Bike rack on a tire swingarm

[Hayes]

Is this crazy?
Too much lever/weight?
Too high?

Haven't pulled the trigger on the rack yet, but here is what you see:

Bump It Off Road bumper and tire carrier with an HD spindle.
2" receiver on the tire carrier.
16 alumnim wheel.
295/75r16 tire.
Kuat Sherpa 2.0 rack (32 lbs).
Assume 2x 30 lb bikes.

 

[slowtwitch]

That looks too nutty to me. The beauty of Kuat racks is that they are easy to get a bike on, and it's not on your roof ie prone to damage. Also too much weight imo.

I just did the same thing also with a Kuat, but it's much lower than that. It gets the rack up and out of the way... they can really drag/hit on stuff. So if we are on rougher terrain I can take it out of the normal receiver and put it in the swingaway. As you know the rack itself is hefty.. get a bike or two (or three or four) and it's a lot of extended/leveraged weight. Mine does not have a spare tire on it, so that helps.

 

[rickc]

I don't like that long cantilever at all. A very long time ago, I had a bike rack that simply sandwiched a steel, square-tubed "T" at the back and a "-" at the front of the spare tire with two rods, one at each side. A strap connected the centre of the two rods and ran underneath the spare. The top of the "T" section had a swing-out bar with wobbles in it on each side to which up to two full size bikes hung by the crossbars. Straps secured the bikes to the bars. No where near as fancy as the newer bike racks but I used the thing for many years and never had any issues. It would be really easy to make one.

 

[mtndude23]

I added my receiver tube to the swing arm, then put my rack in that. I've never had any problems, but don't wheel hard with my bikes on there.

 

[Explorerinil]

I would bet that would work fine as long as for cognitive of how high and far it sticks out... however it looks weird. What about taking a yakama tray bike rack and making a longer extension so it’s slides in your receiver and fits close to the spare tire.

 

[Hayes]

I'm going to have a receiver tube welded to the arm itself, below the tire. This will lower the rack (but still keep it higher than typical) and get it tucked in closer to the wheel.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Lucky j]

I'm going to have a receiver tube welded to the arm itself, below the tire. This will lower the rack (but still keep it higher than typical) and get it tucked in closer to the wheel.

Thanks for the feedback.

This would make way more sence. Reducing the center of gravity, reducing the stress on the swivel of the tire carrier and reducing the wind drag, improving gas milage and again, reducing force on the tire carrier spindle.