Bike racks

[susswood]

Hi there.

I am new to the forum and have read over a few threads regarding bike racks attached to the TT.

I am currently having my teardrop built and asked for a 2" receiver welded to the frame so I could use my current rack for our 4 bikes. After reading through some of the threads, it seems that some people think it's risky to do this, but some people don't.

This is the rack I use:

http://www.yakima.com/shop/bike/hitch/swingdaddy

Thoughts? Comments?

Thanks for helping out a newbie!

[Fenlason]

Hi there.

I am new to the forum and have read over a few threads regarding bike racks attached to the TT.

I am currently having my teardrop built and asked for a 2" receiver welded to the frame so I could use my current rack for our 4 bikes. After reading through some of the threads, it seems that some people think it's risky to do this, but some people don't.

This is the rack I use:

http://www.yakima.com/shop/bike/hitch/swingdaddy

Thoughts? Comments?

Thanks for helping out a newbie!

2 things come to mind for me. Make sure the frame is strong enough. 4 bikes on that rack will put some strain on that welded on receiver. I also wonder about the change in handling [tongue weight] with and without the bikes.

[susswood]

Found this option online, a dual hitch: Seems like a great solution. The bikes stay on the car.

http://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and ... D-192.html

[Fenlason]

That works... you just have to make sure your tongue is long enough... so that your bikes clear.

[paul.luna]

My wife wants me to do the same thing, I may go with the dual hitch idea. My trailer tongue is plenty long.

[snudley]

I'm in the same boat as you. I just opted for one of these:

http://www.thule.com/en-us/us/products/ ... r-_-916xtr

The total weight with two bikes is about 110 lbs on my 2 inch receiver which is rated for 150 lbs. It bounces a bit more than when on my pickup, but is
a solid platform overall, and it includes locking cables for the bikes. Gotta have that for enroute stops. Plus, it drops downward, which allows easy access
to the kitchen without removing the rack. My biggest concern was that it would block the brake lights on the trailer, but that
didn't turn out to be the case.

[eamarquardt]

Everything in life is a compromise.

With the dual hitch your ball is gonna be extended 8" out from its current location and doing so will increase the "tongue weight" your vehicle "sees". If the bikes weigh 125# yer also adding that weight directly to the tongue weight your vehicles sees/experiences. This additional tongue weight may have an adverse effect on your vehicle's handling. There is no good way to reduce the tongue weight your vehicle experiences except by loading your trailer so that the amount that the trailer contributes to your tongue weight is lessened. That might make the tongue of your trailer too light and introduce problems of it's own.

I gotta think that if your frame makers are qualified to build you a frame, that they ought to be qualified to add a receiver to the rear of the frame sufficiently strong to carry 125# of bicycles. It would be a simple matter to add a bit of extra material to ensure it is robust enough to carry the load.

If, after you hang your bikes on the rear of the trailer you find you have too little tongue weight it would be relatively easy to redistribute the weight in the trailer to achieve an acceptable balance and tongue weight.

To me the best approach is to add the receiver to the rear of the trailer, carry the bikes there, and adjust the load/balance of the trailer as required to get an acceptable tongue wight/balance. With the dual hitch you have few options if your tongue weight is too high.

Just my two scents (as Slow would say).

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Gus

[mickeydsc71]

Not sure how wide or high your tear is, but I went with the idea of mounting a bike fork receiver on the inside. Granted with 4 bikes it might be tight (I only have two to secure, and one still has training wheels), but it simplifies things and you can't argue with the security of it ...



If you have the space, something like this might work, even if it lessens the number of bikes riding on the outside hitch. Here's where I got the receiver ...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AO7GRG/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Shadow Catcher]

We only use the tandem now, but at one point we were transporting four or five bikes including the tandem and this on a Subaru. What I finally came up with was a vertical rack with the five bikes fanned out. The vertical was an 1 1/2" aluminum conduit and I used 1/2" conduit one on each side of the rear wheel with one diagonal support of the left (non-derailleur side). The current version is a single for the tandem that folds up when not in use and I used a 2" so that it fits over the trailer ball with a bolt holding the two sides and through the ball.
Using the same sort of vertical rack you could mount it above the tongue next to the trailer or above the ball.