Basecamp Bike Rack

[MTB Basecamp]

We recently took delivery of our 2019 Basecamp X; living in northern Utah winters can be a bit of a mess, so using our front receiver is not practical. Our goal in purchasing the Basecamp X was to provide us the opportunity to get off the beaten path so to speak, and southern Utah offers year round mountain biking opportunities.
The problem is in towing the Basecamp we lose our ability to use the hitch mounted rack, and since the Basecamp is advertised as just throwing your bike or kayak in the back and going, you should be good to go. Unless you want to chance destroying your interior, I do not think it is realistic, so I designed a bike rack for two bikes.
I wanted rack that would be easy to build using readily available materials. I choose plywood as the rack frame, I should note, I have also designed two other racks using aluminum extrusions, but these are harder to build and the materials are not readily available.
Materials List
1 48" X 96" X 3/4" finish plywood
8 D-Rings
Indoor/outdoor carpet (cut from roll, big box store) 48" X 96"
2 Rocky Mounts, Hot Rod model
Plywood Cut List
1 @ 30" X 70" (Base) Radius cut the corners of one 30" end to meet the Basecamp's back door.
4 @ 7 5/16" X 42" (Legs)
Assemble using various wood screws or deck screws.
Finish sand as needed and finish with any desired stain.
Screw 2 each legs together, 2 sets total (gives you two 1 1/2" think legs).
Screw legs to square end of base, on the long edges.
Install Rocky Mounts using 1/4" X 20 X 1 1/4" bolts, washers and nuts (Staggered).
Carpet radius front underside and back legs and top, back is one piece, rolled under legs to protect the flooring.
Install D-Rings to align with Basecamps Rings and bike rear tires.

We use two straps to hold the rack in place, and velcro on the rear tires of the bikes.
The rack accommodates our 29" mountain bikes or our fat bikes. The Hot Rod is a thru-axle mounting system.

[Eeziter]

Wow that’s awesome. I currently have a ram 1500 as my tow vehicle, so I just put our mountain bikes over the tailgate with a pad. But if I ever switch tow vehicles I will probably do this.

[MTB Basecamp]

We too use a tailgate pad, but only for local riding. My MTB has a Knock-Block limiting rotation of the handlebars, so long distances are not optimal for transportation. I installed a front hitch on the truck and carry a Thule rack while towing; once we reach our destination I put it on the back and transport the bikes on it.
I originally looked at the racks that mount on hitch doublers, but they did not give enough distance and greatly reduced the turning radius while towing.

[Smurf]

MTB Basecamp : do you have pictures of your setup with the bikes on as well as different angles of the rig? We have a BCX and we carry kayaks on our truck and we also would like to bring our MTB along.

[MTB Basecamp]

I'm sorry we do not, are you looking at reduced turning radius? If so we have not experienced any; although we do keep an eye on them when we use the tailgate pad. The Basecamp is so small, jackknifing it would require some effort.

[pipeline3]

we just bought ours but that's similar to what I was thinking. We probably will be doing the same to put our bikes inside

[Dasponto]

Nice little set up, we will have our basecamp soon and I've got a few ideas for a mount inside to handle our two enduros. May have to do front and back configuration as we do not want to have to worry about taking off the front wheels.

We could always toss them on the top of our Q5, however that just adds even more negative factors to mileage haha.

Once I get my mount in place and perfected I'll take some photos.

[Bob Schrader]

Had same idea but was thinking just a 2x4 to take up less floor space and easier to store, but wasn't sure about keeping in place. Has anyone made one with smaller footprint of wood so easier to move in/out.

[Dasponto]

_MG_8938 by Ryan Ponto, on Flickr

Well did a trip with them on the roof... mileage only dropped by about 1L/100km so for that little of a hit on our economy we are going to keep them up there for the time being. Just so much more convenient