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Bikes in/on your boat


MalibuTime

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Does anyone out there carry bicycles in/on their boat or trailer when trailering? We take our bikes on our summer vacation along with the boat, don't have a pickup truck, have a Thule box on top, and used to just load our old boat with the bikes. (down to two mt bikes). Needless to say, I won't just be tossing them into the VTX. Just curious what anyone else has done before I get started on my little project.

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I've seen people U bolt a price of RHS across the front of the trailer between the chassis rails under the bow and have a tow ball on one or both ends. They then just put a normal towball mounted bike rack. Seems to work ok but would possibly restrict turning radius. We have similar problem but we just put the MTB up on the roof of the 4WD. Works ok for two, but don't know what we'll do when want to take 3 or 4 bikes

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I've seen people U bolt a price of RHS across the front of the trailer between the chassis rails under the bow and have a tow ball on one or both ends. They then just put a normal towball mounted bike rack. Seems to work ok but would possibly restrict turning radius. We have similar problem but we just put the MTB up on the roof of the 4WD. Works ok for two, but don't know what we'll do when want to take 3 or 4 bikes

WE used to do the same until i got tired of cleaning the grease out of the boat.

Solution was to make a bike rack for teh top of the truck. Too cheap to buy one for just when towing cause we already had a hitch rack, so i ubolted a 2x6 to the roof rack on the burb, and bolted 4 bike fork mounts to it. Then i just tied the rear tires down to teh other rack crossmember. Ghetto fabulous, but totally worked for probably 3 summers trips to tahoe.

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You didn't mention the type of vehicle that you have but I use a hitch-mounted bicycle carrier in a front mount hitch (about $125 from eTrailer.com) that I installed. The front mount hitch is also very handy for maneuvering the boat into tight spaces.

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We have haulded kids bikes in the boat before when headed for long camping trips. Made sure nothing was going to touch the seats, and tied the bikes together so they wouldn't move.

It isn't the best situation, but for a every now & then thing.. shouldn't be a big deal on the carpet. Might want to wrap a small towel around the offending -rub areas.. just to reduce any risk

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Costco sells quilted moving blankets that work to prevent rubbing, dirt or grease problems (2 for $17.00).

This is a good idea! I ripped the engine cover in my old boat from a bike tipping over during our travels. Not to mention the moving blankets make good dog beds when camping etc.

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We have haulded kids bikes in the boat before when headed for long camping trips. Made sure nothing was going to touch the seats, and tied the bikes together so they wouldn't move.

It isn't the best situation, but for a every now & then thing.. shouldn't be a big deal on the carpet. Might want to wrap a small towel around the offending -rub areas.. just to reduce any risk

This is what I do also. I put an old "car towel" down where the axle, etc. lays on the carpet. Works fine for kids bikes, but a couple of adult sized bikes may be too much to keep off of the seats. I always thought it would work to weld a 2" tube like the truck has for the hitch receptacle to the top of the drop hitch (the part with the ball that you can remove). Then a guy could slide a bike rack into that tube. Kind of a double decker trailer hitch.

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I think there are a number of companies who make a bike rack that slips over a 2" stinger in your receiver. That would allow you to tow with the rack & bikes in place.

Here is one.

And another

One more

Might make sharp turns interesting. Definitely would have to mount the bikes a bit high so they would clear the trailer tongue.

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Bicycles in a Malibu? SINNER!!!

Any way to turn board racks into bike racks? That or build something that lets you carry bikes on the platform.

That is my plan. I have design in mind to fabricate a rack that sits on the swimstep. I'll post pics when I am done. At first I thought about picking up some extra swim step brackets and building on that but then I figured throwing the swim step in the boat would be a PITA and in the way. This design I will put on top of the step and be able to leave on there even in the water to get to the final destination, otherwise I'd have to solve getting from the ramp to the house (campsite, whatever) with two bikes and a boat trailer and an Armada full of stuff with a Thule box on top. This will mount with no drilling and have backing to prevent scratching.

I have picked up a couple of Thule rooftop racks for holding the bikes as a part of this fabrication.

TKREDLINE - Thought about front reciever since I have a very curved driveway, I have an Armada and they are available, but decided since I can back into my garage OK without it I am going to skip it.

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