Community Forums

Mike8253 · 09-03-2018, 11:00 AM

My wife and I recently bought two "cruiser" bikes and want to bring them with us on our travels. (The bikes are a celebration of my wife's successful knee replacement surgery last winter. She's doing wonderfully well for anyone on the fence about the surgery for themselves or a loved one.) We also tow our Pontiac G6 4-wheels down. From long ago, I have a traditional Yakima 2" hitch mounted bike rack and dual receiver to accommodate the bike rack and tow bar, but on the RV this rack is just not robust enough to securely hold the bikes when traveling. They were flailing all over the place on our one test trip. I had also forgotten that the bike rack when installed interferes with the ability to put our Blue Ox Aladdin towbar in the stowed position when camping because the two receiver ends are directly above one another even though separated top and bottom by about 6 inches. I do have a bike rack for over the trunk on the Pontiac, but it's design does not allow you to cover the bikes as you travel, so that's not an option for RV travel.

Yakima now makes an RV approved LongHaul rack, but it's also going to interfere with installing/stowing the towbar. I've also looked into the 1UP USA 2″ Heavy Duty Double rack that can stow out of the way of the towbar when the bikes are not on the rack. It's about 40% more expensive than the Yakima. The bikes could be covered on both racks. I know there are other similar racks out there, but these are the two I'm focused on.

So two questions: 1) For those of you with similar interference issues between towbar and bike rack, what solutions did you work out, or do you just deal with it. For instance, if I choose the Yakima rack, I know I'll have to have the bikes installed for travel before we leave the campsite to hookup the car. That'll mean I have to install the towbar to the receiver underneath the bikes which will be a royal pain. It'll also extend the whole towbar/car hookup process when I'm trying to depart the CG. Having to deal with this multiple times on a multiple stop extended trip will also be a pain.

2) On the 1UP USA rack, I know it's about 50 lbs. The bikes are both about 31 lbs. each for a total of about 110 lbs. on the top of the dual receiver. When I originally bought the dual receiver, I had the top receiver reinforced on both sides with 3/16 welded steel bars, but I'm just wondering about that 110 lbs. hanging out that far from the MH main hitch. With the 1UP USA rack I could also cover both bikes. The tongue weight limit on the Tiffin is 500 lbs., but it that a static or dynamic weight limitation?

So I look forward to any inputs you may have. I want a rack that securely caries the bikes and allows the bikes to be covered. I'd also love to optimize the towbar/car hookup process to minimize the complexity/effort/time to get the car attached and ready to move when travailing to our next destination. Thanks in advance.

hoosierrun · 09-03-2018, 11:32 AM

I installed a hitch and bike rack on the back of my toad. Probably not the best idea if you have a long rig, but it works fine for us. We've done this for 27,000 miles all over US and Canada.

Honwing · 09-28-2018, 07:16 PM

Installed a Hollywood bike rack to the hitch on our Toad also. Both cruiser bikes work great on this quality rack and currently taking them from Seattle to Carrabelle, Florida.

momdoc · 09-30-2018, 08:03 AM

We use a swagman bike rack for our two bikes between the coach and toad. It did not fit the hitch (unable to tighten down) so we had a weld shop mount it permanently and it works fine. Only problem is I have to remove the hitch to check the oil.