Carry Bicycles on front of Tow Vehicle ???

[genearnold]

I carry our two bikes in the truck bed. They look really good there and people think we are serious riders. On our last six-week trip I think we rode a total of less than five miles.

The PO installed a 1 5/8” receiver on the back of my Limited. When I bought the trailer my wife bought me a new Reese bike carrier for my BD and I had a 2” adapter made for the receiver and carried the bikes on the rear for two years. I had to use bungees to assure me that the bikes wouldn’t damage the trailer. I think the way the PO had installed the receiver minimized the frame damage potential but I had the receiver removed due to the lack of clearance. When I backed up the slight angle on my RV pad the receiver badly gouged the concrete and put a lot of stress on the trailer.

If I couldn’t carry mine in the bed of the truck I’d go for the front receiver. Unless your TV is really light duty I don’t think the 75 – 100 pounds (wild guess) on the front is enough to worry about.

[GreatPumpkin]

I wasn't referring to the added weight of the bicycles, which is quite minimal. If you look at the picture in the first post you can see that this adaptor places the towed trailer further away from the towing vehicle.

That is what will cause weight issues. Think of a lever and a fulcrum - the further out you put the weight on the lever, the more leverage you have.

Looking at my (very crude) drawing, you can see a lever and a fulcrum on the top. The bottom shows what happens when you push the weight out on the "lever" (your extended hitch) without a fulcrum supporting it.

Extending the hitch and hauling a heavy Travel trailer puts to much stress on your hitch and can lead to hitch failure. You may not notice it at first, but it will bend/break your hitch on the TV.

[neil.ervin]

Thanks all. Very good responses.

One alternative no one mentioned was to carry the bicycles on the roof of the TV. Any comments on doing this? My wife wants to carry them on the TV roof, but I'm afraid she will tire very quickly of lifting then up onto the roof.

Thanks,

[LI Pets]

Absolutely correct, I attended a "Physics of Towing" seminar at Perry and they went into a lot of detail about this.
If you can shorten up your hitch/drop bar an inch or two it will help with sway etc.
I'm having my drop bar modified to save 4" it will cost about $75 but if I have better control money is nothing.

So make it longer is just not the thing to do.

Put the bikes on the back of your TT

[LI Pets]

Originally Posted by neil.ervin

Thanks all. Very good responses.

One alternative no one mentioned was to carry the bicycles on the roof of the TV. Any comments on doing this? My wife wants to carry them on the TV roof, but I'm afraid she will tire very quickly of lifting then up onto the roof.

Thanks,

I think you answered your own question, it is a pita to get them on and off, not to mention the wind resistance <mpg.

[ZoominC6]

Bob,

We used to carry a canoe on the roof and I never could figure a way to reduce the wind noise transmitted through the roof. I tried twisting the straps but there still was the noise. The noise may be something to think over and possibly some other posters have found a noiseproof method they will share.

[LI Pets]

Do you mean the noise from the straps or the canoe?

The straps are tricky, too much twist is amost as bad none.

My canoe made no noise once I founf that out.

[nilesrob]

Like many others here, we have tried many things. We did put a receiver on the front of our TV, and that works great. The only issue I have, and welcome any suggestions, is finding a bike rack that supports the bikes from the wheels, versus the cross bars.

Several years ago we purchased foldable bikes (Bike Friday), but in truth I hate to fold them up. I'd rather mount them on the front - if I could only find a rack that supported from the wheels.

At present, I end up carrying bikes on our roof. With a 4X4 Ford Excursion, this is no prize.

[TomW]

Originally Posted by nilesrob

... The only issue I have ... is finding a bike rack that supports the bikes from the wheels, versus the cross bars. ...

What is the advantage of supporting the bikes from the wheels?

Tom

[ZoominC6]

Originally Posted by LI Pets

Do you mean the noise from the straps or the canoe?

The straps are tricky, too much twist is amost as bad none.

My canoe made no noise once I founf that out.

Bob,

We probably didn't play with the strap issue enough and had too many twists. One probably would have sufficed.

[nilesrob]

Originally Posted by TomW

What is the advantage of supporting the bikes from the wheels?

Tom

I was trying to do two things: 1) reduce the height of the bikes (visibility), and 2) avoid the problem of having bikes without cross bars.

I may have solved the second issue - just found that Thule and Yakima offer extendable bars that clip onto a bike lacking a horizontal croosbar.

[bobfowler]

Originally Posted by Happycampers

I got our front hitch from E-Trailer.com for about $100.00 and it just bolted on in about 15 min. We use ours to carry the canoe.

Do you go jousting with that?

[overlander63]

Why not just put the bikes in the trailer, in what for us is the bedroom area? If you're worried about grease all over everything, stick an old sheet on the beds before putting the bikes in. Problem solved. We have towed our trailers thousands of miles with the bikes in that position, with no problem at all. They are 26" adult touring bikes, not the fold up ones.

[Tarheel]

I carry mine, which is a tandem, on the front of my dodge truck. I got two 1 1/4" square recievers and mounted one on each forward frame support using u bolts. I then slipped a 1 1/4" square stock into each of the receivers and secured them with hitch pins. I mounted a 1"x3" channel aluminum on top of the square stock. The channel has a piece of 1 1/2" square tubing welded to each side to support the side load of the bicycle. This rig has carried the tandem bicycle up and down the east coast as well as to the west coast and back. It is easy to remove and very lightweight and fairly inexpensive to fabricate.
The idea came from the front end of the B Van as it has 2" receivers.

[Denis4x4]

I have to chime in here about front/rear bike racks and the hitch platforms that add another 4' to the length of the vehicle. Just returned from a cruise with 21 other couples driving hot rods/muscle cars through Flaming Gorge, Jackson Hole, West Yellowstone and Cody.

The number of SUV/trucks with add on bike racks and platforms keeps increasing. Rigs thus equipped screw up parking and present a danger on streets with diagonal parking.

Instead of a cap over the bed of a pickup, use a hard cover with bike racks on the tonnau cover equipped with super HD lifts. Put 'em in your trailer or carry a 4' step ladder so you can put 'em on the roof.

[64Vette]

We just returned from Bull Shoals AR. Before the trip, I installed a 2" front hitch I purchased online for $90. It was designed for a snow plow and was a direct bolt-on. Installed in about 15 minutes. I needed to mount the bikes on the front as we also carry our Kayaks and have them roof mounted.

The only negative for me was visibility. I used a Yakima 2-bike rack and they sat pretty high. I too am looking for a rack that allows them to sit lower.

[Happycampers]

Hello... We had a near miss when we had our bikes mounted on the front receiver..... too scary.... please make sure your line of sight is not blocked... even partially...

[BillTex]

In case you missed this before...remove the bike seats. Forward vision will be vastly improved...

Bill

[kneal]

So is there not a way to reinforce the bumper/rear frame to be able to accommodate a rear hitch bike rack? I would think two bikes and the rack would only add around 100LBS.

[Wayne&Sam]

No way am I leaving my bike out there as a bug/whatever catcher. It travels INSIDE where it deserves to be. But it' a pretty serious bike.