Bike rack

[Bolt696]

Hello,

I am brand new to the forum and just got my first travel trailer in May. I have a 22ft Coleman. My first trip out I installed a hitch reciever unit on the bumper of the trailer i but a 2 bike rack holder in and off we went on a 4 hr drive. When we arrived I had 7 dents in the back of the RV from the bike Handle hitting and the top bumper weld on both sides cracked. Lesson learned. I have seen a lot of trailers on the road with bikes so I never thought this would happen.

My option now is a roof mount for my truck which is pretty high and not the best situation or I saw something on Amazon and was wondering if anyone has purchased it. The unit goes on the front A-frame and the bikes sit over the propane tank. It's called the stromberg Carlson bike bunk. $214 bucks.

Anyone have one of these? Thanks in advance

[IAMICHABOD]

Some really good advice here, What some of the problem is that they bounce a lot and if the rack is not tight in the receiver that added movement only amplifies that bounce.

I have tried almost every Anti Rattle device on the market, most have been no good or so complicated and cumbersome that they are useless. I have a whole tool box full of them.

Until I found the one at Hitch Rider. This will keep everything tight.

Their Hitch Vice is the best and easiest one I have come across and it really works.

[justafordguy]

I've not had any issues with the receiver mounted bike rack on my back bumper but if I was you I would have a heavy duty receiver hitch built and welded on by a welding/fab shop.

[campigloo]

The bumper on mine failed on my last trip. All that was on it was the spare tire. Metal fatigue. I ordered a thing called Mount-N-Lock. Haven't received it yet but it looks pretty effective in the pictures. Cost 49.95 including shipping. Might be worth looking at.

[westend]

bbaker2001 wrote:
how come I cant post pic

Read this Stickey.

[bbaker2001]

how come I cant post pic

[bbaker2001]

hello bolt
we have a 24 ft TT. needed a place to mount bikes. at first we put 2x4 on truck rails and mounted there. great idea. we saw the unit from Canada, that mounted a rack on the front A frame, but very expensive. we welded 4 posts on the A frame and constructed a rack to go over the tanks. it lifts right off. it does work perfect. if not using bikes, I can set my Honda gen on it.just had knee surgery will post pick when I can

[apr67]

I have the Stromberg Carlson Trailer Tray for mounting a generator. Its a very good piece of gear.

[APT]

I would get this. Bolt and weld to the rear of the trailer frame. Then use my favorite 2"receiver bike rack.

[jfkmk]

DutchmenSport wrote:
FYI: 2 things I learned from this experience. 1) Safety chains and break-away cable-brake locks don't help a bit when the tongue falls off. 2) You can't tow a trailer when there's no tongue! We gave the tow company a REAL challenge on this one!

That's amazing. Must have been scary as heck! The frame on my tt is similar in that the a-frame does not extend further under the trailer. Although it's a small trailer, I've wondered if a failure like this would be possible. I have my answer!

To the op, we installed a front hitch and have been happy with it. Tried the roof rack bike rack and hated it. The cross bars are slightly curves so the bikes leaned out and had to carry a step stool to get them up there.

[Lantley]

When I had a TT. I carried my bike on a Arvika tongue mounted rack.
As shown below. I currently have the same rack on my 5'er

[Gdetrailer]

Bolt696 wrote:

Need-A-Vacation wrote:

DutchmenSport wrote:
FYI: 2 things I learned from this experience. 1) Safety chains and break-away cable-brake locks don't help a bit when the tongue falls off. 2) You can't tow a trailer when there's no tongue! We gave the tow company a REAL challenge on this one!

WOW!!!! How old was the trailer when that happened???

Bolt,

What do you tow with??? Is a front mounted hitch an option?

I tow with an H3 hummer. The roof rack for the roof is just a little to high to lift 2 bikes with out scratching everything. I have tried the spare tire mount bike rack on the truck and there is no room. They would get crushed on a turn .

After reading all this I think the roof rack on my truck is the only option. I'll have to make it work

Thanks for all the feed Back

I would chalk up Dutchman's experience with a tongue separation as a freak accident and is not normal by any means.. If you look very closely to the inside of the failed A Frame of that tongue you will see very heavily pitted and rusted steel which severally weakened the steel of the A frame.

The the weakened A frame ripped away from the welds..

