knowles24
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Re: 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.1.2KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Tongue Mounted Bicycle Racks - My Custom Builds
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.1.2KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Tongue Mounted Bicycle Racks - My Custom Builds
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.1.2KViews0likes0CommentsRe: The Ultimate (IMHO) Tongue Mounted BIKE RACK!
Camp, Forrest, Camp! wrote: That looks really sharp, but why is it so tall? It seems like it could be at least a foot lower and still clear the tanks. Is it to clear the truck bed during tight turns? It's actually not that tall- something about the photos must make it look different than in person. I load the bikes standing flat footed on the ground and I'm 6'0". It clears my truck bed (2013 Tundra 4x4) in the worst possible turning situation by 8"-9".566Views0likes0CommentsRe: The Ultimate (IMHO) Tongue Mounted BIKE RACK!
bigorange wrote: Very nice...with a triathlete wife and 2 kids, I carry at least 4 bikes every time we camp. Have been looking for options for carrying them over the tongue. Thank you! AZ is a long way... If you're near Georgia, come by and take a look!567Views0likes0CommentsRe: The Ultimate (IMHO) Tongue Mounted BIKE RACK!
Tachdriver wrote: You can also use it in the summer to hang fish to take pictures with or meat in the fall to age it!!! :B We usually try to discourage the bears from joining us. Your are welcome to hang whatever you wish on it as long as you are not camping next to me.567Views0likes0CommentsRe: The Ultimate (IMHO) Tongue Mounted BIKE RACK!
hedge wrote: Isn't that where the batteries usually are? So does it require the batteries to be relocated? definately looks heavy duty. The battery is still there and it's still easily accessible if it needs to be removed or connected to a battery tender.567Views0likes0CommentsRe: Bike rack options
PeteK-Hou wrote: knowles24 wrote: Here's my custom version of a bicycle rack mounted to the front tongue of a travel trailer. My friend and I are interested in possibly building these on a custom order basis one day in the future. Very nice bike rack, but it wouldn't work on a hybrid since you would need to remove it in order to fold down the front bunk. Great work though and there could be some $$ to be made. -pete Thanks! I was talking with a buddy of mine that has a hybrid camper. We are probably going to build him a shorter A-frame with a taller bike rack. He is going to have to remove the bike rack when they get to the camp site, so his will just have a pin in the coupler/receiver on top of the custom A-frame instead of bolts.695Views0likes0CommentsRe: The Ultimate (IMHO) Tongue Mounted BIKE RACK!
wmoses wrote: Very nice. I have one simple question - how much does it weigh. The custom A-frame section with the steel base plates weighs 45 lbs. I actually weighed it. The bike rack weighs around 35-38 lbs. According to mfg specs, it weighed 44 lbs originally, but I cut 10" out of the upright and about 6 inches off the plug in section.567Views0likes0Comments
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