FireRob wrote:
Almost three months since the last post in this thread. Any updates? Made any more or plans to? Thought about what you would charge?
If you don't want to announce publicly feel free to send me a PM.
I am just tire kicking, and not currently in the market for one.
I am still loving my build and the extreme ease and functionality of the tongue mounted A-frame bike rack. I've put about 300 loaded (3 adult mountain bikes) miles on the rack and had zero movements. We were actually on a camping trip when you posted this and I didn't have cell service.
It would be tough to be able to build one that is bolt-on ready without seeing the camper first. Assuring clearance around the front "bulge" of the camper, LP tank locations, weight distribution brackets, and other components mounted on the trailer tongue may require the A-frame rack to be shifted forward or backward an inch or so. Any shifting affects the location of the holes drilled in the plates to clamp the unit to the frame. If we were to build them sight unseen, we would either have to drill a variety of "universal" mounting holes or drill no holes at all and include a template to drill the holes. Drilling holes through 5/8" steel is no easy task, especially since you cannot get an assembled completed unit onto a drill press. There are 8 on each side for a total of 16 holes to drill in all.
We have built one additional rack since and it is still very time consuming considering the custom fit nature of it. Materials, labor, the bike rack itself, painted, installed, custom fitted, and ready to use would have to command over $1000- The exact white rack shown on my personal camper would be closer to $1200 due to the upgraded hardware and a few additional mods and reinforcements. A more basic version with you providing your own bike rack and doing the final fitting would be in the $700 range (similar to the black one in the pictures).
We are not ready to actually build or sell any at this time. I'm not sure if we ever will be in that position. I've PM'd with several people who were interested in (not sure if any ever did) attempting to build their own version. I'm glad to help or answer questions about what I did if I can help. That's the main reason I posted everything on here- not advertising. I enjoy camper mods and RV upgrades as much as the actual camping experience.
