Tongue Mounted Bicycle Racks - My Custom Builds

knowles24 wrote:
In a sharp turn, my largest bike tire clears the top of the bed of my truck by 9 inches. That's enough buffer room for me to be confident that I'll never hit my truck with a bike regardless of the road angle or turn angle.

I recently sold my 2013 Tundra and bought a 2015 Chevy 3500HD. I now clear the bed of my truck by less "height-wise" (maybe 3-4 inches now), but clear by more "distance-wise" because the new truck has a 2.5" trailer hitch instead of the 2" in the Tundra and the 2.5" shanks are several inches longer so the camper is now farther from the back of the truck. In the sharpest turn on a hill I still clear by 5-6" and usually by more. It's physically impossible for the tires of the bike to touch the truck.

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 plan to build one out of all aluminum as soon as I am confident with my new Hobart aluminum welder. I think I can cut the weight from 80ish pounds to less than half, maybe even 30 lbs. Price of materials will increase considerably.

I did upgrade the spring bars on my weight distribution setup to accommodate the extra tongue weight. It's absolutely crucial to know your true "scale measured" tongue weight before and after any additions, such as this bike rack.

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.

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.

RedRocket204 wrote:

knowles24 wrote:
Not sure what kind of damage you have seen? Are you referring to scratches and gouges? Our bikes are all $250 or less and they are only used for camping so I'm not terribly worried and scratches.

Yes, scratches and gouges. Don't get me wrong, on bikes you are referring to, I wouldn't be as concerned as well. Just wanted to point out that my bikes, along with all my riding friends, are bikes where unnecessary damage, such as scratching/gouging is not acceptable. Yes, I realize that sounds a bit snobbish but when I spend $3k-$6 on a bike, that type of damage is not acceptable. Yes, I am into MTBing that much where I find absolute value in a $6k full suspension bike however those purchases are very few so I research the death out of it to get what is right for me. Just wanted to give you an idea where I was coming from and why I won't use frame mounted bike racks. :)

knowles24 wrote:
Personally, I wouldn't be removing the rack to transfer to a vehicle just because I really like having the rack extremely tight and secure with bolts rather than the hitch pins. However, we also don't leave the campground with our bikes.

If you look at the Thule T2 online, you can see they actually have a hitch pin that is threaded on 1 side where you secure the pin with a lock washer/nut which does completely tighten that connection down to where it does not move. Now, to your previous posted point on clearance with the Thule T2...that I am not certain of without actually measuring it out.


I do want to stress that your idea for the 2" top mounted receiver is awesome!

Oh ok, I appreciate all input. You either learn stuff by "buying experience" the hard way or taking advice from people who have different experiences to share. I could understand protecting higher dollar bikes from scratches. We aren't mountain bikers, we just ride around the campground and lake, etc. It was just really becoming a burden to load and unload them each time using the ladder rack and bumper mount rack. They never loaded the same way twice, I did scuff my camper once when one of them shifted, etc... so it's nice to have a permanent solution now.

The 2" receiver on top also serves the purpose of sealing the top of the tube to keep water out. On the second bracket we didn't make a receiver for the top because it was only going to be used for bikes (and they take forever to build), but as you saw in the picture we had to weld the gap closed to keep it from filling with water.

The receiver built from scratch took a long time to build. It's usually the smaller stuff that takes way longer than you expect. I thought about just using the top plate off one of the Swagman bumper kits and welding it on (and that may have worked), but I can tell there is a significant difference in the quality of steel. Everything we used is USA steel and just holding it, drilling through it, and welding it feels so much different that the Chinese branded stuff. I don't know if their's is cast (if there is such a thing as cast tubing) or if it's just a lower grade blend of steel, but it was worth the extra effort to make it from scratch with US steel.

knowles24 wrote:
Not sure what kind of damage you have seen? Are you referring to scratches and gouges? Our bikes are all $250 or less and they are only used for camping so I'm not terribly worried and scratches.

Yes, scratches and gouges. Don't get me wrong, on bikes you are referring to, I wouldn't be as concerned as well. Just wanted to point out that my bikes, along with all my riding friends, are bikes where unnecessary damage, such as scratching/gouging is not acceptable. Yes, I realize that sounds a bit snobbish but when I spend $3k-$6 on a bike, that type of damage is not acceptable. Yes, I am into MTBing that much where I find absolute value in a $6k full suspension bike however those purchases are very few so I research the death out of it to get what is right for me. Just wanted to give you an idea where I was coming from and why I won't use frame mounted bike racks. :)

knowles24 wrote:
Personally, I wouldn't be removing the rack to transfer to a vehicle just because I really like having the rack extremely tight and secure with bolts rather than the hitch pins. However, we also don't leave the campground with our bikes.

If you look at the Thule T2 online, you can see they actually have a hitch pin that is threaded on 1 side where you secure the pin with a lock washer/nut which does completely tighten that connection down to where it does not move. Now, to your previous posted point on clearance with the Thule T2...that I am not certain of without actually measuring it out.


I do want to stress that your idea for the 2" top mounted receiver is awesome!

I also built this custom "hitch" to hold my lightweight diamond plate tool box. I only store light weight bulky items in the tool box such as my Camco yellow "lego" leveling blocks, sewer connections in small plastic tool boxes, water fittings and fresh water hoses, etc... It takes all the torque off the bumper. Denali actually makes a rear cargo carrier that comes on some of my same model camper that mounts to these same points, except they clamp horizontally instead of vertically.

