I have a Chevy Trailblazer SUV, and I'm thinking about buying a pop-up (folding) camper. We would like to take our bicycles with us when we go camping. I currently use a bike carrier that mounts to my trailer hitch. So - if I connect the camper to my trailer hitch, what's the best way to haul the bicycles? They don't fit in the back of the SUV, and I DON'T want to put them on the roof of the SUV. Does the camper have a trailer hitch in the back?
There are several options.
It is possible to use a hitch rack for your bikes and use an extended reciever to tow a pop-up, but it will put more weight on your hitch.
You can probably get a rack that would mount to the back of the pop-up, but that might put too much weight on the back of the pop-up, making the tongue weight too light.
The best thing to do is to put some bars (like for a roof mounted bike rack) on the top of the pop-up and carry the bikes on top of it. That would put the extra weight of the bikes directly over the wheels of the trailer. Just make sure the pop-up that you get is strong enough to accomodate packing stuff on top of it.
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December 30th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
There are several options.
It is possible to use a hitch rack for your bikes and use an extended reciever to tow a pop-up, but it will put more weight on your hitch.
You can probably get a rack that would mount to the back of the pop-up, but that might put too much weight on the back of the pop-up, making the tongue weight too light.
The best thing to do is to put some bars (like for a roof mounted bike rack) on the top of the pop-up and carry the bikes on top of it. That would put the extra weight of the bikes directly over the wheels of the trailer. Just make sure the pop-up that you get is strong enough to accomodate packing stuff on top of it.
References :
December 30th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
If the spare tire on the pop-up is located in the rear of the trailer you might be able to use Thule's "Spare Me" bike carrier. It carries two bikes. I have one but it is mounted on my standard size spare on my car. I don't know if it will fit on a camper spare.
http://www.thuleracks.com should have the info. I used to sell the things, but no one ever wanted to put on on the back of a pop-up.
You might have to go with a roof mount system. Look to spend about $120 per bike rack. If you don't have roof racks already then figure dropping about $250 more.
References :
December 30th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
My vote is to go with a rooftop mount on your trailer - we have used a roofrack system with three bike mounts on it for over 10 years with no problem. We have a Coleman tent trailer and our system was installed through the dealer for warranty reasons. On our previous tent trailer, we mounted a hitch on the back bumper and tried a hitch mount rack for 2 bikes, that was a disaster, the bouncing of the trailer broke the bike rack in the first day… the rest of the trip was bikes bungee corded to the roof of the trailer - also not recommended! Try the fleetwood camping trailer site - check out the accessories.
References :
http://www.fleetwoodcampingtrailers.com/accessories.aspx#