Which Bike rack?

[djScott]

Hello everyone!

We are looking for advice regarding adding a bike rack to our tow or the coach? Does anyone have any favorites or suggestions? Scott

[zinger]

We are regular bike riders so our take may be different than some. We have a rack on top of our Honda CRV and one on the back of the Dutch Star. The motorhome rack slides over the top of the towbar.

To us it is important to be able to get to the bikes quickly. We can have them off the motorhome in about 60 seconds. We also like the rack on the car in case we are in an area where there are no safe roads then we carry the bikes to a suitable destination.

One thing to consider is that many folks don't have bikes, they have ornaments that turn into rust. If your bikes are easy to get to, you will use them more often.

Enjoy the ride,
Bob and Tammy Julich
Search'n The World

["007"]

Welcome to you both to Newmar forum & irv2.
I like your answer Zinger covers both situations.
Enjoy the forum and do post often.

[NLOVNIT]

We've got this one by Swagman, easy to get the bikes on/off & the ratchet holder works easily. Available through RVupgrades.

L-

[Waltnbecky]

We have has many bike racks over the years for various styles of bicycles. We now have very expensive mountain bikes that we travel with. Our experience with the cheaper racks has not been that great, it seams that if/when you change bikes the bike rack always must be tweaked or reconfigured or even replaced to accomodate the bikes. With that said we have opted for the THULE tire cradle style rack, we attach this to the toad, the bikes are always in the ready to ride mode. ie no wheels to attach, or adapter bars to remove etc.. We have had the swagman brand racks IMO they do not measure up to the qaulity and functionality of this THULE rack. We should have bought it long ago , about three swagmans ago. The last rack you will ever need !!

[UFO Pilot]

We use this one Thule Hitch Bike Racks - 2010 Thule 964 Revolver 4 Bike Hitch Rack for 2in. Hitch Receivers. We move it between the CRV and the MH as needed.

On the MH we use a double receiver like this

[RickO]

We really like our Blue Ox for our purposes. I bought a second receiver so I can move the rack from the coach to the toad easily. The "hanging" style of mount also works well as a work station for tuning the bikes.

Here's a post on our selection Blue Ox Bike Rack

Best of luck...

Rick

[Brave-r]

I spent a month researching racks and went with the swagman xtx2. Found it at amazon for around $140 including shipping. Excellent rack.

[RVThere]

Since I'm carrying five bikes at a time, I have an older version of the Thule rack below:



I had a 4 bike version of this rack where I did manage to put 5 bikes on but after years of abuse, the arms cracked going through a construction site in Kentucky.

We also have used the double receiver that wthomas1 shows in his post. It works very well but check how close your bike tires get to the hood of your car depending on your toad. Also the double receiver is only rated for 4000 lbs so it may not work out if your toad is a full sized vehicle loaded with other 'toys'. For example, my current toad is a Jeep Grand Cherokee which has a curb weight of 4,470 lbs.

[Ronnie Bledsoe 2006 Dutchstar 43']

Which ever rack you choose make sure there is enough room between bikes that rubbing is not a problem. Wish I had done that before buying a 2 bike thule... I have rub places even though I try to use spacers.

[mk34_techrep]

These are the two bike racks we are looking at,RV 2 Bike Ladder Rack 80630 **$55.00**, Swagman Trailhead 2 Bike Rack 63360 *$134.99*
. Does anyone have any comments.

[Superslif]

We have had a 3-bike hitch mounted rack for years. Actually ours is called a "hitch-over" style. It mounts / slides over the draw-bar, and a big bolt holds it tight. We use ours on the back of the trailer now, but can be used anywhere. It's nice because when at a campground, and you want to drive somewhere to do a bike ride, you can transfer the bike rack to your toad, if it also has a receiver. Just pull the hitch pin and draw-bar and all can be slide into another receiver hitch in two minutes.

You can see by my picture, I had once used it when we pulled our pop-up. With that set-up the bikes were between the tow vehicle and the trailer. The ball was mounted 3" past where the bike rack attached to the draw-bar.....