The A frame was butt welded to the front frame of the trailer with no gussets to reinforce the connection.. It was a poorly designed and poorly executed connection..

I am not a fan of tubular enclosed frames, can't see into them to see how badly rusted they are..

Better A frame construction in which the A frame extended back under the trailer would have made that totally avoidable.

My current TT has C channel frame and the A frame is one piece from the front of the tongue back to where it connects to the side frame pieces. A much better design.

With that said I would not hesitate to go with a bike rack on the A frame, most likely the best place to put one..

The one Amazon has for around $200 looks like a nice setup, it is a bit pricy for all it is but it does allow you to use any standard 2" hitch mounted bike racks.

The downside I see to it is you will still have to lift the bikes up kind of high, but it would be as high as the top of a Hummer.

[Second_Chance]

alenk wrote:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003YJK252?keywords=receiver%20mount%20bike%20rack&qid=1445099720&ref_=sr_1_68&s=outdoor-recreation&sr=1-68

This Swagman is by far the best you can get, I think... Then you need to get a U-bolt and put over the receiver and under the rack in order to make it completely stable. This is because there is too much slop between the receiver and the stinger.
HTH, Al

I agree that the Swagman linked above is one of the best - finally got one for our rig. THROW THE BUMPER-MOUNT RECEIVER AWAY!!! I don't know what alenk is referring to regarding a U-bolt... my hitch came with a threaded receiver pin that eliminated all sway. The thing is as solid as a rock! The receiver on my fiver is welded to the frame (fiver doesn't have a rear bumper). I would recommend having a welding shop weld a hitch receiver to the frame for you if you don't go with the over-the-LP-tanks approach. Here's the Swagman link so you can click on it:

Swagman bike rack

Rob

[Bolt696]

Need-A-Vacation wrote:

DutchmenSport wrote:
FYI: 2 things I learned from this experience. 1) Safety chains and break-away cable-brake locks don't help a bit when the tongue falls off. 2) You can't tow a trailer when there's no tongue! We gave the tow company a REAL challenge on this one!

WOW!!!! How old was the trailer when that happened???

Bolt,

What do you tow with??? Is a front mounted hitch an option?

I tow with an H3 hummer. The roof rack for the roof is just a little to high to lift 2 bikes with out scratching everything. I have tried the spare tire mount bike rack on the truck and there is no room. They would get crushed on a turn .

After reading all this I think the roof rack on my truck is the only option. I'll have to make it work

Thanks for all the feed Back

[DutchmenSport]

The Springdale was manufactured in 2005, it was a 2006 model. We bought it in September 2006 (new). The tongue broke in September 2008 (no warning).

Tow truck company had to use a tow truck with the hydraulic lifts that slide under a car, then they attach the L part on both tires and chain them down, then simply lift the car with hydraulics and tow away.

They used one of those, but left the L off and pulled both ends out far enough to catch both frames under the camper. I still don't know how they did it, but somehow they were able to get one chain attached to the trailer and to the hydraulic lift. They raised the lift, raising the camper and drove VERY slow. They stopped about every 200 feet and got out and checked to see if the trailer frame was still resting on lift. It took over an hour to go 1/2 mile, (to my in-laws farm where we were originally heading). They had to make 2 turns (a gravel road and their driveway). The two turns took the longest, inch by inch. (and they charged me about $500 for that tow!) No.... I did not get reimbursed for it. Actually, at the time, I didn't even think about it!

Keystone fixed it. Sent the 2 man crew out with all the parts, and the only requirement was, they had to take the old A-frame with them. Evidently the 2 who did the repair had done this before, because they knew exactly what they were doing. It took them about 6 hours from start to finish. I painted the tongue.

The point I'm making about this whole thing is, I did have a lot of weight in the pass through. I didn't think it was that much, but maybe the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back was one ounce too heavy.

So the warning, before think the tongue is so much stronger than the bumper, please rethink it.

FYI... on this same camper we had a rear bumper mount 4 bicycle carrier attached. We traveled with it with a tandum 2 seater (bicycle for 2), and never had problems with the bumper. Who would have though?

We kept the camper another 5 years and towed it thousands and thousands of miles and never had another problem again with anything on the camper (except the broken fan blades on the ceiling vent in the bathroom).