Bikes and Bambi

[Trevor Davies]

I've seen a couple of photos of people loading bicycles on the back of Airstreams. Does anyone have experiecne with a rear bike rack and Bambis?

[CanoeStream]

There are many, many posts in this forum against adding weight to the rear bumper of any Airstream. The moment arm from the axle amplifies the forces added to the rear end during road movement, bumps, etc. Results are very destructive to the floor - shell - frame interface.

This is but one link: Exterior Storage in the rear?

Think more in terms of how your tow vehicle might mount the bikes.

[Silvertwinky]

Concerning bikes; we just carry them inside of the trailer! I don’t know exactly how much room you would have in a Bambi but we’ve found that there’s plenty of room for them. We lean them up against one of the beds while traveling. When we get there we move them outside and we have a chain and pad-lock, we keep them there until we use them.

We have taken them with us when we haven’t even used them the first time. It’s kind of nice having them for when you do want to ride.

[Trevor Davies]

Thanks for the replies - private and public. For this and a variety of other reasons we're going to replace this pickup truck with another for towing.
Thanks again - I mentioned to a couple of folks that I just "found" the forum and will spend many hours pouring over it in detail.

[yukionna]

We use a Thule roof rack to carry our bikes. I don't carry my bike or any extra camping equipment in my Bambi for a variety of reasons:

1) It tracks dirt/grease into the trailer interior
2) Could damage the interior as anything not tied down in the trailer interior could become a projectile in the event of swerving or an accident.
3) We usually stop to use the trailer while enroute to a destination (i.e., bathroom, lunch, coffee break, washing up, etc.) so anything stored in the limited floorspace of the trailer would hamper our efforts to use the trailer.

[Rickk48]

I also use a Thule roof rack on my Rover, for all the reasons cited by Yukionna

[Zed2]

What do you think of this solution?

http://www.swagmanbikeracks.com/store/64600.htm
http://www.hitchrider.com/towcarry.htm
http://www.etrailer.com/Merchant2/me...egory_Code=BRT

Keith

[Rickk48]

What do you think of this solution?

Gets in the way of opening rear door.

[Silvertwinky]

1) It tracks dirt/grease into the trailer interior

Yes, this can be a concern!

2) Could damage the interior as anything not tied down in the trailer interior could become a projectile in the event of swerving or an accident.

One of the things we did to avoid this is the use of bungee cords. In are previous trailer we had a place where we could tie them off.

3) We usually stop to use the trailer while enroute to a destination (i.e., bathroom, lunch, coffee break, washing up, etc.) so anything stored in the limited floorspace of the trailer would hamper our efforts to use the trailer.

I also agree with you on being able to have the trailer available for use. It will take up quite a bit of room.

[danesh]

Zed2:
Do these work with weight distribution hitches? Our AS tounge weight is too much for a regular hitch.
Cheers

[Zed2]

I have not presumed this solution yet.
Regards,
Keith

[capt.cooke]

I replaced the rear bumper on our 19 ft. Bambi with a piece of square tubing (steel in a rectangular shape similar in width to the original) because the bumper got bent while pulling into a gas station- as will happen. While at it, I put a piece of 2" square tube in the center to accomadate a 2 bike rack, and an urthane wheel (4'' long) on the underside of each end of the bumper as a skid roller. Both have worked very well and the extra 40-50 lbs of weight on the rear is negligable, but if your worried about that small amount of weight, go light in the aft storage hatch. Now, the bikes are the first things off to go exploring!!

[Tin Hut]

A couple of options. We bought the folding bikes from Camping world for approx $130 each. They fold up small & I get four of them side by side in the back of the Sub. on top of the folded down third seat & still have the whole back to load. Also, I just ordered a front end hitch receiver for the Sub. that I'll mount over the weekend. You can slide bike racks into it and carry them in front of the tow vehicle (500 lb limit). I ordered the cargo carrier to slide into it to carry extras.

[sfixx]

Originally Posted by Rickk48

Gets in the way of opening rear door.

I've never seen this "shank mount" bike rack before. It appears in all 3 cases that the vertical pole is hinged at the bottom and will fold rearward out of the way. And will probably move enough to access the door even with bikes attached.

I've looked at the ball mounts with the integral bike racks but they always have a much reduced hitch weight rating. And since my ball mount is zero drop I'll be fine there too.

Thanks for pointing out this option Zed2!!

Have a blessed (insert holiday preference here) all,

Steve