Milton Keynes

Drilling holes in the roof of our popup doesn't appeal to me at all. Ours has an aluminum roof, not the infamous Coleman ABS plastic roof which was a constant topic of discussion on the popup website I used to frequent. But our popup has an air conditioner on top, so it would be kind of hard trying to find a way to mount a bike rack on top. At any rate, my wife, two children, and I are kind of outgrowing our popup and are thinking of getting a travel trailer of some kind in the near future. So I'm not willing to go through the expense and trouble of trying to mount a bike rack to the popup only to either sell it or trade it in.

Elbeinlaw

I never particularly liked the idea, but I know it's been done. If you're looking at camping trailers, take a look at the Airstreams. They're expensive, but if you look at build quality, they're far and away above anything else out there. Of course you may not want to spend the money if you're going to downsize again when the kids are grown. When we went from the popup to our first Airstream, the kids were out of the house already, so we were able to go somewhat smaller. Let me know if you have questions about the Airstream. Good luck finding a trailer. And let us know what you did about the bikes when you buy a trailer!

Darth Lefty 

The bikes are pretty happy holding themselves down and upright with their own weight and the stuff packed around them. This works a lot better on my bikes with internal cables and much much better on my MTB than my road bike because of the extra clearance around the fork crown. My wife's bike has gotten scuffed up on the down tube, so that's why I folded up a blanket to wedge under them as you see. The wheels are well above the level of the hitch and trailer chassis, and am not sure if the wheels protrude much further than the bumper. We have a load distributing hitch that puts the ball back about half a foot so the first thing to hit the bike wheel would be the propane tank, and it would need to be pretty crossed up, and the handlebars are high enough to miss the tanks.

Properly, we should have a tailgate pad like the ones from Dakine and Fox, but we don't. They add padding and straps for more peace of mind.

Milton Keynes

What I have done when I had a bike and a bunch of other stuff to pack into the bed of my truck is to cut a pool noodle lengthwise just down to the center hole, then wrap it around the downtube and one side of the fork with the handlebars turned sideways, obviously. Then set it over the tailgate of the truck over another pool noodle, then use a cargo strap wrapped around the top tube and attached to tiedowns in the bed of the truck, then tightened. It holds the bike in place and the pool noodles prevent the tailgate and bike from scratching each other or wearing paint off.

fietsbob

Now with the big tire high lifted trucks they have an offset downward hitch ball going in the rear receiver sub frame..


the lighter load of a bike rack, a duplex hitch ball + another receiver welded in one piece to take a bike rack would seem possible..


Loaded front bike rack not going to block your headlights?





...

teejaywhy

cdnred

Might be too late to get a response..? I've got a Coachmen Apex 17FB similar in size to your 17ft Casita and have 2 mountain bikes that I'd like to take with me. Would you have a few pics of your setup that you could share with me..? I like the idea of having them inside but worry about them bouncing around causing damage while inside. I'd like to see how you managed to secure them and get around that. Are you happy with your setup..?

70sSanO

We had a trailer for a number of years. Initially I installed fork mounts on one side of the plywood for the front table benches. Mounted 2 bikes in opposite directions with front wheels removed. This was my preferred method as there were only 2 of us as I really don’t want bikes subjected to the elements, and thieves.

After we had kids I had a hitch mounted rack made for me, (1985) and had a receiver welded onto the rear bumper of the trailer. I installed tail lights on the rack just in case the trailer tail lights were impeded by the bikes. I never liked them outside in the back.

We are back to just 2 of us, and no trailer, and got a minivan just for the purpose of putting the bikes inside with the front wheels removed, it is also a great surf vehicle. I’m not a fan of having a van but it makes life easier. If we got another trailer, I’d get a van that could pull it. End of story.

John

Cougrrcj

Back in the '70s, my folks had a '69 F250, standard cab, 8' bed - and a 11-1/2' slide in camper. Truck was weighed empty and again with the camper - the thing was soooo heavy and hanging off the back end of the truck that it actually took weight off the front wheels of the truck. Dad mounted the 16" split-rim spare tire in front of the grill. Better, but still light. Then dad had a channel iron bracket made to mount in front of the spare tire that held his '66 Honda S-90 motorcycle. The 'runner' dropped down on the one side to allow the cycle to be rolled up into place. The runner pivoted in such a way (think teeter-totter) that it was pretty well balanced - only about 20 pounds to pick up the whole thing with the Honda on it and install the latching pin...Problem solved.



