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Haulin bikes with your bu?


Bill_AirJunky

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Saw Adam M's FB post this weekend hauling his mt bike on his board racks & had to laugh.

I've debated on mounting a pair of bike racks up near the tongue of the boat trailer so the bikes sat on either side of the bow. Guess I need to figure out how to just use the racks on the tower instead. :Doh:

post-821-004815800 1319496632_thumb.jpg

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Yea, my racks don't stick out as far as the fenders on my trailer. I'd be more worried about the cranks, pedals or tires hitting the fiberglass.

Since I posted that pic, I have figured a way I could mount a bike rack on a piece of plywood. Then strap that to the top of the swimstep with some neoprene padding between the two to keep the swimstep from getting scared up. And I could mount at least 2 bikes on that rack & the tires would easily be 2' or 3' off the pavement.

Might be something I'll look into on one of our extended camping trips next summer....... if my wife can get over the fact that we'd look like the Beverly friggen Hillbillies. :crazy:

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I would think that if you did a receiver off of the back of the trailer that you could then just put a hitch mounted bike rack back there for transit.

I'm kind of thinking along these lines. But rather than using a receiver on the trailer (that I can hit with the prop & rudder), I'm thinking about making it attach to the swimstep. Seems like if I pad it right, it can't scar up the swimstep. And I can't see that 2 bikes (maybe 75 lbs?) would cause any problems. Biggest issue I see at the moment is locking them up.

BTW, I just bought a KLR 650 too. Haven't even thought about trying to get that in the boat yet. :lol:

Edited by Bill_AirJunky
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I'm kind of thinking along these lines. But rather than using a receiver on the trailer (that I can hit with the prop & rudder), I'm thinking about making it attach to the swimstep. Seems like if I pad it right, it can't scar up the swimstep. And I can't see that 2 bikes (maybe 75 lbs?) would cause any problems. Biggest issue I see at the moment is locking them up.

BTW, I just bought a KLR 650 too. Haven't even thought about trying to get that in the boat yet. :lol:

I was thinking that you could have some mounts welded to the trailer that wouldn't be in the way that would provide a quick release setup for a modified receiver. Then you'd have a spot for the bike rack. When none of it is mounted, it wouldn't get in the way at all.

If you have a truck, the other option would be to set up a rack system on top of the shell if you have one. If not, there are racks systems that go from rail to rail & you could still do one over the bed & not get in the way (too much) of cargo space.

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Yea, I'd have to think about how to do the rack on the trailer. Maybe have receivers on either side & have a rack that spans across the two.

I already have a paddleboard rack on the top of the truck. I can't imagine wanting to bring it all so maybe adapting the crossbars with bike racks is another way to do it. We brought the paddleboards with us on several trips last year. But found that we don't use them as much if we're not camped right on the water. I can see the bikes being similar in that we would only bring them certain places where they would get used.

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If the shell is taken with the paddle boards, is there a spot on the front of the truck to put a 2" receiver tube that you could slide a bike rack into? I think Pete was headed that route.

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Yea, I'd have to think about how to do the rack on the trailer. Maybe have receivers on either side & have a rack that spans across the two.

I already have a paddleboard rack on the top of the truck. I can't imagine wanting to bring it all so maybe adapting the crossbars with bike racks is another way to do it. We brought the paddleboards with us on several trips last year. But found that we don't use them as much if we're not camped right on the water. I can see the bikes being similar in that we would only bring them certain places where they would get used.

That's exactly what I was thinking. But if you've already got the rack system, it would a lot more affordable & way less hassle to get the bike mounts for it. I'm not sure how much gear you've got to put on the racks, but you may be able to get a couple of bikes on there even with a paddleboard. Even on my little Audi I could get a bike mount & a Button Down 6 (snowski/snowboard attachment) mount on the bars at once. They've got so many different rack setups for kayaks now that I'd be willing to bet that unless you've got a fleet of paddleboards you'll be able to put a lot more on there than you think.

EDIT: Front receiver like martin suggests would be sweet too.

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HEhe, thats another interesting idea. I've thought it would be cool to have a Snowsport snow plow too, which uses a front receiver. Holy smokes it's getting expensive.... I'm gonna need a shop to hold all this crap. :crazy:

One issue I can see with mounting them on either the front or back is the lighting. Blocking the headlights or taillights can't be a good thing.

Edited by Bill_AirJunky
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I was going to suggest a front receiver too. I put one on our tow rig because the new boat is near impossible to jacknife into my storage unit without it. It was cheap (under $150 delivered) a snap to put on (ok, not a snap, but easy enough for a hack like me) and it looks factory. I've been toying with the idea of slipping a hitch mounted bike rack in there for longer trips.

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HEhe, thats another interesting idea. I've thought it would be cool to have a Snowsport snow plow too, which uses a front receiver. Holy smokes it's getting expensive.... I'm gonna need a shop to hold all this crap. :crazy:

One issue I can see with mounting them on either the front or back is the lighting. Blocking the headlights or taillights can't be a good thing.

I have a hitch mounted Thule & I don't think that the lighting thing comes into play. I'll have to look next time I've got it mounted, but I don't think that the bikes are quite wide enough for it to be a problem.

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In February 1997 we took off from Bend in a snowstorm towing our travel trailer to spend about a month touring the Baja Peninsula.

I had a front receiver mounted to the front of my new 454 Chevy xtracab pickup. We carried our sailboards inside the trailer on the floor.

Our son went with us so there was 3 of us.

We had a fiberglass pickup canopy and the back of our rig was filled with supplies.

The problem was that with 3 bicycles mounted on the front of our pickup the headlights did not work very well.

The net result was we tried to be done driving before dark.

That did not always work out.

I can remember a couple of times it was pretty sketchy after dark.

I had just bought the nifty receiver mount bike rack and had not tried it out before hand.

The maiden voyage was over a month and at least 5000 miles.

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