Bike rack on bumper?

theoldwizard1 wrote:

dodge guy wrote:
I carry 4 bikes on the back of my trailer. However I took all the slop out of the hitch and carrier. And I have ratchet straps tht cross cross to the back wall of the trailer. The eye bolts go through the wall studs and the horizontal bunk studs. Been doing it this way since 07 with no issues. I also made sure to keep tongue weight in check. If you don’t do anything other than just put the bikes in the rear then you will have problems like this in the photos.

Taking the "slop"/bounce out pf the system is the key !

Yeah, but drilling all the way through a RV wall and installing eye bolts through the walls is a pretty darn rednecky way to go about trying to keep the bikes from ripping the bumper off.. :E

There ARE much better ways to go about this.

You CAN buy a specially designed rack that goes on your trailer tongue, looks better and no need to add extra potential water leaks to your trailer (these things leak easily enough without adding extra points to leak).

If you don't want to spend the money on a A frame bike rack, there are adapters you can buy that mount to the tongue A frame that allows you to use a standard hitch bike rack on the trailer tongue.

Stromberg Carlson..



Neither option is cheap but, both options are the better way to go than trying to dangle junk off the back of your trailer, best of all, the bikes ARE in full view of your rearview mirror, no more guessing if you still have the bikes or if they decided to take a scenic ride without you.

And for the record, I HAVE delt with nearly losing my bikes from a bumper mount bike rack. I was lucky to notice the bumper ripping away from the welds while traveling.. What a pain it was to figure out how to carry those bikes the rest of the way home..

Do yourself and other motorists a favor, in spite of all those who claim it will never happen to them or you, please, DO NOT DO IT!

It is not worth taking the chance, it is not worth the hassle, it is not worth potentially causing an accident or worst of all injuring or killing others.

Listen to the voice of experience.

dodge guy wrote:
I carry 4 bikes on the back of my trailer. However I took all the slop out of the hitch and carrier. And I have ratchet straps tht cross cross to the back wall of the trailer. The eye bolts go through the wall studs and the horizontal bunk studs. Been doing it this way since 07 with no issues. I also made sure to keep tongue weight in check. If you don’t do anything other than just put the bikes in the rear then you will have problems like this in the photos.

Taking the "slop"/bounce out pf the system is the key !

I carry 4 bikes on the back of my trailer. However I took all the slop
Out of the hitch and carrier. And I have ratchet straps tht cross cross to the back wall of the trailer. The eye bolts go through the wall studs and the horizontal bunk studs. Been doing it this way since 07 with no issues. I also made sure to keep tongue weight in check. If you don’t do anything other than just put the bikes in the rear then you will have problems like this in the photos.

From experience I would never recommend it. Wedid exactly what you are thinking with our previous tt and 2 adult bikes. We bought one of those bolt on hitches and away we went. There was a lot of play in the receiver and the bikes bounced around a lot. In short time I noticed a couple of cracks in the welds between the bumper and frame. I had a welder beef things up with some brackets and gussets. Before long they too were cracking and the steel bumper was tearing.

The only good solution is to have a hitch fabricated that welds directly to the frame rails. It only cost us $250 and was solid. We did have a hole drilled through the bottom of the receiver and a nut welded over it so we could thread a bolt through to tighten against the bike rack and take the slack out of the hitch.

I've noticed that most new TTs have warning stickers on the bumpers stating warranty violation due to adding any type of rack! Probably because of issues like the photos show.

IMO I wouldn't add anything, how do you know that the frame will hold!

If I was going to put a bike rack on the “bumper”, I’d have a welder cut it off and put on a more substantial tube.
I have a frame mounted cargo rack on our camper and wouldn’t trust that thin walled tube to carry much of anything that put torsional stress on it.

mike-s wrote:

Looks like the lever action of the two bikes was too much for the welds when the driver hit a dip in the road. I would have mounted at least one of the bikes behind the tire just to avoid that levering action of the bikes weight. Or beefed up the bumpers connection to the frame. Maybe with some steel plates to broaden the surface area that connects the steel.

Our previous trailer had one side of the bumper separate from the frame - we actually purchased it like that - and it only had a spare tire on it. I think they used to carry other things back there but removed them. I was just wondering what others' experience has been.

Ralph Cramden wrote:
People on these forums never cease to amaze me as soon as bumpers are mentioned, and the vast majority who comment and post those same pictures have never attached a bike rack or anything else to an RV bumper.

Possibly because they're smarter than you think. :p

Ralph Cramden wrote:
LOL, those same pictures get posted any time someone mentions bike racks and bumpers here, and at every other forum on the net. The fact is plenty of people haul bikes on trailer bumpers without issue. Sure, some RV manufacturers do a less than stellar job of bumper mounting and you can have an issue with anything,

You're laughing at other people's misfortune? You're an ass.

Lots of people get away with lots of dangerous/unsafe practices, until they don't.

Neither of the photos show any issue with bumper mounting or manufacturing. It's clear that the welds held and the thin wall bumper metal was simply torn away due to the load. It can be done, but requires more than just a bolt on receiver - something other than the bumper needs to take the torsion.