Traveling with mountain bikes

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Ice-breaker

From your picture, it looks like he is towing a snowball.

LOL I think thats what happens when you try and change an Airstream into a fiberglass trailer. Better to just buy the fiberglass trailer to start with

[MC1]

Originally Posted by Ice-breaker

From your picture, it looks like he is towing a snowball.

ROTFL....... no I-b. The trailer is in disguise to camouflage it's true identity.

Anything A............m in these parts is like throwing a monkey wrench into a gear box.

[mary and bob]

At times I will carry two bikes in my pickup bed. I took two Thule wheel trays that have the arms that clamp on to the bike lower frame tube. I mounted the two wheel trays on two lengths of 2 X 4 lumber at 90 degrees to them, set this arrangement in the truck bed and mount the bikes. Something like this could be used inside the trailer. Those double extenders are not good as they change the load on the vehicle receiver.

[ruscal]

Like Carol mentioned above, there are pricy aluminum racks that can be had.
I mounted one made by Fiamma to the rear of a friends 19' Airstream Bambi. That rack is made specifically for Airstreams though. It is a very nice custom system that is extremely light weight. It is carrying 2 sub 30 pound mountain bikes with no real effect on towing. Fiamma chose to mount the rack to the trailer wall in lieu of a bumper receiver. It however does attach at the bottom to the bumper mounts to take care of most of the vertical loads.
Russ

[ruscal]

A vehicle with real old fashion rain gutters can actually carry a bunch of weight. Our old mountain bike race team GMC full sized passenger van had a Yakima system up top. It was just a 2 cross bar affair with 4 troughs for bikes. We only put 4 25# bikes on it, but it could support much more weight. 500# would not deflect the rain rails. I don't know how much weight the Yakima brackets were rated for, but they were very secure.
That said, many of the newer vehicles do not have gutters, and make rack attachment sketchy.

A full sized truck can carry some serious cross bar racks that can carry a whole ton of toys, but it doesn't make as much sense when doing grocery getting back home. Nothing is perfect.
Russ

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by ruscal

Like Carol mentioned above, there are pricy aluminum racks that can be had.
I mounted one made by Fiamma to the rear of a friends 19' Airstream Bambi. That rack is made specifically for Airstreams though. It is a very nice custom system that is extremely light weight. It is carrying 2 sub 30 pound mountain bikes with no real effect on towing.

I traded in a very heavy (and expensive) Thule bike rack that I never did get to stop bouncing around or swaying when I used it on my car for a light weight Kuat Bata rack that weighs only 11lbs. I think the Bata is one or if not the lightest racks you can get. It also has a couple of built in features that makes it the most solid (read least movement) rack I have ever owned. Folds up and out of the way nicely on the back of the trailer when no bikes are on it. I also added a bolt that goes up from the underside bottom of the trailers hitch to make it even harder for it to move. I do need to add a bungee cord or two to keep the bike from doing any movement though. So far I have used the rack on the trailer only with a light road bike (15 lbs) loaded on it, with no ill effect to the towing experience. I traded my heavy mountain bike for a fairly light hybrid bike (25lbs) a couple of years ago but I have not towed with it loaded on the rear rack yet. If and when I do I will need to add a little more weight ahead of the trailer axle to compensate for it though.

[MC1]

extreme alternative.....

[shawn bertagnole]

I did weld a hitch on the Scamp13 bumper. It can be dangerous though so you must be very careful but it can have 2 bikes on the back. 3, no way, its all about weight of course and balance. My bike rack is as light as I could fine and I have towed 2 light mountain bikes back there to Moab and back with no issues, with proper trailer loading. And may other places. The problem you have is fishtailing so its really not recommended unless you know how to do it right. Light rack, light bikes. I have considered 2 folding bikes and storing in the Yakima sky box on the roof as well.

[floyd]

Here is our solution on our Scamp...

[JRTrillium]

Thanks again, folks. I appreciate all the responses I get when I post here. I am always enlightened and sometimes amused, like, Ice-Breaker, that is not for real, is it?!?

[JRTrillium]

Floyd, I really like your set up!

[WDavidG]

We often travel with two road bikes on a rack on the rear of our scamp 13', using Scamp's factory installed receiver. Bikes plus rack keep us well within Scamp recommended weight limit for the rear mount and we haven't noticed any handling issues with the reduction in hitch weight. Your mountain bikes may however be heavier.

[Ice-breaker]

Originally Posted by JRTrillium

... I am always enlightened and sometimes amused, like, Ice-Breaker, that is not for real, is it?!?

The picture of the car with the multiple kayaks on the roof was not mine, but appears to be real. I have little doubt that they used this method to get as many kayaks as possible to the put-in with as few vehicles as possible. It is likely that they only had to drive a relatively short distance though.

[katidesc13]

I have a similar setup with the bike rack in front. My dad and brother fabricated a 2" receiver on the front to hold the bike rack, and when I need it for my short trips I can take it off and use it on my truck. Kuat makes an awesome bike rack that only weighs 13lbs, has an integrated lock system, folds completely flat, and fully adjusts so the rack doesn't rattle at all!! I've been so happy with this setup!! You can check out all the photos on my Scamp Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/852767154753403/




Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV

[Carol H]

Kaitie I have the same Kuat rack was well and love it! Owned a lot of $$$ racks over the years and have to say its the best yet in particular as to how stable it is.

I took a look at your FB page - thats a very cool/interesting way of mounting it!!! hummmmmm

[JRTrillium]

Thank you everyone who took time to give advice - hopefully we will have a better set up this summer.

[John Hussey]

Originally Posted by Meghan

We travel with 2 mt bikes 2 kids bikes and 3 kayaks. We have the trunk attaching bike rack currently and kayaks on the roof and one inside the van. We are shopping for a bike rack that hooks into the hitch and has a hitch to hook up to the camper. So the bikes are hitch mounted between the car and camper. I think that would be ideal
Compare Roadmaster Dual vs Curt Dual 2" | etrailer.com

Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV

I didn't know about those hitch receivers-the first will solve my single bike carry problem...thanks!

[Roadie1]

I use the Kuat two bike rack. It folds up against the spare tire when not in use. It's an awesomely solid rack! Highly recommend it!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk