Les Izmore
Junior Ranger
Hi All!
There has been a lot of discussion about various ways of accommodating bicycles while towing a trailer, and this is a unique solution that I hadn't seen before. It could be a solution that would fit someone's particular needs, and seems to have fewer cons that most of the other solutions that we are aware of.
The advantage of this setup is it gets the bikes up high enough that they probably can't obscure the tow vehicle's tail lights (I'm sure some car models have their tail lights set high enough up that there are exceptions to this generalization/approximation), and the bikes are probably better protected from road grime (provided the tow vehicle has decent mud flaps) than most other solutions. It is sold by Arvicka. Here it is mounted on the tongue of a Casita.
For some tow vehicles (perhaps most, since many are SUVs), it is still possible to jackknife the bikes between the tow vehicle and the camper, but I'm thinking a similar home-built design that cantilevers over the front pass-thru on a 550/560 would minimize if not eliminate that issue. Another advantage would be that the bikes would be visible through the front windows of the camper, in case someone is trying to pry them loose in the middle of the night. A con would be if you plan to drive the bikes to a particular departure point that isn't your campsite - if so, you would want a solution where the bikes stay with the tow vehicle, not the camper.
The primary benefits of this rack designs are 1) it doesn't impede access to the galley, and 2) the bikes aren't on top where they can accidentally be scraped off when going through a drive through or any place with low overhead clearance. And I suspect from the look of it, it may be cheaper than a lot of tray-mount rack solutions that are currently on the market.
(Oops! It is made in Sweden, the folks in the Casita bought their in Canada)
There has been a lot of discussion about various ways of accommodating bicycles while towing a trailer, and this is a unique solution that I hadn't seen before. It could be a solution that would fit someone's particular needs, and seems to have fewer cons that most of the other solutions that we are aware of.
The advantage of this setup is it gets the bikes up high enough that they probably can't obscure the tow vehicle's tail lights (I'm sure some car models have their tail lights set high enough up that there are exceptions to this generalization/approximation), and the bikes are probably better protected from road grime (provided the tow vehicle has decent mud flaps) than most other solutions. It is sold by Arvicka. Here it is mounted on the tongue of a Casita.
For some tow vehicles (perhaps most, since many are SUVs), it is still possible to jackknife the bikes between the tow vehicle and the camper, but I'm thinking a similar home-built design that cantilevers over the front pass-thru on a 550/560 would minimize if not eliminate that issue. Another advantage would be that the bikes would be visible through the front windows of the camper, in case someone is trying to pry them loose in the middle of the night. A con would be if you plan to drive the bikes to a particular departure point that isn't your campsite - if so, you would want a solution where the bikes stay with the tow vehicle, not the camper.
The primary benefits of this rack designs are 1) it doesn't impede access to the galley, and 2) the bikes aren't on top where they can accidentally be scraped off when going through a drive through or any place with low overhead clearance. And I suspect from the look of it, it may be cheaper than a lot of tray-mount rack solutions that are currently on the market.
(Oops! It is made in Sweden, the folks in the Casita bought their in Canada)
