Forum Discussion

RSD559's avatar
RSD559
Explorer
May 30, 2015

Rooftop bike carriers

Crawled under the new Hideout 178LHS to check out the welds on the frame and bumper. Dealer assured me a bike rack on the bumper would be fine. No way. Extensions of the frame are welded to angle brackets that hold the bumper. The welds are minimal, and don't look very deep.
Plan B. Rooftop bike carriers. Don't want to mortgage anything to get them, but don't want flimsy either. What do you folks recommend? Thanks.
  • I have 2 yakima lockjaw bike trays on top of a yakima megawarrior roof basket. I stand on top of the rear tires to load and unload the bikes. The lockjaw racks hold the bikes upright and you do not need to remove the wheel. They load quickly and are lockable. Both yakima and thule make good bike racks. I got mine used from ebay.
  • RSD559 wrote:
    Dealer assured me a bike rack on the bumper would be fine.


    Fine for your bikes... but probably not fine for his bikes.
  • RSD559 wrote:
    Crawled under the new Hideout 178LHS to check out the welds on the frame and bumper. Dealer assured me a bike rack on the bumper would be fine. No way. Extensions of the frame are welded to angle brackets that hold the bumper. The welds are minimal, and don't look very deep.


    Good call on not trusting the TT bumper...fortunately I learned my lesson before a catastrophic failure occurred.

    After about 2,500 miles, this:



    Turned into this:



  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    Lots of google photo views here

    BICYCLE MOUNTS

    I like the ones that mount on top of the PROPANE TANKS. Easy to mount...

    Those mounted on the rear of the trailer are not in your view and you would not have any idea how they are making the trip. They probably would get beat to death on the back of the trailer...

    Something like this would be my choice.


    I have seen some folks just carry them inside the trailers too...

    Roy Ken
  • This one might be a little stronger than you need. But it will mount to the front of the trailer, and sit above the propane tanks.





    http://www.etrailer.com/RV-and-Motorhome-Bike-Racks/Stromberg-Carlson/CC-275.html

    $200 it is kinda expensive, but probably a lot of steel, so worth the money that they put into making them.

    As for my thought, that is a lot of weight swinging way up in the air, and I probably would not order one. I just put my bike into the camper when I had a camper, but now have a bike rack that goes into the 2" receiver on the back of my motorhome. I welded two extra 2" receiver to the hitch, one next to the drives side frame mount, one next to the passenger side frame mount. So I have 3 each 2" receivers on my motorhome hitch.

    I use one of the receiver for my Sacco dog cart, one for the bikes, one for the car in the middle.

    Fred.