Bike Rack for Front Hitch....Experiences?

Nautique200 wrote:
Great post, I am in the exact same spot. Like you said, we just added the front hitch to our truck and I am now in search of the bike rack. We have two adult bikes and two kids bikes to haul. My wife and I have very expensive full suspension bikes so I plant on keeping these two bikes closes to the truck and using the kids bikes as a sacrificial shield for my bike!

Let me know what you end up buying for a rack.

Yeah we are in a very similar situation. I pull a boat too (sorry it's a Malibu) which is the main driver for getting a front rack. I've been weighing out a lot things since a previous poster said a driving rain washed out all his bearings for him...yikes. I'm hoping when I'm pulling the boat I'm not driving into a rainstorm and if I have no trailer I'll put the rack on back to protect the bikes more. With my hitch extension I'll still be able to open the camper door to let dogs in/out...but so much for being able to use the doggy ramp with bikes on the back. This rack folds up near vertical when empty, but does not tilt downward when loaded, like for opening an SUV hatch. Looks like I could modify one of the fixed pins to be removeable to allow the rack to tilt, but not sure if that's a good idea to have a tilting rack that puts the weight of the leaning bikes onto the upright supports.

I'm leaning more toward a Swagman Quad 2+2 which can be pulled apart to use a 2-bike rack and it has cradles instead of loops for the tires. I never thought this venture may be a $468 investment, oh well. My Curt front receiver is 15" off the ground to the bottom of the hitch. I don't have all the dimensions but have been able to piece together that the Quad 2+2 has a 7" rise at the joint plus maybe another inch along its length. The cradles are about 10" apart so it's right about 48" long from the hitch pin. At 23" of ground clearance sticking out 6-7' beyond the front axle.....that's a little unnerving. No major offroading with a 4,000 lb camper but occasionally there are dips to go thru in primitive areas like I prefer. I think I'd rig a skid plat on the front so the rack wouldn't auger in the dirt if you did happen to catch it.

Swagman Quad 2+2 4-bike rack from etrailer.com

Some dimensions from the Q/A

Note: The 23" dimension on the image cannot be correct. In the description of the rack, it says 17" to the nearest cradle and 23" to the nearest upright. That makes a lot more sense.