Bike Rack

[Mike B.]

Hello everyone. I would like to carry 3 bikes on the back of 75 Trillium. What kind of issues are we looking at for attaching & any typye of problems. Any feed back on this would be great.
Mike

[Marv Watson]

Hello everyone. I would like to carry 3 bikes on the back of 75 Trillium. What kind of issues are we looking at for attaching & any typye of problems. Any feed back on this would be great.
Mike

I think the back of a vehicle or trailer is the most dangerous place to carry bicycles. They become the first point of impact if another vehicle hits you from behind. If improperly mounted, the wheels can drag on pavement when entering or exiting driveways, causing severe damage. (I've seen several examples each type of damage. On a trailer, to maintain proper tongue weight, you have to then balance on the front the extra weight that the bikes and rack put on the rear.

I have seen bike racks rigged up on the front of fgrv's. Perhaps another member has done such a thing and can share their experiences with you. Anyone?

Another option is a proper vehicle roof rack system, like Thule or Yakima make. With a roof rack you have to remember they're up there when driving under low clearance (garage or motel entrance canopy, e.g.). I've seen examples of bikes and cars damaged from this mistake.

My favorite place to carry our bicycles (2) is INSIDE the vehicle.

...MarvonW.

[John Hussey]

Bike Rack?

I have begun looking for a suitable folding bike instead of getting a non-folding one and using a bike rack. I was not happy with putting a bike rack either on the back of the Casita or on my Jeep but I can manage a folding one better, I suspect. I certainly don't like the price of those Montague folders, but they do have the full-size wheels, and I can carry it folded inside either tug or tow.

[kconley]

This is the way we haul our Recumbent bikes with our Casita.. I think it is safer to have them between the 2 than hangin off the rear... The carrier we got was made for 3 bikes, but the weight of our recumbents is more than reg bikes.. There are some more pic at the casita sites... May people have delt with this problem in many many ways. Do a search on the sites... Lots of options........... The bikes clear everything in the sharpest of turns...

[CindyL]

We have a bike rack that we got at Cabella's that attaches to the hitch of the Eurovan and then has another hitch for the trailer. I think that is the way it works anyway.
We likely will not use it in the future unless we have to. We purchased 2 Dahon Boardwalks in Salemm, MA on our vacation this last summer and love them. They fold and fit into the van or trailer. They are fun to ride too. No, they have no speeds, but I kind of like that. I never did use all those gears effectively.

CindyL

[Booker B.]

Hi Mike,

I had a welder install a 1" hitch on the back of our 1976 Trillium fendder for our Thule bike rack. The problem is the amount of bounce/side to side wobble the trailers have, they really pitch around. This causes the bikes to move around quite a bit thus there is constant stress on where the Thule rack is mounted to the frame. The hole in the 1" hitch has slowly ovalized and I have never been able to keep the rack nut tight for long periods. Because of this I now only pack the kids bikes if we are doing short 2 or 3 hour trips, anything longer and they are inside or we leave them at home. EDIT: The bikes that is, not the kids

I have pictures of my setup here: Trailer Modifications