Bike Rack Broke..BIKES GONE

Ronnie Bledsoe 2006 Dutchstar 43' · 01-13-2010, 06:08 PM

Had the bike rack mounted on rear of Jeep in hitch receiver. Bike stinger inserted with a lock to hold it in place. After a night at an RV park drove aqbout 100 miles stopped to go to the head and did my walk around...got to the back of the Jeep and saw part of the stinger..took about 10 seconds to realize the bikes were GONE. A fellow pulled in behind me and I asked him if he happened to see my bikes and he said they were about 80 miles back and not worth going back to get. The welds on the rack broke allowing the rack and bikes to fall.
Now for some did you know: I have Progressive insurance with a $2000.00 personal property loss provision with a $100.00 deductible, but in the write up for this section it specifies that if the loss is an attachment they will reimburse only 25% of the replacement cost and your declining deductible starts over again.
My homeowners would pay after thye $1000.00 deductible and I would loose my 15% no claim reduction for 5 years.
My Jeep insurance would pay $200.00 after the $500.00 deductible.
SO I'm eating the total cost of $1730.00 for new bike rack, 2 bikesw and all the attachments that were on the old bikes.
Check your bike racks and insurance for the same or possible similar losses of attached hardware.

sknight · 01-13-2010, 06:11 PM

How about the manufacturer of the rack? Have you contacted them?

Ronnie Bledsoe 2006 Dutchstar 43' · 01-13-2010, 07:15 PM

The part that's left has no mfg info on it and I don't remember the brand. When I get home possibly I'll have some info. The rack was several years old, but the new Thule has a lifetime warranty...probably7 will last longer than me!

RVThere · 01-13-2010, 08:11 PM

I had a 4-bike Thule rack break on me in Kentucky a few years ago. Was going through some construction and hit a big bump and both arms that hold the bikes cracked. I had a strap around the bikes and the main vertical arm of the rack so I only had the rim of one bike bend. I was on a town road at the time so it was easy to pull over once the whole tribe behind me started yelling about a dragging sound.

The only problem was where do you put 4 bikes in a motorhome when you don't have a bike rack! They ended up on the bed in the back.

Ray,IN · 01-13-2010, 08:41 PM

That's a bummer. Insurance companies-humph_ what's the alternative though?

RedneckExpress · 01-14-2010, 02:10 AM

Less expensive bikes and a custom built bike rack. I had mine welded up out of 2x2 1/8" wall tube and then reinforced the weld areas with overlapping plate steel. Bikes aren't going anywhere.

paz · 01-14-2010, 05:30 AM

Ronnie, sorry for the loss of your bikes.

Since you have to replace the bikes anyway, have you considered Dahon folding bikes? These can be stored inside a vehicle, or even in a storage bay of your RV if you have the space. Most of the folding bikes I see are the ones with the small wheels. These fold to a smaller size, but Dahon also has numerous models with full-sized 26" wheels from cruisers to road bikes to mountain bikes. We have a pair of bikes called the Espresso that we transport in the back of our Saturn Vue.