Bike Rack On Ultralite Rear Bumper

[Arn]

I constantly read posts warning against mounting a bike rack on the rear bumper. People say they've seen bumpers & bike racks laying on the side of the road. People say they've seen bikes dragging down the road because the bumper twisted. I've been a driver/passenger for over 56 years & I have never seen these things. I have camped for over 40 years and over 10 of those years I've towed an ultralite. I constantly see bike racks on the back of ultralites & I constantly talk to the owners who constantly say they've never had or seen a problem. I know, someone is going to say "Go ahead & try it bright boy & I'll be the first to laugh when you post that you lost your bikes". Well I'm going to try it. A 4" square bumper welded to a solid steel frame should be able to take the torque & bouncing of 80lbs of bikes. I have also talked to numerous dealers who say they have never had a customer say his bumper came off because of a bike rack. From this day forward I will no longer listen to the fear mongers of the world, & if you see a bumper with 2 bikes attached I sure hope they're not mine.

[Francesca_Knowl]

[2112]

I have never seen bumpers or bikes on the roadway but I have come across trailers going down the road missing a bumper with the tale tell sign on the frame as depicted in the above photo.

I didn't have to see it happen to know what happened.

You can't escape physics.

[modern_family]

I lost all my bikes due to BIKE RACK failure, not bumper failure. BUT, I did have 4 bikes on it which is ofcourse double the weight! I was one of those (it cant happen to me and I dont believe the hype) Well, it did and I lost $1200 worth of bikes.

It can happen, not as much with 2 bikes and a quality rack, but you will see nothing but my factory spare on my bumper.

[beemerphile1]

If you want to use the bumper, at a minimum you should buy these;



Here is the company;
http://mount-n-lock.com/products/4square-safetystruts
They also sell cargo carriers and heavy duty bumpers and accessories.

[Bucky_Badger]

Arn wrote:

beemerphile1 wrote:
A member of this forum had this failure a couple years ago;

Finally, proof. This picture will help my decision much more than hearsay, personal opinions & personal attacks. Thanks beemerphile1.

After 10 years on this forum you would believe a salesman then real life RVers:S

[Gdetrailer]

Arn wrote:

beemerphile1 wrote:
A member of this forum had this failure a couple years ago;

Finally, proof. This picture will help my decision much more than heresay, personal opinions & personal attacks. Thanks beemerphile1.

It never has been "hearsay" but folks tend to think like you that it will never happen to you..

[Arn]

beemerphile1 wrote:
A member of this forum had this failure a couple years ago;

Finally, proof. This picture will help my decision much more than hearsay, personal opinions & personal attacks. Thanks beemerphile1.

[Gdetrailer]

Arn wrote:
I constantly read posts warning against mounting a bike rack on the rear bumper. People say they've seen bumpers & bike racks laying on the side of the road. People say they've seen bikes dragging down the road because the bumper twisted. I've been a driver/passenger for over 56 years & I have never seen these things. I have camped for over 40 years and over 10 of those years I've towed an ultralite. I constantly see bike racks on the back of ultralites & I constantly talk to the owners who constantly say they've never had or seen a problem. I know, someone is going to say "Go ahead & try it bright boy & I'll be the first to laugh when you post that you lost your bikes". Well I'm going to try it. A 4" square bumper welded to a solid steel frame should be able to take the torque & bouncing of 80lbs of bikes. I have also talked to numerous dealers who say they have never had a customer say his bumper came off because of a bike rack. From this day forward I will no longer listen to the fear mongers of the world, & if you see a bumper with 2 bikes attached I sure hope they're not mine.

Bring on the popcorn..

Do you realize that ALL trailer bumpers are "welded" to the frame?

You are assuming a lot and justifying a well known bad idea just because you have never seen it happen or even had it happen to you in the past.

The truth of the matter is typical trailer bumpers are 14ga SHEET METAL which has a thickness of about 1/16" of an inch. It is not structural and has very little strength to resist a TWISTING LOAD.

I PERSONALLY HAD A BUMPER FAIL while hauling only TWO BICYCLES. The sheet metal of the bumper RIPPED AWAY FROM THE WELDS, the welds where STILL ATTACHED TO THE FRAME.

I was lucky to have found the ripped bumper still attached to the trailer (barely) when I got to my campsite. Had to scramble to figure out how to haul the bikes home.

I was sick to my stomach knowing I had just towed the rig 800 miles and somewhere along the way the bumper just about fully came off!