I guess this type of hitch could also be used for a rear bike rack. I still think the torque from bouncing may be a concern eventually, but it's a million times better than just mounting to the sq sewer hose storage bumper. The receiver where the diamond plate tool box bracket mounts to my custom hitch sits 1/4" above the bumper and it does not touch the bumper. I prefer to mount our bikes on the tongue and just have my lightweight tool box on back.






(YES, I know I forgot a washer...)

RedRocket204 wrote:

knowles24 wrote:
I thought that some boondock campers might be interested in the 2" receiver topped rack since you could just plug a standard cargo carrier or the larger aluminum carrier sold at HF into it and use it for a generator and fuel.

I can't imagine ever taking my bike rack out, so I probably wouldn't build another one for my personal use with it, especially since just cutting and welding that top receiver piece took several hours by itself, but who knows. I also chose to bolt mine in place rather than a hitch pin just so I could eliminate any chance of rattling and minimize any possible movement.

The 2" receiver topped rack is definitely the way to go. I would use an existing bike rack as well but the big advantage would be it could be removed from your structure and put into the tow vehicle for a day trip while leaving the RV put.

Besides, I do not use racks where the bikes hang on the frame as I have seen very good bikes damaged from those types of bike racks. I use a Thule T2.

Not sure what kind of damage you have seen? Are you referring to scratches and gouges? Our bikes are all $250 or less and they are only used for camping so I'm not terribly worried and scratches.

Personally, I wouldn't be removing the rack to transfer to a vehicle just because I really like having the rack extremely tight and secure with bolts rather than the hitch pins. However, we also don't leave the campground with our bikes.

The platform bike racks are nice too, but it would be that much closer to my truck and harder to load. I don't see any issues with the rack for my situation. One added benefit is that it features "stabilizing" rubber blocks that the seat post slides into that keeps the bike from swinging.

Lantley wrote:

knowles24 wrote:
Another thing that was important to me was easy access to my LP tanks, the ability to removing the LP cover, and access to my battery without any interference. I can slide my LP cover right off without unhooking or moving anything.

Now I like that part of you rack being high. When I had my TT I customized my cover so I could access tanks with bikes on rack and cover on.
If bikes were not on rack. Rack could fold up to and I could easily access tanks.But if bikes were on rack getting to cover was a pain
Which is why I modded the cover.

I have a 4 bike rack that was once on my TV but is now on my 5'er. I had no clearance issues when turning the TT and my rack was mounted just above the tanks.

I can see where lowering/raising the tongue jack can make loading bikes much easier.
In my case we do not use bikes every trip. Sometimes we do. Sometime we don't. I simply set up as normal and take down bikes when we want to use them.
If you use your bikes every trip raising and lowering works fine. However if you are undecided as we are always are, you will have to break camp a bit to lower tongue that means lowering front stab jacks etc. Not a big deal,but more work to lower and rest jack etc.
In my earlier days your approach would have suited me fine, but now days I only set up or break out things if I really use them.
I have developed a less is more mentality.
The fewer things I get out the less I have to put away. The more time I have to relax. With that in mind I only unload the bikes when we use them otherwise they stay put on the rack. I do not unload them automatically when we arrive.
Nevertheless your system and rack works for your needs and appears well made. Enjoy it.
Tongue mounted bike racks are the way to go if you have a TT

Thanks, We do use our bikes every trip. It's how we spend our evenings usually until it gets dark. It's definitely less work to just unload them at the beginning than it would be to wait for the electric stabilizers to come up and then have to level again. It's part of my routine immediately after I unhook and immediately before hooking up to go home. Probably takes less than 60 seconds to take all three down and about 60 seconds per bike to hang and strap them.

knowles24 wrote:
Another thing that was important to me was easy access to my LP tanks, the ability to removing the LP cover, and access to my battery without any interference. I can slide my LP cover right off without unhooking or moving anything.

Now I like that part of you rack being high. When I had my TT I customized my cover so I could access tanks with bikes on rack and cover on.
If bikes were not on rack. Rack could fold up to and I could easily access tanks.But if bikes were on rack getting to cover was a pain
Which is why I modded the cover.

I have a 4 bike rack that was once on my TV but is now on my 5'er. I had no clearance issues when turning the TT and my rack was mounted just above the tanks.

I can see where lowering/raising the tongue jack can make loading bikes much easier.
In my case we do not use bikes every trip. Sometimes we do. Sometime we don't. I simply set up as normal and take down bikes when we want to use them.
If you use your bikes every trip raising and lowering works fine. However if you are undecided as we are always are, you will have to break camp a bit to lower tongue that means lowering front stab jacks etc. Not a big deal,but more work to lower and rest jack etc.
In my earlier days your approach would have suited me fine, but now days I only set up or break out things if I really use them.
I have developed a less is more mentality.
The fewer things I get out the less I have to put away. The more time I have to relax. With that in mind I only unload the bikes when we use them otherwise they stay put on the rack. I do not unload them automatically when we arrive.
Nevertheless your system and rack works for your needs and appears well made. Enjoy it.
Tongue mounted bike racks are the way to go if you have a TT