Hitch Mount Bike Rack

[Merlin]

I saw this in the current issue of Trailer Life magazine and looked it up. I had planned to reinforce the rear bumper of my 16TBS to install a hitch receiver for a bike rack. I took a look at this new product from Lippert and wondered if mounting the bikes on the tongue using it might work too. It's a lot higher up to lift the bikes and it seems like having the bikes up front would further whack gas mileage (wind turbulence +), but I'd be interested in other's opinions. Two "standard" Trek bikes BTW, nothing special.

http://www.lci1.com/jack-it

[mojospeople]

Very interesting at least. Having used almost every type of bike rack on the market a couple things come to mind that I'm sure you thought of too.
1) Tongue weight. The rack weighs 25 pounds (not bad) and two bikes on it would add at least 50 pounds and probably more. I'm thinking most people's bikes would come in with a total of at least 100 pounds. 2) Height. It's hard to tell exactly how high up it is but having loaded bikes on and off roof racks for years I can say it isn't always easy to wrestle them up over your head. Additionally the average bikes I see hauled by campers are not lightweight race/high performance bikes. It's going to be pretty tough to lift a 40 pound bike up there. 3) Bugs and wind. The obvious with bugs. The wind - this thing is going to have to really hold your bikes in tight somehow to keep them from banging around. Roof racks at least keep the bikes in an aerodynamic position and bikes can still shift up there with hard crosswinds. And hitch racks (which this rack most closely resembles) that hang the bikes by wheels are tucked behind your vehicle so keeps them out of direct wind pressure and bikes still sway around on those. But this has the bikes catching the most wind possible.

On the plus side though - you can see the bikes to know if anything is amiss while under tow, seems like you can use it as a hitch rack so when you get where you're going and drop the camper, you can use it to just haul the bikes (I'm tackling that logistic now for us). It holds the bikes by the wheels which is so much better than by the frame. And the price. Hard to beat that. Most of the racks we consider using are easily twice that much money.

As I've mentioned before, our bikes will be riding inside the camper. They're spoiled like that!

[pjcd]

Looks interesting,,,, I would be concerned with the wind factor. This one looks little more robust.

Arvika RV Bike Rack Travel Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P7u9hk7V88

[Paul]

2) Height. It's hard to tell exactly how high up it is but having loaded bikes on and off roof racks for years I can say it isn't always easy to wrestle them up over your head. Additionally the average bikes I see hauled by campers are not lightweight race/high performance bikes. It's going to be pretty tough to lift a 40 pound bike up there.

I found that using a step ladder help a lot with that part, but you are right it's not easy. I have a roof rack on my Ford Escape and I couldn't do it without a step ladder

[Merlin]

Good thoughts so far. Although I'd like to see the tongue mount rack in person before deciding, I'm leaning strongly for going with the original idea of reinforcing the rear bumper and mounting bikes back there. Turbulence, bugs, and weight-lifting are all important factors.

[rideandfly]

Took a photo of this rack and camper a few years ago, sorry I don't have additional information:

[Merlin]

I think that one might be made by Swagman. It's nice, but with our propane tanks and battery box and WDH attachments up front, there is no room left for that type of frame mount.