

And for the records, the focus looks cool to start with.

ha wrote:
And for the records, the focus looks cool to start with.

This guy loves his!!!!



















Sorry could resist!!!

ha wrote:elmo, thats also a great idea. I dont know why i didnt think to put them on the top of the car, im so used to having a roof top cargo thing there, but we arent taking that on our trip. Ill check on ebay and see what i can find, thanks.

Yep...that's what I did.

There is also something like this. Although you said you might have turning radius problems, so it may not solve the problem.

http://tinyurl.com/yr6ymk

How about a bicycle bag? Take them partly apart and put them, bag and all inside the tear. No aerodynamic problems, nor exposure to thievery or damage

Unless, of course, you have the inside full of gear.

With the bikes on the outside it reminds me of my grandparents trip from Oklahoma in the dust bowl days.

dave

One of the teardrop makers sells an accessorie bracket to mount the Thule or was it Yakima supports on to the sides of the teardrop walls. I also have a picture in one of my albums of a homebrew bike rack on top of a TD. I'll see if I can find it when I get home from work later tonight.

Found it....

Lil Bear sells these brackets.

Someone's homebrew.



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cuyeda wrote:Found it....

Lil Bear sells these brackets.

Thanks for the mention, Cliff ... and posting the pic, too!

I was going to mention that the problem with both Yakima and Thule towers is that they lean inward too much and will contact the teardrop's wall & roof edge before the crossbar is parallel with the roof. If you look closely at the above pic, you can see that the towers that I sell go almost straight up for a short distance before gently curving inward, thereby making attachment to the sides of teardrops much easier. These are the clamp-on type towers, and you can take the racks off when you don't need them, and the only thing that is permanent is the stainless steel "gutter" we call a quick-rail. I have another mounting base that is permanent to the trailer, but I prefer these type. Nearly all Yakima and some Thule accessories fit these crossbars, too!

Since we're talking about roof racks here, someone posted a question on another thread about carrying canoes & kayaks on teardrops ... well, both Yakima and Thule make an accessory for their racks that allows the boats to pulled out to one side and lowered for easier handling, loading, and unloading. These would be ideal for carrying canoes or kayaks on teardrops, as you could simply pull the boat to one side so that you could access the galley area of the 'drop! I'm currently working with a local canoe & kayak dealer to design & build a teardrop for him that will have that exact feature...

Just more grist for the ever-evolving teardrop mill ... ... ...!

CHEERS!

Grant

From my experience in carrying bikes on the rear it's really no problem and takes about 3 minutes to remove them and the same to remount them. Carrying bikes on the roof poses overhead clearance problems and aerodynamic issues that arn't there when they are on the rear of the TD. A hitch receiver tube & bike rack is all that's required & easy enough to do even for the wife. Danny

Grant,

Since we are this subject of roof racks, will this ensemble work with the LB10FF profile? The LB10FF profile should be just like Halfdome Danny's TD, on the previous post. I was afraid that the profile may not be flat enough on the top for the rack, and almost ordered the stretched Benroy pattern.

I was hoping to mount either a cargo rack, or future kayak on the top.