Best Video for NOT putting bikes on a bumper

westend wrote:

myredracer wrote:
Amateur fabricator.

X2
For what he tried to accomplish, he could have bought a new bumper and attached it to the frame. I dunno', maybe he is a million miles from nowhere but I doubt it.

Also, the fixer lacks some welding and fabrication techniques.

X2 chicken scratch welding

A carbon fiber Cannondale road bike $$$ and it rides hanging from a .0$ Thule rack? Our Trek mountain bikes at 26~lbs each ride on a Thule rack that the tires sit in and J hooks hold them in place. The receiver bar has a bolt that tightens to keep it from snatching every which way while moving. Our son has followed us and reported no movement from the bikes. This was on our Jag with the bolt on receiver like in the video. Spare tires normally ride on the bumper for the life of the camper. I'd bet there was more on the bumper than just the Cannondale and flimsy bike rack. I see the other camper has a box of Kleenex bolted to the rear.

I have seen cob jobs before but this takes the cake! It is still a cheap, thin **** bumper. Adding all the plate steel to it is not going to change the fact. It looks like complete garbage and will not be any stronger than it was before.

Those aren't really "bumpers", because they won't protect from any kind of impact. The only thing they are good for is to store the stinky slinky.

kep5niner wrote:
Have to agree with the above statements. That's a whole lot of time and effort put into the weak 1/16" thick metal bumper, that still has points of failure after the fabrication. For half the time and cost, he could have gone with 3/16" thick bumper, with further buttressing at the frame.

That's the method I chose, and I do have thousands of dollars in bikes hanging from the rack, and safely logged thousands of miles with that set-up. My wing(wo)man has confirmed there's no movement en route.

I have to agree as well. Lousy job and all that effort would have been better used replacing the entire bumper - shiech isn't expensive.
Funny story; My bumper failed in the same way so I went to my supplier to buy a new piece of 4" square steel.
I intended to ask for 3/16 but lost my concentratin and got 3/8"!!
I din't realize my mistake until I got it home.
so now I have a bumper you could hang the entire trailer from and it doesn't flex on bit with a bike carrier on it.

Have to agree with the above statements. That's a whole lot of time and effort put into the weak 1/16" thick metal bumper, that still has points of failure after the fabrication. For half the time and cost, he could have gone with 3/16" thick bumper, with further buttressing at the frame.

That's the method I chose, and I do have thousands of dollars in bikes hanging from the rack, and safely logged thousands of miles with that set-up. My wing(wo)man has confirmed there's no movement en route.

Kinda crappy job if you ask me. Not impressed.

myredracer wrote:
Amateur fabricator.

X2
For what he tried to accomplish, he could have bought a new bumper and attached it to the frame. I dunno', maybe he is a million miles from nowhere but I doubt it.

Also, the fixer lacks some welding and fabrication techniques.

Amateur fabricator.

Yeah, I personally still wouldn't take that route, although it will be more secure than the way it was prior to the failure. Those bikes will still get some movement just not as much as before. A bike rack attached to the very thin RV "bumper", regardless how it is done, is just a bad idea.