Bumper mount bicycle racks.

[R. J. Barton]

Howdy folks.

I'm interested in getting one of the bumper mount bicycle racks to put on the back of our TT. You guys that use them, do they work well? Any issues with them?

TIA

Rick

 

[Marc L]

The bumper is not strong enough on most TTs.  There is a lot more bouncing behind the trailer than there is in the middle or front.  Unless you get a welding shop to reinforce the bumper, you might end up with a bent bumper or worse the car following you driving over your bikes.

 

[R. J. Barton]

The bumper is not strong enough on most TTs.  There is a lot more bouncing behind the trailer than there is in the middle or front.  Unless you get a welding shop to reinforce the bumper, you might end up with a bent bumper or worse the car following you driving over your bikes.

I can certainly see them getting bounced around. 

We camped next to a couple last year that had one on their TT bumper. His bumper looked the same as mine, 4.25" square. He had had his on his camper for two years and no issues, but then I don't know how many miles he tows his rig in a year either. 

I need to do something, the wife and kids really enjoy having their bikes along and we just purchased 4 kayaks. The bed of my F250 is getting smaller by the second. I'll probably go ahead and try one, but I'll keep and eye on it to see if it needs reinforcement.

 

[Marc L]

Do you have a crew cab? If so you could get a roof mount

 

[taoshum]

I can certainly see them getting bounced around. 

We camped next to a couple last year that had one on their TT bumper. His bumper looked the same as mine, 4.25" square. He had had his on his camper for two years and no issues, but then I don't know how many miles he tows his rig in a year either. 

I need to do something, the wife and kids really enjoy having their bikes along and we just purchased 4 kayaks. The bed of my F250 is getting smaller by the second. I'll probably go ahead and try one, but I'll keep and eye on it to see if it needs reinforcement.

I've seen bicycles hung from the ladder with some adapters and bungees.  Looked fairly stable out on the highways. 

 

[Joezeppy]

Our TT has a fully welded bumper and seems very strong. I got a bolt-on 2" receiver and a nice 4-bike rack. On our first outing with it, I clamped all the bikes down per the directions, added the safety strap and several ratchet straps and everything seemed fine for the first 2 hours of our 3 hour trip. However, short of welding the rack to the receiver, I found that I could not seem to stop it from coming loose and bouncing around. I tried a couple more times but finally gave up. We now have several handlebar sized dents in the back siding.

I have seen many bike racks on TT bumpers, though, so some people are making it work.

Beginning in 2011, Heartland equipped many of their TT's with a slide-out basket under the bumper with provisions for carrying bikes and other bulky items. Not sure of the weight limit but it looks like a sweet option!

 

[Troutbum/CougarFan]

This is what we have on the rear of our TT, minus the ladder.  Sadly we haven't used it yet so no idea how well it will work (or not)

http://www.keystone-cougar.com/index.php?page=gallery

edit: well phoey it shows the entire gallery not the pic of the bike "rack" I intended

 

[skyking1]

thanks for reminding me, I want to weld a receiver on the back of the5th wheel for a two bike rack I already have. I have the welder out......

 

[Mopar1973Man]

The bumper is not strong enough on most TTs.  There is a lot more bouncing behind the trailer than there is in the middle or front.  Unless you get a welding shop to reinforce the bumper, you might end up with a bent bumper or worse the car following you driving over your bikes.

I would like to disagree with that comment. I've got a spare tire tied to mine with absolutely no issues.

http://i52.tinypic.com/xct9xl.jpg

 

[skyking1]

my bumper is purely a plastic accent piece. I can get onto the frame easily enough, I will get that done today and post some pics.

 

[IrishBrewer]

I put one on mine.  I got a bumper mount hitch reciever and used custom built u-bolts to attach it to the 4" square tube bumper.  This did involve some welding to slightly modify the hitch receiver (had to widen it slightly to be able to drill holes in the right position).

I did not feel comfortable with the strength and rigidity of the bumper so I beefed up the welds on the bumper struts that connect it to the frame and I also added a piece of channel that acts as another strut going back to the frame in the vicinity of the location where the receiver is mounted.  This adds some strength and limits the amout of torsional deflection of the thin-walled bumper.  One last modification I did was to drill a hole and attach a 1/2 inch weld nut to the top of the receiver so I could run a short bolt through the tube to take out all of the slack between the tube and the square insert from the bike rack. With these modifications, virtually all of the flex in the 4-bike hitch mounted bike rack is in the rack itself. 

The bike rack I got swivels down when not in use which is nice because I have a hybrid and it would otherwise need to be removed to allow the end bunk to swing down.

I've had all four bikes loaded on it and it seems quite solid.

Here is a pic of the receiver mod:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-dIUMP0YgUsI/T-Nrb2A8AhI/AAAAAAAAAO0/9OYEpuPDeuI/s640/2012-03-13_09-49-20_414.jpg

Here is a closeup of the mounted receiver:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-9DqFPI6GRXM/T-NrwmMCeyI/AAAAAAAAAO8/6b5GI9A4dlc/s400/2012-03-21_08-25-52_717.jpg

Here is the bike rack mounted:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-L-_wQ8k3tT0/T-Nr8XKm5RI/AAAAAAAAAPE/MlZSRZsQZYg/s400/2012-03-21_08-26-09_359.jpg

 

[R. J. Barton]

Well, I went ahead and put one on. I'll know this next week how it works. I'll try to post some pics too.  ???

 

[aterry]

We haul both of our bikes on a bumper mount hitch and have had no problems at all.