How To Carry Bikes On A Camper Trailer?
If you love the sport of cycling, you would probably want to carry your bicycle, or even your friends’ and families’, wherever you go. Likewise, camping and adventures on the road and up to the hills call camper trailers.
Most of us, by habit, love to carry cycles with us when we go camping. It provides you with additional activities in your list of adventures while you are out enjoying your picnic. With your family with you, you might even have to carry one or two extra bikes, including children’s.
That being said, you already have wandered to the thought of how to carry a bicycle on a camper trailer. While there are numerous ways you can consider carrying your bikes on your travel trailer, you should only go for the safest one.
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Easy Ways of Carrying Bike on Camper Trailer
Camper or travel trailers are often a form of non-motorized RV that comes in various sizes and styles. They are a breeze to set up and comprise efficient security through locking systems. Most of them range from anywhere from 13 to 50 feet and can fit up to 10 sleeping humans.
Well, if it’s that big, you should be able to fit bikes as well, right? That surely is an option but might not be the best one when a lot of you and your friends are camping and sleeping in.
Importance of Choosing The Right Bike Rack
Bike Racks are perhaps one of the most common ways to carry your bicycle on your travel trailer. It is also one of the safest ways to take your bike out camping, which guarantees you the convenience of carrying multiple bikes, sometimes up 4.
Most bike racks offer you the simplest loading and unloading methods, most of which only take a few minutes. Other than that, bike racks feature specialized locks and straps that keep the bikes being carried on the camping trailer secured and stable.
You wouldn’t want your bicycle to wobble and crash with your vehicle. Now that’s something that could scratch, mark, and damage both your bike frames and your camping trailer vehicle.
However, you may want to keep in mind that every bike rack carrier is designed to suit certain needs and you would have to consider a few factors before deciding on which bike rack would be most suitable to carry your bicycles on a camper trailer along the long roads.
You may want to consider the number of bikes you are about to carry for once. Affordability is another factor to take into reflection. Furthermore, a daunting feature of bike racks that makes many fret incessantly from using it is the way you may want to access it.
Unless you have some help with the loading and unloading process of a bike, you may want to avoid using a roof mount rack on your towing vehicle. Easily accessible carrier options include Hitch mount, bumper mount, or tire mounts racks.
With bike racks, the downside of carrying your ride on a camper trailer includes exposure to heat and moisture. Although a cover can help provide a certain degree of protection. Besides, the locks integrated into bike racks are sometimes not strong enough, making your bike more prone to theft if you aren’t too careful when your truck is pulled up for a long.
Here are a few bike rack options to consider.
Related reading: Transporting Bicycle in Pickup Truck
On Hitch Mount
Swagman Bicycle Carrier TRAVELER XC2 RV Approved Hitch Mount Bike RackCHECK CURRENT PRICE
There’s a reason why many of the travel trailers you may come across, perhaps even the one you own is outfitted with a hitch attachment. This is how hitch mount bike racks are made suitable for carrying bikes on camper trailers.
It is also worth mentioning that not all towing trailers are equipped for hitch installment. You may only attach a hitch if the structure of your trailer is sturdy enough to be able to carry more than one bike. In such situation, even if you can install a hitch, a trailer might be prone to damage under the load of the bikes.
Other than hitch mount racks being extremely easy to install, the biggest advantage of such a carrier is its ability to carry up to 4 or 5 bikes securely. Many people also like how a hitch mount bike rack can be mounted on bumpers as well, making the carrier all the more versatile. However, coupling a hitch to a trailer’s bumper might be more damaging than you think.
A trailer’s bumper is not designed in a way a way that it can carry so much weight, once the bikes are affixed.
When on the road, the attached bikes wobble, sometimes more abruptly on rougher roads, with serious potential to cause damage to the bumper allowing to the downward pressure created by the contact.
To fix this issue, it may be a good idea to take away some of that downward contact pressure on the bumper. One way is to strap the bikes to the travel trailer, creating additional support for both the bumper and the bicycles.
As we have mentioned, the structure of the trailer would tell you whether you would be able to install a hitch safety. Likewise, the rigidity and hence the durability of the trailer also plays a vital role in deciding which hitch type is best for your travel trailer. Other than that, the hitch type would also have to be compatible to the frame width.
If you examine and find that your trailer is not equipped with a bumper that is all compatible with a hitch attachment, a quick and reliable fix is frame mount hitch receivers. Even then, you would need a seamlessly welded bumper, preferably with a dimension of 4 inches x 4 inches.
Likewise, you have the option to choose from either a platform style or hanging style bike rack. One of our favorite hitch mount bike racks from Swagman features ratcheting hooks and push button-equipped arms that make loading and off loading the bikes a breeze.
On Bumper Mount
Swagman RV Approved 4-Bike Bumper RackCHECK CURRENT PRICE
Second to hitch mount bike racks, the most popular and trusted bike rack style to carry bicycles when you’re out camping is perhaps the bumper mounting bike racks. These racks don’t require a hitch receiver, unlike a hitch mount rack but the similarity lies in the availability of platform style and hanging style racks.
