Bicycle Rack on Rear of Mountaineer

[2Wanderers]

My Mountaineer has a rear bumper which I believe has very little hitch capability. The gauge of the metal is rather light. I will probably wait until my warranty has expired for any modifications. Has anyone sucessfully (or otherwise) mounted a bicycle rack to their rear bumper. I have a Swagman bicycle rack which went in the receiver on my previous 5er (SOB) which had a solid frame and a very heavy gauge rear bumber welded to it. Most of us have bikes. You would think they would make this a little easier on us who do. I am comtemplating a ladder bicycle rack, but don't look forward to mounting and unmounting the bikes. Any thoughts?

[clutch]

If you look at the rear bumper you will see that it is only tack welded in a few spots. A local shop cut our bumper loose and moved it in toward the coach and welded it on all sides. They then welded a 4x6 piece of steel tubing and then welded a hitch on to that. It is a nice solid mount and we have towed our quads on a flat trailer to Arizona for several years now. If you do something similar it should surely hold a couple of bikes.

[cdaniels]

we started out with the ladder rack and hated it, scratched the bikes bad. Since we have a Montana with no bumper we has a hitch fabricated. Been pleased with it.

[Tom S.]

You might want to check with Montana, but I believe the sole purpose of that hitch is for a bicycle rack. As you noted, it's far too light for anything else.

[ray fischer]

Although my Mountaineer came with the discontinued big pull out bumper rack, I bought the 2 bike adjustable rack from camping world that bolts onto the bumper and works great. I didn't like the stock pull out tray as I think its flimsy. The one I bought is catalog # 37759 and sell for 79.99. I've heard horror stories about the ladder racks ripping the ladders off the trailer due to the weight while bouncing down the road. There are archived threads on this forum on ladders coming loose.