hitch-mounted bike rack question

[Sandra Lair]

I remember reading a post quite a while back (more than a year ago) about a hitch-mounted bicycle rack. The bikes were carried between the tow vehicle and the trailer. I've done a search but didn't find this particular one. We prefer this arrangement over any other we've seen. I haven't had any luck searching for this on line. Does anyone know where this type of bike rack can be found?
Sandra

[Donna D.]

Sandra, if it was a year ago..you're out of luck. We were hacked in November and lost over 100,000 posts.

Come on folks...someone help her out if you can remember any of the details.

[Bob Maddox]

Sandra, I have a hitch that could be used in that manner. The hitch bar (with the ball on the end) that goes in the receiver is about two feet long. I have a 4-bike rack that slips over this bar and a bolt tightens it out close to the ball. It works fine to carry the bikes on, and I have at the same time pulled a light weight utility trailer with more bikes on it. However, for my car (Jeep Cherokee), I would think that the leveraged weight of the travel trailer tongue weight plus bikes would be too great for easy or safe towing (although I've not tried it). Too, if you were only taking a couple of bikes it might not be too much weight.

I also have a bike rack that hangs on the rear of the car (two hooks going over the top of the rear hatch and straps holding it close at the bottom of the hatch). This could be used for a couple of bikes with a regular hitch and would not leverage the weight so far back. I would be much more comfortable with this kind of arrangement.

Good luck.

Bob

[Victor Benz]

I had a similar challenge with my old trailer. What I did is reinforce the rear trailer bumper and welded a receiver for a 2" trailer hitch on it. Then i purchased na bike carrier designed to connect to a trailer hitch recieiver. When I pull the trailer, the bikes were on the back, possibly even helping with my weight distrribution. The big advantage was that once we sited the trailer, we could take our bikes with us on day trips.

I will probably make a similar mod to my new Fiber Stream.

Vic

[Brian B-P]

There are two ways to get to this configuration: an extended ball platform (as Bob describes) and a rack designed to clamp around the square tube; or a rack with an integrated receiver. Either way, I personally would not do it because of the extension of the lever arm which the hitch load will then have to shift the tug's axle loads and to steer the tug in sway.

Vic describes a common approach to the where-to-put everything problem, and I'm considering this myself; however, I think the balance problem should not be minimized. A couple of bikes and a rack out past the rear bumper could make a meaningful weight distribution change, which I think is worth calculating (or test-fitting and measuring) specificially before towing this way. If I put my rack on the back, I plan to move the spare forward of the axle to compensate.

A carrier like this can be pulled off of the trailer and moved to the tug after unhooking, for day trips or non-trailer trips, which is appealling to me.

By the way, Vic: welcome! Now that there's a Fiber Stream in the general area of Edmonton, maybe I'll get to see one in person.