Bike Rack on Scamp 13'

[barryra]

Have people put a bike rack on the back of a Scamp 13 ? We will be pulling it with a Saturn car. Thank you.

[Doug Arthurs]

Have people put a bike rack on the back of a Scamp 13 ? We will be pulling it with a Saturn car. Thank you.

I just put a rack on my little boler. I simply welded a length of 2" receiver stock to the back bumper and then to a cross member which was welded to the frame on each side. My bike rack now can go from the back of my trailer to the truck when not towing. I took it for an hour run down the 401 at 110 KM and had no problem. I did however only have one bike on it. Tomorrow I will be using it with two.

[Larry Singer]

Hi Barry. If you're going to do this, I agree the way Doug describes his installation. It's essentially what Scamp does at the factory. You should add another vertical piece to the front of the bumper so you can attach the receiver tube to 2 places on the bumper for more strength, or other such extra attachment. I strongly suggest you look at the Forum Topic "towing", the 4th Forum category down. Under that is a topic I started called "Scamp Rear Receiver Hitch-How to fab a Scamp rear receiver hitch". You'll see several issues that were raised.

In summary, I suggest the following:

-Look at what Saturn suggests as its towing capacity-I own a '99 Saturn SL1, and it's rated at 1000#. That's the total weight of the trailer, axle and tongue. And the tongue weight must be added to the GVW (total weight of car, people cargo, gas, everything.). This has to be equal to or less than the max GVW rating of the car, sometimes called GVWR).
-Actually weigh your Scamp (axle + tongue). Unless it's stripped, I'll bet it's at least 1200#
-Measure the tongue-load of your Scamp with a bathroom scale under the tongue where it attaches to the ball. It should be 10-15% of the total (axle + tongue) trailer weight.
-When you add a hitch receiver, hitch, and bike(s) to the rear of your Scamp, you not only add weight to the Scamp (around 150# or so with 2 bikes), you'll reduce the weight on the tongue (less than the 150#, because the bikes are closer to the axle than that of the tongue).
-You might want to "search" this sight for other comments about hitches, towing, tow vehicles, ACTUAL WEIGHTS of campers compared to CLAIMED WEIGHTS, claims of how you can pull so-and-so camper with just about anything, etc.
-You need to consider any added camping supplies and equipment, wether added to the car, camper, or both.
- I hate to rain on your parade, just want to equip you with solid info so you can make an informed decision. I went down this road and acted before I had all the facts. Good luck !

larry Singer