man do i need a bike rack, but i cant decide....

[oldschoolhdmike]

i have a spare tire on my back bumper, and really do not want to move it. although the bed of my truck would work just as well i guess. but i need to have at least 3 bikes somewhere....as you can see. i am leaning toward the swagman bumper rack that holds the tires but thats a lot of weight way off the bumper.and then you still need straps? my bumper is frame welded....but still.....3-4 bikes? and not sure if i trust the hitch mounted ones either. maybe you guys can ease my decision here....i do not want to have to do a lot of fabrication.

[Campfire_Time]

If you have room in the bed, use it. Below is how we haul our bikes. I just put fork mounts on 2x4s. It works great.



An alternative is making a rack out of PVC pipe. I actually made one of these and used it for a season. It cost me about $30. I have a hard toneau cover that I had to take off to use the rack, it was a real drag. So I came up with the other method above.

https://www.utahmountainbiking.com/goodies/TruckbedBikeRack.htm

[ependydad]

Here are a handful of options. It's written for fifth wheels, but is mostly applicable to travel trailers and whatnot:

http://learntorv.com/bikes-and-fifth-wheels/

[NEnative]

We have a fifth wheel so I installed a curt front receiver on our truck. We can now use either the front or rear receiver to mount our rack on the truck. We have a 1UP USA bike rack, by far the easiest and most secure rack made. They are not cheap but the quality of the rack can not be beat.

[ricks99]

oldschoolhdmike wrote:
although the bed of my truck would work just as well i guess.

I use this truck bed bike mount. 5 min to install, no fabrication required.

[RollandB]

Swagman may be your best option for where you want to mount them. I've been shopping bike carriers, part of which has been emailing the main manufactures for how being on a RV effects their warranty. Virtually all except Swagman have said they don't recommend use on the the back of RVs. With having a fifth wheel I'm working on a pinbox mount to put them on the front, Kuat and Hollywood Racks have both said their lifetime warranty would not be effected.

Swagman has a link on their website to the racks they recommend on RVs

[TrailerTravele1]

We have an Arvika bike rack mounted on the front of our trailer - great bike rack, HOWEVER ... often bike paths are not adjacent (or close) to campgrounds. We needed to take the bikes off the front of the trailer to transport them elsewhere. At first we emptied the bed of the truck to each time, but that got old. So we ended up buying a hitch mount bike rack for the back of the truck for when the trailer was in the campground and we wanted to transport the bikes to a bike path. Just a consideration if you're thinking of a trailer mount bike rack. 🙂

[dodge_guy]

If I had access to the bed like you do, that would be a no brainer! put them in there. I have 4 bikes on the back of my trailer. however I have extra supports on the bike rack to keep it from bouncing. the bouncing is what does the damage.

Put them in the bed if possible.

[owenssailor]

Halmfamily wrote:
Mount them on the front of your truck with a Curt front mount hitch and a Swagman XC rack. This setup has worked great for us.

This was our solution as well. The Swagman rack hold the bikes secure and does not need any straps.

[Halmfamily]

Mount them on the front of your truck with a Curt front mount hitch and a Swagman XC rack. This setup has worked great for us.

[Lwiddis]

Difficult to make suggestions without knowing what RV you own.

[sch911]

Definitely use a hitch receiver type with the hitch welded to the rear frame of the RV. Bumper mounts tend to always fatigue and crack over time.