bike racks

[harleyrider]

Well Santa(aka my wife)got me a mountain bike for Christmas.Not sure if shes telling me I need the excerise or just wants me out of her hair(lol)

Anyway now I need a bike rack.I`am reading good and bad on the bike racks that go on the rear ladder of our rigs.Any first hand knowledge on these racks??

I have also read where some people have a 2 inch receiver hitch welded on their king pin and put a bike rack their.Of corse going this way means hauling the Montana to a welding shop.That could be a problem maybe!!!!Or I might be able to have a mobile welding shop come to me for the work.

Don`t want my mountain bike costing me a "mountain" of money.

[jrgwdenner]

The most economical fix is a ladder rake. They work just fine. Just be sure to put foam pipe insulation or some other material around the frame where you strap them on. The straps and the ladder will wear away the paint on the bike if you don't. They travel well back there. Ours rode all the way to Alaska and back with no problem except for the paint wearing off because it wasn't protected.

[ken]

We also have a bike rack that we got from Campers Word that hooks onto the rear ladder. it comes with two tyedowns for two bicycles. It has worked good for us. Just raise it high enough so sthe wheels dont drag when you go into a service station. It comes with Velcro straps to secure the front wheels so they don't scratch the Montana's.

[OntMont]

Have you considered making space for it in your storage lockers? We carry two bikes in there as well as a lot of other stuff. You will need to take the wheels off and find some padding, but it works for us, and keeps the bikes dry and safe.

[CountryGuy]

Hidden hitch on front of Truck. The mounts on the pin boxes are nice, you will have to stand on something to put the bikes up there, and if you have a air pin, like ours, you cannot use one. This has been debated here several times, if you want some good reading, go search the archives!

[kdeiss]

We use the latter rack works great.

[DCP]

I have the bike rack from Campers World and hate it! It's a pain to load and unload and hard to say when the screws holding the ladder on will pop out. I'm going to go with welding on to the rear of the frame.

[capn chris]

I didn't care for the ladder rack, so built a wooden flat rack for the truck bed. Sits in front of the RV cap and behind the truck cab. Bought "fork mounts" and bolted to 2x4s which make a frame right behind the cab on the bed. Frame is turnbuckled to bed hooks in my Ford. Bikes ride in the bed upright, but in the weather. Need covers. They rode great all the way to AK and back, w/lots of fun biking all along the way.

[Illini Trekker]

Right now we just take the front tire and wheel off and carry them behind the cab. But we are looking at a front hitch for the truck. We will use the front hitch when in tow, then the rear hitch when not in tow.

[BillyRay]

we have a bike rack on the front of our truck...works good except cuts down on head lights if you travel at night.

[jpbcny]

I use a front mounted receiver for my bike carrier, very easy to install, reasonably priced. I got it from J.C. Whitney, you can check it out here: Hidden Hitch

JP

[Sweetfire]

Yakima and Thule both make high quality bicycle roof mounts for trucks. Might even keep some bugs off the front cap.

Does anyone know for sure if adding a 2 inch receiver to the rear of the Montana would affect the warranty? Local dealer gave me a name for a shop to do the work but wouldn't do it themselves.

[WildBigBill]

Our dealer installed our 2" reciever and never said anything about voiding the warranty?

[jrgwdenner]

Sweetfire, in recent years we were told that mounting a rear receiver hitch would void the warranty. Don't know if that has changed or not.

[Wrenchtraveller]

When my Kids were younger and came with us we had a Yakima rack system and all 4 bikes rode on the roof of our pickup. It was an expensive system but worked very well.

[sreigle]

We toted two adult mountain bikes on a ladder rack for two years and over 20,000 miles. The ladder and mounts are plenty strong to handle it. The biggest drawback for me was having to remove the bikes to go up on the roof. And we only used the bikes once in two years so we gave them to one of our kids and his family.

I also had a situation with our first Montana, detailed in another thread, where I essentially put the bikes too low on the rack, caught a bike wheel on a driveway and pushed it up at least a foot. There was some damage to the ladder's tubes but none at all to the Montana and its mounts. The moral is to be sure the entire bike is above the bottom of the ladder.

I'm totally convinced the ladder is plenty strong to handle it. But I did not like having to remove the bikes to get to the roof.

[RADHAZJOE]

two bikes on the ladder. 17000 miles the ladder is beganing to sag. Have to finr a different wethod.

[thook]

I welded a receiver and then mounted it to the hitch with bolts. I then use a standard receiver hitch type of Yakima bike carrier. Works great however loading/unloading the bikes takes some work. Works best to put the bikes in the back of the pick up, get in the bed and then lift them onto the hitch.

[worknomore]

Hidden Hitch on front of the truck - inexpensive, easy to install, & works great. No drilling/welding required.

To clear up the frame warranty question, the folks from Lippert said (at last year's GL Regional rally) that carrying anymore than 150 lbs. (including the weight of the reciever/bracket assy.) attached to the frame will void your 3 yr. frame warranty...

[neighborman]

I have the ladder mounted rack from Camping World as well, and it has worked out fairly well, except that after two round trips from Tennessee to Arizona, the ladder mounting bolts loosened up quite a bit. Now I only use the ladder mount when going short distances, and am planning on attaching to the frame, a light weight receiver hitch on the rear of the fifth wheel.