I wish I had a pic of the whole rig loaded up and ready to go...

They drove that rig from Cleveland OH to Mexico City, then followed the Gulf Coast all the way to Key West, then back up the East Coast. 13,000 miles. Worked like a charm. They DID have to lock the motorcycle to the mount/truck with a heavy chain so it wouldn't get stolen in Mexico...


.

jackb

My Casita is not parked near my house, and I am not likely to get to it anytime soon to take a picture, but the basic principle is to position one or more bikes along side the side dinette table right up against the edge of the table. Then run a bungee cord around the bikes and then around the center post that holds up the dinette table. Make sure that the bike cannot roll either forward or backward. Works fine for me. Good luck.

Camilo

What kind of knocks is Fiama getting?

I'm surprised to hear that. I'm not disbelieving it, but that goes against my personal experience years ago and more recent experiences could be different.

We traveled throughout Europe for nearly 5 months and thousands of miles - Trondheim, Norway to Naples, Italy and Amsterdam, Netherlands to Budapest, Hungary and many points in between. We had our kids in a VW camper van. It had a three bike Fiama carrier on the back and I bought a tray and bolted it onto the front bumper for the 4th bike. Now these weren't huge, heavy e-bikes or such, but normal, cheap, heavy rigid mountain bikes of that era, lets say 30 or so pounds each. The Fiama carrier was care free and easy to use, and showed no signs of any problems whatsoever after nearly 5 months and thousands of miles of constant travel ... and it had been used extensively before we got the van. When I got home I tried to find a Fiama supplier in the US, thinking it was the best carrier I'd ever seen, but couldn't. There's a lot of upright type of carriers available in the US now compared to then, but based on my experience, unless something has changed, I'd recommend them, especially for a set up that would require the carrier to be mounted on the vertical rear wall of the trailer, if a hitch receiver wasn't an option.

That said, we pull a travel trailer with a pickup. The bed has a simple fiberglass shell covering it. We carry our gravel bikes in the bed, inside the locked shell with the front wheels removed, and the forks attached to fork mounts screwed into a 2X6. We can slide the 2X6 out onto the open tail gate and back into the bed to make it easier to put the bikes in and out. This is ideal, imho. I couldn't stand the thought of any bike being exposed to weather or thievery for all the traveling we do with our trailer - months at a time. Around town and short holiday jaunts - fine, but not for the long haul. But even though we have a variety of hitch-mount and rooftop bike carriers, I carry my road or gravel bike inside my Impreza 99% of the time.

If you've ever thought of replacing your flush bed cover with a shell, this is another great reason to do so. You only have to lift the rear wheel onto the open tail gate, roll the bike in backwards, attach the fork to the for mounts, slide the whole thing into the bed (easy) and close and lock it. Great, safe and body-friendly option for us senior citizens.

Since this thread is a few months old, I'd also be interested in hearing what you came up with.

tomhank

<!--td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->I frequently recommend Swagman device to rig owners who also enjoy cycling. With a bike rack and other handy features, this package provides excellent adaptability.

IcySwan1 

Great information from many folks in the know. RV life is a logical cross over to many as we retire and still want our bikes. We have a 5th wheel which complicates the bike thing even more. Bikes can’t be carried in the bed of the truck or over the tailgate. Our mechanic could weld up a hitch on the trailer but I decided against it for a variety of reasons, but mainly the stress on the mount bouncing some 45’ behind the cab and also far beyond the rear axle. Some do it just fine, but I decided against it.

I was trending towards a front hitch mount on our F350, but She Who Must Be Obeyed nixed the idea. She did not like the look and did not like it in her line of vision. We are older duffers and there is no way I would be able to put her ebike on a truck roof rack. So they travel inside for now. It is not ideal, but I can secure them from flying around.

An earlier poster suggested checking out the Airstream forum. I would also suggest reviewing the issue on iRV2 forum. There bikes are incidental to RVs but the knowledge of RVs is deep

Mike