It only took TWO TRIPS to rip the bumper.

You are more than welcome to do it your way, but do realize this, YOU will be held personally accountable if your bikes and bumper come off the trailer in case of causing any accidents from other motorists having to SWERVE AND DODGE YOUR BIKES. Pretty much all states you will also get written ticket for and UNSECURED LOAD and or IMPROPERLY SECURED LOAD.

As motorists we ALL "share the road", we do not have a "right" to do as we want to do, there are rules in place and some of those rules are about properly ensuring your load is SECURED AT ALL TIMES. You can not SEE those bikes while towing and a good chance you will never see the bikes and bumper leaving your trailer..

I followed a 5vr the other day with only ONE bike on a bumper mounted rack.. The back of the 5vr was smoothly moving along but that bike was JUMPING UP AND DOWN a good 6-12 inches..

[hawkeye-08]

This is a very simple question. Take some personal responsibility and examine your situation.

Is your rear bumper strong enough? As many have indicated, the thin bumpers tend to fail when subjected to extra stresses. Reinforce it if needed.

Does your bike rack hold the bikes from moving? Moving around and bouncing are multipliers of the stress and loading on the bumper, more so than the spare tire since the tire is generally closer in and does not move around.

Does your trailer bounce much going down the road? Some trailers have a tendency to bounce, this puts more stress and load on rear bumper when you have bikes hanging back there.

If your bumper is strong enough and you secure your bikes well, then just do it.

You don't need permission from this forum to do so. If you neglect to properly mount and secure your bike rack, you won't get much sympathy from this crowd... if your bumper tears off the frame and ruins your $1500 bikes, you won't get much sympathy from this crowd..

To be honest, not many trailers need extra weight on the rear, most need more on the tongue. My Dad has a Komfort that has the axles towards the back and he was able to put a platform on the back for his generator and gas cans. If your axles are not towards the back, please be careful of adding the weight back there. It could upset things and cause sway.

Best of luck! It can be done, you just have to pay attention.

[Bucky_Badger]

Arn wrote:
I constantly read posts warning against mounting a bike rack on the rear bumper. People say they've seen bumpers & bike racks laying on the side of the road. People say they've seen bikes dragging down the road because the bumper twisted. I've been a driver/passenger for over 56 years & I have never seen these things. I have camped for over 40 years and over 10 of those years I've towed an ultralite. I constantly see bike racks on the back of ultralites & I constantly talk to the owners who constantly say they've never had or seen a problem. I know, someone is going to say "Go ahead & try it bright boy & I'll be the first to laugh when you post that you lost your bikes". Well I'm going to try it. A 4" square bumper welded to a solid steel frame should be able to take the torque & bouncing of 80lbs of bikes. I have also talked to numerous dealers who say they have never had a customer say his bumper came off because of a bike rack. From this day forward I will no longer listen to the fear mongers of the world, & if you see a bumper with 2 bikes attached I sure hope they're not mine.

Good luck, you may need it. I really can't see an "UltraLite" having a heavy duty bumper as stock, sorta defeats the purpose

[Ron3rd]

The photo posted above is of the thin sheet metal type, like I had on my last 2 trailers. They can barely carry a spare tire IMO. You can see where the metal failed at the attachment points to the frame.

As noted above, there are heavier duty, reinforced bumpers out there with receiver hitches welded on, but they're few and far between.

[westend]

Exactly, Beemer!
From that picture you can see that the bumper was only welded to the frame ends on three sides. Amy torque in the vertical or fore-aft directions tears at those welds and once a portion of one of those weld cracks it's bound to come off.

As was posted, if you'd like a bike rack on the rear, a good suggestion is to have a receiver hitch welded to the frame.

[beemerphile1]

A member of this forum had this failure a couple years ago;

[goducks10]

Northwood even puts a 1-1/4" receiver welded to their bumpers. That should be good for 350lbs of rack and bikes. Not all bumpers and the way they're welded to the frame are equal. My 5'er came with the spare on the rear bumper.

JMO but it seems as though the story of a few bikes that that fell off that were seen by a couple people has been blown out of proportion. Put several bikes on a cheap wiggly bike rack that's mounted to a poorly attached bumper and yes you will have trouble. Put several bikes on a well made bike rack that's attached to a solid well attached bumper and you'll have no issues.

Lots of arm chair engineers that haven't done much in the way of building anything seem to have a better opinion. The guys that have hands on knowledge of construction have enough common sense to figure out what will or won't work.