Bike rack options?

[Jim]

We've been happy with this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09T9BCPNS/?tag=rvf01-20

120# capacity, sturdy and easy on/off. If we're hauling our toad and bikes.. the bike rack goes on the Jeep.

I looked at that one, but my 2 bikes combined were over the capacity limit. But thank you, @widdershins !

 

[Rich W.]

We've been happy with this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09T9BCPNS/?tag=rvf01-20

120# capacity, sturdy and easy on/off. If we're hauling our toad and bikes.. the bike rack goes on the Jeep.

Going by carrying capacity, many racks are light weight. Put them on the rear of a coach where every bump is amplified by the distance to the rear wheels and the rack is hanging out there getting tossed about. And I'm sure some is CYA as @DennisT mentioned.

I bought a rack like that used on CL for $40 for parts for the contraption Im building. It will be a little ugly, but it will carry the weight, be very lockable and have additional brake/tail lights and turn signals. Hopefully that will cover all the bases, accept appearance of course. I’d have to buy a Kuat rack for that.

 

[widdershins]

I bought a rack like that used on CL for $40 for parts for the contraption Im building. It will be a little ugly, but it will carry the weight, be very lockable and have additional brake/tail lights and turn signals. Hopefully that will cover all the bases, accept appearance of course. I’d have to buy a Kuat rack for that.

I hope you'll post up a new thread on that, always looking for fun projects!

 

[gibsito]

I use a receiver-type rack that came with my old D250 Dodge. It's not pretty but it works great. The truck has 2" receivers front and rear, so if I'm towing the bikes go up front. The rack is built out of heavy gauge steel with good welds so I don't worry about it breaking. Up until now it's only carried human-powered bikes, but I converted one of them to an e-bike so it's significantly heavier than it used to be. I haven't carried that on the rack yet but am not worried about it.

I built a homemade rack out of iron pipe once, thinking that would be more than strong enough. I didn't realize that the weak points on it would be the threaded portions of the pipe. It worked great for quite awhile, but eventually broke - twice. Both times it dropped my old Specialized MTB (chromoly) to the asphalt at 65 mph, but both times it also stayed attached to the vehicle. That bike is built like a tank. It bent the rims and one of the cranks, but the frame was (and still is) straight as an arrow.

 

[Rich W.]

I have a good stout hanging 4 bike rack but I’m a bit concerned about the weight of these. Mine is now up to 60.4lbs. My wife's is probably around 56.

 

[Rustymayes]

I am in the process of putting together the bits to flat tow the Canyon and for now I will just carry the bike in the bed of the truck. The wife has not committed to wanting to buy an e-bike for her to ride so for now this should suffice. If we get her a bike I will buy a rack to go on either the truck or the RV when we don't take the truck with us. Thanks for the input and ideas. Incidentally, I decide to go with Roadmaster for my tow rig. I am planning on installing the invisibrake system as I like the idea of not dealing with brake set up and break down every time I hook up the truck. There is enough to deal with just getting the truck into neutral for towing being that it is all electronically controlled.

 

[JRS]

I am in the process of putting together the bits to flat tow the Canyon and for now I will just carry the bike in the bed of the truck. The wife has not committed to wanting to buy an e-bike for her to ride so for now this should suffice. If we get her a bike I will buy a rack to go on either the truck or the RV when we don't take the truck with us. Thanks for the input and ideas. Incidentally, I decide to go with Roadmaster for my tow rig. I am planning on installing the invisibrake system as I like the idea of not dealing with brake set up and break down every time I hook up the truck. There is enough to deal with just getting the truck into neutral for towing being that it is all electronically controlled.

I've seen a couple pickups with bikes standing up on/in the bed. They could be hand made but question if there are there bike racks for use in the bed of pickups?

 

[Rustymayes]

Truck bed bike rack | Thule | United States

A truck bed bike rack from Thule lets you easily, safely, and securely carry bikes in your pick-up. Find the perfect bike rack for your truck here!

www.thule.com

These look like they would do the trick

 

[Rich W.]

Some hillbilly engineering going one here (did I mention it might be ugly?), but I’m only in it for around $115 and it will keep the bikes safe. I bought the rack in the first pic used for $40 just to get the vertical support parts - it has everything for two bikes but I just used that much of it to go pick up a bike from my LBS. It might have been ok for two 60lb e-MTBs but I want more support under them than that rack could provide.

Bought a 4“ hitch riser ($50) because I wanted the tray higher, and when it was on the jeep hitch, the spare tire used up 11” of horizontal space of the tray. So now it sits 4” higher and further back enough that the spare doesn't interfere.

I’ve had the cargo tray in the barn for years. The wood is temporary (just sizing things up) and it will have tail lights (I’ll use my magnetic temps for now). I spent about 2 hours just strengthening the old cargo tray because even though its “rated” for 500lbs, it was a rickety POS. So I welded every seem and joint and with the help of a couple hitch stabilizers ($11 each) it doesn't move around much. I’ll also put some sheet metal in the bottom over the expanded steel ro keep the bikes a little cleaner.