Mountaineer bike racks.......

[SlickWillie]

Does anyone use the slideout back bumper bike rack on their Mountaineer? We had thoughts about buying a couple bikes, so I looked at the rack, and the upright square tubing is missing. I drove to Gooding RV in Mission, TX and looked at one on the lot. That thing has so much slop, the bikes are sure to get against the back of the trailer in transit. I would build something to hold two bikes, but all the tools are back at the home base. BTW, I was not impressed at all with Gooding. When I asked the service manager about the bike rack, he had no idea what I was talking about. In fact, he told me I needed to contact my dealer. I was just interested in seeing what ours was missing. Makes me wonder what else he doesn't know.

[ggranch]

Will,
Hi there from Missouri. As you might recall, I am looking forward to buying the 303 in a couple of months (seems like forever). I have looked at the rack on two of the units at Trailside and while they were not super tight, they seemed solid. The upright is just a square tube (either 1 1/4 or 1 1/2") with a through hole at the base for a pin and a welded in 3/8 rod/hook at the top. Seems like it was about 32-36" tall. I believe the weak link may be the pin at the base. It was a straight pin with a ball detent and a pull ring. If the pin wasn't placed in the tube properly it would be easy to lose. I think I will use a tether on mine when I get it. May be over kill though since my bike has more time on the trailer than on the ground. Need to fix that too! LOL As for the "dealer" in Mission, if he reads the Brochure on your rig he may "know" 1/2 that much! (no laughter here) Good luck and drop me a line when you get the time. Bob

[Craig A]

I modified my rack and use it for a pair of long wheelbase recumbent bikes. I took the stupid plastic tray out and replaced it with 0.25 aluminum diamond plate. Then I positioned some front fork holders on the diamond plate. Now I remove the front wheels and put them in the truck and screw the forks down into the holders and I'm ready to move down the road. The diamond plate also will be better for generators, or anything else I decide to carry.

[Gumby56]

I use mine and have made no modification (although they sound great!). I load on a 6 year olds bike, 2 scooters, and 2 big wheels. I use about 6 bungee cords of varying lengths. I'm able to do this and keep the payload off the back of the trailer. I do have the stock square tube and I use that to secure the items as well as the pre-made holes in the stock plastic bottom.

Hope that helps!!

[AZCampinfool]

Will, I use our rack like Gumby describes above. We have not had any trouble and the bikes do not ride close to the back of fiver. Here is a picture of the rack extended with no bikes. If you look close, you can see the upright sitting in it's place right near the aluminum bumper. It has an eyelet sticking up near the top of it. It is just a square piece of tubing like others described.

Here is another pic with bikes attached. You can see the upright on the rear of the rack holding the bikes. The only thing holding the bikes to the upright and rack are bungee cords. We have driven several thousand miles with this setup with no problem.

[SlickWillie]

Thanks for the input. I think I probably spent the bike money on fishing gear today. I like the idea of the aluminum plate. I have a friend that builds those big race car trailers, and occasionally they have some large pieces of the plate left over. Not sure what my generator weighs, but it might get used more than the bicycles would.

[Craig A]

If you put on the diamond plate, make sure you drill some random holes in it so it will drain. The other thing I did was to make the area where I drilled the holes was indented so the water would flow that way and drain through the holes. Also, I used stainless screws to install mine since there's quite of mix of different metals when you do this.

[tcorbitt]

Hi,
We use ours every trip. We usually have 4 mountian bikes on the rack and they get secured with a few straps with no problems. I agree the tube seems sloppy, but after securing the bikes, we have had no problems. On an occasion when we only had two bikes, the issue with sloppyness seems worse and if we normally traveled with only two, I would need to implement some type of solution.

The biggest issuee I have is the amount of rubbing the bikes experience. Paint rubs off. If they were expensive bikes, this would be a huge problem, but then again, if they were expensive, I think leaving them on the back and at campgrounds unlocked would be an even bigger problem..

Tim

[Craig A]

tcorbitt, you should try the solution I described above, no rubbing and the bike are on and very well anchored.

[tcorbitt]

Hi Craig, Your modifications to better support the bikes sounds great. I think I will give this a try this year. I pull the front wheels and carry them in the truck as you suggest, just never though of the more obvious, fork clamps for the carrier. Great idea. Tim

[beancounter]

The diamond plate mod sounds like a great one. We needed a solution to carry five bikes with us (I still don't think they'll all fit on the rack) and the pull-out rack seemed like a good one. Fork mounts will make things even easier.

My only concern is the weight of the diamond plate itself. I suppose if it is aluminum it won't be as heavy as the stainless steel variety. But, the label on the Mountaineer pull-out states a maximum capacity of 200#. Isn't the diamond plate a bit heavier than the corrugated plastic tray it replaces?

And a follow-up question, if I may...

Has anyone considered using marine grade plywood as a replacement for the plastic tray? Is it lighter or heavier than the diamond plate?

Geez! I don't even have my Mountaineer yet and I'm already working on the mods!

[Craig A]

I used aluminum diamond plate and I think it weighed 7 pounds. A little heavier than the plastic, but well worth it.