Here's the bike rack I built.
I used (2) 1 1/4" Receiver tubes and some steel from the local steel yard. I added lights to it (with metal guards). I can remove the expanded metal from the floor to use it as a bike rack and take drop gate off. Or I can add the drop gate and put the expanded metal in the floor to use as a scooter rack.
I used (2) 1 1/4" Receiver tubes and some steel from the local steel yard. I added lights to it (with metal guards). I can remove the expanded metal from the floor to use it as a bike rack and take drop gate off. Or I can add the drop gate and put the expanded metal in the floor to use as a scooter rack.
mike-s wrote:
The problem with stuff off the back is not the weight, but the torque put on the thin-walled bumper tube.
I made a reinforcement to take the torque off the bumper. This is a couple pieces of thinwall (16 gauge) 2x2 square steel and some gussets, welded to the plate of a bumper receiver. (What looks like a square tube coming out the left is just a piece of scrap it's resting on for painting). I carry a Pelican cooler on a platform, which weighs more than a couple of bikes. It doesn't bounce around, the bumper doesn't flex, no problem.
The receiver part bolts on the top of the bumper, which gives the bikes/platform more clearance.
Any torque gets transferred to a frame crossmember.
I am in the middle of doing a similar thing...
and I am using angle iron..
but mine will also hold the spare tire under the trailer.