Bumper mount bike rack requires U bolt attachments for the bike loading and securing. Another benefit of having bumper mount racks is how easy to use and install they can be while keeping the rear vehicle access totally free of a barrier.
Yet, not every bumper is made to carry a bike on a bumper mount bike rack. Bumpers constructed with high quality stainless steel with a continual design, preferably in the 4×4 dimension range can hold a bumper mount rack with a bike.
On the Roof of the Towing Vehicle
When driving a large vehicle like a camping trailer, a lot of people prefer hindrance free view both on the front and rear of their vehicle. One technique to make sure that no side of your vehicle is blocked in access, you can rely on a roof mount bike rack.
As the name suggests, the rack secures your bicycle, sometimes multiple, safely on the roof of the towing vehicle. However, if you own a towing vehicle with very high roof, you may want to keep in mind that loading and unloading a bike from a roof mounted rack is not the easiest task and if you are a one-man army, you’d have a tough time doing so.
On A-Frame Tongue Mount
Futura GP RV Bike Rack for Travel Trailer Tongue A-FrameCHECK CURRENT PRICE
With the help of a carrier, the A-frame or tongue mount bike rack is bolted and fixed into the vehicle’s tongue frame, and it is done so by mounting the bike rack on top of the travel trailer’s propane gas tank.
These sturdy racks are particularly used for traveling across the country for days and can be quite the help if you are two carries no more than 2 bikes. The position of the bike allows the driver to keep an eye on the bike and the rack through the rear mirror.
Though, that might be an issue for some who want more security and ease of hauling. Because the rack is hoven up so high on the tanks, loading and unloading the bike can be an arduous task when you can no help.
Haul Bike In the Truck Bed
Thule Bed-Rider Bike RackCHECK CURRENT PRICE
It’s not always the camper trailer that has to take in all the burden of the added weight of your bikes, every time you decide to head out camping and hit the road. A lot of times people lug their camper trailer while driving their trucks. Off road camper trailers can be readily towed to even the farthest distance, but only with the right vehicle.
If you have a truck bed that is at least 80 inches in length, you’ll have no issue carrying your bikes whiles towing the travel trailer. For smaller truck beds, consider using an automatic hitch to make movements more flexible especially in tight corners and slopes. You may use truck mount bike racks, for extra security and steadiness.
One of our favorites that offer an adequate locking system is a bed rider bike rack like Thule Bed-Rider Bike Rack. You can also use tonneau cover, hard cover, or shell covers to keep the bikes protected from whether, head and of course, the sight of possible thieves lurking around.
Tossing your bike at the back of your car sounds like a great idea when executed right. One of the ways that we recommend to make sure you’re your bike frame and vehicle are both damage free is using a good quality tailgate pad. These thick pads take only minutes to install and also let you take in multiple bikes while you tow your camper trailer, especially when you are you have a pickup truck.
Bed bike racks are a more solid option if your vehicle is not a tailgate truck type. These racks keep your bike steady at the back of your truck, without taking all the space available. Other than that, tonneau covers are a viable option that uses double rails as support, meaning whatever your truck size and type, you can use these covers to carry your bike.
Related reading: Best Truck Bed Bike Rack Reviews
Bring Bicycle Inside the Camping Trailer
Travel trailers usually have ample space to accommodate more than one bike. Although camping trailers come in various sizes, the size can mostly range from 13 to 50 feet. What’s great about camping trailers and carrying bikes and gears inside is the strong security you can be sure of. The doors and windows can be locked up.
One way to carry the bicycle on a camper trailer without thinking about your bikes or racks vanishing in thin air because of possible theft, if taking the bike inside the camping trailer itself. That would only be possible if your tailer has enough space for the bike you intend to carry and the additional gears that come with it.
What’s great about this particular way of carrying your bike on the road is that the process requires minimum effort and offers maximum security, at least when you are on the road. Some camping trailers have a specialized entry door, often referred to as a bike door. Through this door, you can effortlessly haul up and get your bike inside the caravan without difficulty.
A bike inside your vehicle means you have already compromised space, whether it’s the storage space or simply one where you can move freely to cook or clean. Every time you intend to use the washroom, you’ll have to move your bike a little here or there to make space. Few modern campers also consist of a gear garage that solves the storage issue.
Related reading: Bike That Fits In A Car
Final Thoughts
To conclude on the question of how to carry bike on a camper trailer, The safest, and possibly more professional way of taking your bicycle along with you to the camping ground is using a bike rack.
Other than causing the minimum damage to your vehicle and cycle, bike racks enable you to carry multiple bikes while saving you the hustle of folding up your bikes.
Carrying the bicycle inside your caravan camper is also a great option if you’re ready to sacrifice some of the inner space. If you’re towing the camper with a truck, your truck bed can always be used.
Still, one of the ways comes without a price. Hence you may have to choose the carrier method that best suits your vehicle, your camping trailer, and precisely the type of travel you are up for.
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