[pmhellings]

My GF and I never go camping without our bike. We both enjoy road bikes but those aren't the best around campgrounds. We solved tha problem by finding some used "Hybrid" bikes that have 700C wheels. ( the same size that road bikes use. With the factory wheels in place we have fat tire campground and trail bikes. When we want to ride on paved roads we remove the fat tire wheels and install road wheels from our high tech lightweight bikes. Not as good as having dedicated bikes for each type of riding but a good compromise. The extra wheels store in the TV and only weigh a couple of pounds.

The bike rack is a Thule rack that uses a 2" receiver. After some research, I decided that the 2" square tube between the rear frame horns was plenty strong enough. I bought a bolt on receiver from Harbor Freight. This uses 1/2" bolts to be bolted through vertically. I prefer bolting in two directions, so I welded a piece of 1-1/2" angle iron to the HF receiver. If you don't have welding abilities, you could bolt the angle iron on with several bolts. After removing the fiberglass cover from the rear bumper, I was able to bolt the receiver on with two 1/2" bolts and two 3/8" bolts. I then cut out the fiberglass bumper cover in the way of the hitch and reinstalled it.

I had seen opinions on the forum that the rear bumper wasn't strong enough to support bikes, so I decided to test it. I put a 6' metal pipe in the receiver and sat on the end of it to see if the rear bumper flexed. It did, about 1-1/2" at the end of the 6' pipe. That translates to about 1/4" at the receiver. No big deal.

To aid the rack in keeping the bikes in place without bouncing, I drilled two 5/16" holes in the back side of the rear shell, about 18" away from the edge of the stone guar. I installed a Stainless 5/16" eyebolt in each hole with fender washers and nuts on each side to keep from compressing the foam sandwich. These are drilled and mounted where the rear shell turns into a radius for the rear roof. This is the most rigid part of the shell and the fender washers and nuts are hidden behind the plastic molding in the interior. I use a ratchet strap to lightly tension the bikes and rack. Just enough to minimize the motion over bumpy roads.

7,000 miles of all types of road conditions and the setup has worked very well.

Paul