Front mounted bike rack

[Airwave503]

Thule. Can carry up to four bikes with the extension.

[pjshier]

Bigventure, Can't help but note your dog looks like Winston Churchill in the top pic... hope he/she is not as hard to live with...

[judie]

newbie to forum here. i can only tell you what we did...i hope it helps. i am disabled and my husband purchased me an amazing foldable e bike. we stowed it easily into the back of our jeep grand cherokee. then we traded for a ram truck and now it lay it down on blankets in the bed of the truck. i hope this offers a suggestion/ judie

[Al and Missy]

My first attempt at hauling bikes was to purchase a two bike rack like you see in front of stores, restaurants, etc. It just holds the front wheels. I put that against the nightstand in the middle of the aisle between the twin beds and put a couple of eye bolts ito the bed frames at the foot. I'd put the bikes in the rack and then used a ratchet strap around the frame and seat posts to tie them to the eye bolts. That ended up pushing the nightstand front back into the storage compartment an inch or so, so I quit doing that.


Then I had a front hitch on an F-150 and now on my Ram 2500. I found that with the F-150 the bikes blocked the light from the headlights so that I was uncomfortable driving on back roads at night. That was not a problem with the 2500. However, I think some states consider it an infraction to block any light, or obstruct your vision. I think someone posted on here that they had gotten a ticket even though the bikes did not block the vision more than a foot in front of the truck.


I used a Curt receiver and a Hollywood rack. The Hollywood rack is well made and folds up without sticking out too far but is made for either the Class I or Class II hitches. It uses an aluminum extrusion over the Class I mount to fit in a Class II receiver and it wobbled. I has to be mounted as the instructions say (go figure). The rack is secured to the receiver with a bolt and it matters which side the bolt goes in from. Even when assembled properly it wobbled so I ended up putting a sheet metal screw between the adapter and the receiver to tighten it up.


We finally bought folding bikes that will go in the bed of the truck.


Al

[jlandreth]

Well, since I started the thread I guess I should tell everyone what I ended up doing. I installed a Curt receiver hitch in the front and bought the Hollywood Sport rack made especially for ebikes. So far so good. Taking our first real trip with it up to Virginia Highlands in a couple of weeks and we'll see how it works.

[Halford1]

will this work?

https://www.amazon.com/Lippert-Compo...s%2C196&sr=8-9

[ghaynes755]

I have a ReTrax Pro XR cover on my Ram 3500 which has tracks for installing Yakima or similar type bars and racks. Works well. Bit harder than putting it on a standard bike rack but I didn't want to do the front mount since that defeats some of the safety technology on the the 2019 Rams. See video at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35MQwnRNKzY&t=2s

[wiegabr]

Better to carry bikes out of the weather. I have a Prodeco Phantom folding ebike.

[Gbrinton]

Thule rack has worked out well for me.

[JonDNC]

Originally Posted by ghaynes755

I have a ReTrax Pro XR cover on my Ram 3500 which has tracks for installing Yakima or similar type bars and racks. Works well. Bit harder than putting it on a standard bike rack but I didn't want to do the front mount since that defeats some of the safety technology on the the 2019 Rams. See video at

Great solution one gotcha is the weight limitation on those racks won’t support an ebike which is why I had to go with front mounted rack. That or a bed solution but would loose the ability to close my cover. ☹️

[BoscoMN]

We had the Fiamma Rack on the back of our Airstream and it has worked well for our two 30 lb bikes. Now that we moved up to E-Bikes I have placed the one 60 lb E-Bike on the Fiamma Rack and the other bike inside the Airstream on an old blanket on the bed. When we stop, it goes outside on the Fiamma Rack for the night. I use a small ramp to assist in getting the bike into and out of the Airstream door.

In rain I cover the bike on the Fiamma Rack. I don't like how much of the Airstream tail lights are obstructed so I plan on adding a 4 wire trailer plug to drive a set of lights I will add to the Fiamma Rack. I added lights to the Hollywood Rack as well due to the tail light obstruction on the F-250.

My Hollywood Rack goes onto a hitch receiver I had added to the grill guard on our F-250. I transport the Hollywood Rack in front without a bike as I don't like the bike exposed to the weather without a cover or how much of the headlights it obstructs. The Hollywood Rack is used when we arrive at our destination and want to travel to all of the local bike trails.

[TGK]

We don't have a canopy on our 2017 F150 Crew with 5.5' bed. I carry our bikes in the bed with the front forks secured and locked to Rocky Mount Fork Mounts. Still room for lot's of other stuff in the bed.

[PatLee]

Some of your decision-making likely depends on what kind of a cyclist you are. If you're a serious cyclist with tights, clips and a fierce determination to climb every mountain, then the following is not for you. But for the rest of you, I am a 'smell the flowers' kind of a cyclist and cannot bear to sit on the narrow hard seats in a bent-over position with neck cricked up, to see everything ahead of me. And I cannot bear to not bike. So, I bought an Evelo electric bike that weighs 37 pounds, folds in half and fits under the tonneau cover of my truck bed. Less chance of theft, no chance of bugs, light enough to slide out on its blanket. It lets me decide how much I want to pedal (or not), has 5 power levels, came with a comfy seat option, has a 40-mile range and best of all, it keeps me on a bike with all the attendant benefits.

[mythbuster88]

Our two E bike solution.

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/...ed-192602.html

[JFRINALDI]

I found that a front hitch added to our F-150 interfered with my view too much when the bikes were loaded. Our solution was to build a bike rack out of PVC pipe (You tube video) and place the bikes inside of the Classic in front of the couch. They stay cleaner too!

[Airhead2018]

Originally Posted by Aircub69

I have loaded bicycles on the front of my truck, but they require some cleaning at the destination. Has anyone made a bicycle rack for inside a 30' Classic? I think it could be done and would keep our bicycles much cleaner. Any suggestions.

Why yes I have.

[mythbuster88]

Originally Posted by Airhead2018

Why yes I have.

Really nice!

[uncle_bob]

Hi

One significant advantage of a front mount: You can see what's going on.

Yesterday we were out and about. For a while I was behind a SOB with a rear mount bike rack. All was fine and everything looked very stable for miles and miles. Then we got to the road with bumps .... yikes. Each time he hit a bump the bikes went nuts. I backed off and backed off and backed off. I'm sure they made it ok. I also suspect they have no idea just what a massive beating the bikes are taking with that rig.

Bob

[Mollysdad]

Originally Posted by JonDNC

Great solution one gotcha is the weight limitation on those racks won’t support an ebike which is why I had to go with front mounted rack.

I see, but they carry two e-bikes on the rack.

[jlandreth]

Been using my front mounted set up with the Hollywood rack for the last 3 days and it seems very stable. Just getting used to having something out front.