Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I see these remove-a-wheel bike racks all the time on sport wangons or in pickup beds. Can anyone point me to photos of something like this on a teardrop?

One problem I see, what happens when you upgrade bikes? You would have to have pretty darn near the same wheel base amd frame geometry. Other than that, it looks like a why not. Nashbar or Performance should have the fork mounts and rear wheel trays. Are you gonna put the front wheel in the tear?

I assume you mean these kinds of racks.



Not sure if it would work. I have never seen them mounted in anyway besides horizontal.

Mounting them your way could put stresses on the bike that it wasn't designed for.

Of course there is the whole idea of how it stresses the TD. Also you would have to increase your tongue length.

It would be better to put roof racks on your TD and use the bike mounts as they were designed to be used.

Somewhere here I saw a source for roof rack mounts for a TD.

dh wrote:Are you gonna put the front wheel in the tear?

I was kinda thinking about using a wheel holder like this somewhere down on the tongue – near the rear wheels, though no necessarilywith the axles in line.

Good comment about the wheelbase. I'm not really a bike guy. If we're taking about road bikes and 26" mountain bikes, do they vary more than 2-3"?

chartle wrote:Of course there is the whole idea of how it stresses the TD. Also you would have to increase your tongue length.

Stress to the TD is the bigger concern, I think. Have to build in and extra beefy spar for this very purpose.

As for tongue lenth, I had an extreemly long one on our first TD and loved it. Planning to do the next one that way too.

It would be better to put roof racks on your TD and use the bike mounts as they were designed to be used.

Hoping to keep the roof free for:

better aero
shorter reach
option to put a surf rack there in addition to the bike rack

Thawley wrote:

chartle wrote:Of course there is the whole idea of how it stresses the TD. Also you would have to increase your tongue length.

Stress to the TD is the bigger concern, I think. Have to build in and extra beefy spar for this very purpose.

I'm thinking metal, possibly something like a roof rack attached to the sides and away from the skin. From there your side walls would have to have some sort of diagonal bracing to the floor.

Just curious is there a particular reason you are not concidering a rear reciever and a rear rack on the trailer ?



Picked it up at Goodwill for $17.50 ( note the price tag in this pic)

bobhenry wrote:Just curious is there a particular reason you are not concidering a rear reciever and a rear rack on the trailer ?

Yeah, it's a design goal of mine. Don't want to have to move anything to get to something else. It's nice to just pull into a rest stop, open the hatch and make coffee. Or a sandwich. (Great deal on yours BTW.)

Designing a surf rack around that goal will be a bigger challenge. But that's for another thread on another day.

bobhenry wrote:Just curious is there a particular reason you are not concidering a rear reciever and a rear rack on the trailer ?

I think that would put a ton more stress on the back of the TD than the OP's design for the front.

Thawley since you say you are going to have long tongue why not a combo draw bar bike rack?

Thawley wrote:

bobhenry wrote:Just curious is there a particular reason you are not concidering a rear reciever and a rear rack on the trailer ?

Yeah, it's a design goal of mine. Don't want to have to move anything to get to something else. It's nice to just pull into a rest stop, open the hatch and make coffee. Or a sandwich. (Great deal on yours BTW.)

.

Concidered a swing away rack design ???









I'll go away now !

chartle wrote:

bobhenry wrote:Thawley since you say you are going to have long tongue why not a combo draw bar bike rack?

Huh. Never seen one of those. Pretty slick. Although it limits access to the back of the tow vehicle rather than the trailer. Still, I could see using that occasionally if the bikes don't go on every trip. Nice that it works with any trailer.

bobhenry wrote:Concidered a swing away rack design ???

Yes. I like these a lot. If not for bikes, maybe for a smoker or a table. Seems like it needs to be kinda heavy for the forces involved. But that's an option I definitely want to learn more about. (If you know some good build examples, please link away. Otherwise, I'll add it to my research list.)

Good feedback folks. Don't stop. I love brainstorming.

IF you put it in front make sure you account for it in your tongue weight and axle placement. You might be better served to build a rack for the top of your Trailer or roof rack for the car. I know it would be a pain to get on and off but it might make things easier in the building of the trailer

This may work for 1 bike on the tongue, but two or more bikes across may only work if you never make turns in your vehicle. Will you have enough clearance when the vehicle makes a sharp turn? Will you remember the bikes if clearance is an issue?

I've been trying to figure out how to mount bikes on my TD design, but so far haven't come up with anything safer or more secure way than leaving them mounted on the fork racks INSIDE my SUV.

Even mounting them on the roof of the TD may be dangerous, though less than on the roof of a car. I know so many friends that have forgotten about the bikes on the roof of the car as they drive their car into the garage and having their bikes torn off their car.

You could stick with the fork mount/wheel tray pictured, just go crosswise with it...

Mounting a bike like pictured in the OP is no big deal. If that put undue stress on the bike it would be so porely built I wouldn't want to ride it. I put a lot more stress on a Mt bike when I ride it than that would.

HF sells a hitch mounted bike carrier that folds down for access to the back of the vehicle, not sure if it would clear a TD hatch, but it might be another option.

Oh ya, Bikes (good ones anyway) come is different frame sizes, coupled with geometry changes which affect how they ride, you could easily see a difference of 6" in wheelbase between two randomly selected bikes.

How about a dual receiver on the back of the tow vehicle like this


You could hitch your teardrop to the lower one and put your bikerack in the upper. This might not be the best product, but the general idea could be implemented somehow. Might that possibly work?

Becky