Can it be done?: Swing-out Tire Carrier and Carry 4 Bikes

[Wasatch]

Hi All.

I'm looking into a HC bumper, but have an issue.

The goal is to be able to have a tire carrier, and jerry can mount, AND a receiver hitch welded to the swing-out. On to of that, have the ability to mount a bike rack that carries up to 4 bikes that swings away with the spare tire, so I still have access to the tailgate.

Yes, I could just toss the rack onto the hitch in the bumper, but it would be very helpful to still be able to access the tailgate with the bumper loaded up (I have a cap that limits access if I can't open the tailgate/rear shell glass).

Essentially, I want to weld a receiver hitch to the swing arm to mount a bike rack like this:

onto a bumper like this:

Weight wise, I need the swing-out to be able to handle the 50 lb bike rack + potentially 150 lbs of bikes (heaviest scenario possible).

The questions:
Would a single pivot swing-out be able to handle a (fully loaded) 200# bike rack AND an 80# spare tire?

Or, do I look into a dual swing-out to distribute the weight better (Although the simplicity of a single would be nice)?

Any engineers/folks with swing-out bumpers care to give their opinions?

Cheers.

 

[Runt]

You need a CBI Off Road bumper.

 

[Digiratus]

That is a lot of weight to put on a single spindle.

When Monte built mine, he wouldn't allow us to add the weight of a high-lift to what you see. And that bumper is very beefy. With spare and fuel, you will be pretty much maxed out for carrying capacity. I don't see how you could add 4 bikes and a carrier to that.

 

[Kayak Taco]

I'd want a really heavy duty pivot. The usual trailer spindle pivots won't cut it. I'd also want a double shear mout style hinge. Even then I'd be worried. Imagine the hell that will come from your tire and 4 bikes liberating from your truck at 80mph.

 

[Ryanmb21]

You want to hang 600+ lbs off the back of your truck?

 

[mtndude23]

This is how I did mine, since the photo I've added the stock bumper cover bacck to the truck so my plate and plate lights are in the stock space again. One thing I will say though, with the bikes on there-it's really long!

 

[austintaco]

I think you will be at your limit of weight off the back of your vehicle. Does your spare still fit under the truck? If it is, design it with the intent that you can put your tire on the swing out if the bikes are not needed or under if you are going to carry a full load. For the record, my single swingout has a basket that I can carry fuel/water or propane and the spare. I have a Saris Freedom Spare tire rack that is a tray style and carries two bikes. That's the max I would want and have loaded it up with.

 

[Clutch]

You want to hang 600+ lbs off the back of your truck?

Think he needs a trailer...

 

[capturecolorado]

Would it work? Yes, but it would need to be effectively engineered in order to support the additional weight and leverage of the bikes, tire, and possibly gas can(s), hi-lift, etc.

Dual sheer spindle is key, but it'll have to be the burliest dual sheer you can get, and even then it's a lot of strain on the hinge. Aside from that, the latch is equally as important, for something like this I've had good success with what is basically the same principle in the latch as the hinge, where the latch uses a 1" pin, bronze bushings, and a 2000lb latch. Check it out, the first set is for a tire carrier a built for my Jeep a while back, that I eventually expanded into a bike rack (after eventually realizing the Thule rack into the tire carrier wasn't very stiff).

Problems with the Jeep bumper when it came to using the Thule T2 rack: bumper had flex, the hinge did not, but when Thule T2 was inserted to the swingout receiver, the entire bumper would flex and bounce. It's important to remember that any very little movement at the far end of the rack, translates into a significant amount of stress on all of the bumper components--the hinge, the bolts, the welds, the material...everything fatigues as a result of the additional strain.

Onto the pictures...

Anti crush sleeves, the bumper was 3/16" 2x6 steel tube, these were needed for preventing the tube from crushing inward. If I were to do this again, I would basically do the same design, but also weld the brackets to the face of the bumper for additional security.

This closure was a bit overengineered, but it's the last part of the entire system that could ever fail. You can see the bracket that attached to the bumper was identical to the hinge (I like symmetry).

After realizing the Thule didn't work so well, I decided to design something different, that had the bulk of the bikes' weight supported by the Jeep itself, and the tire carrier simply supported the back end. This system actually worked quite well, despite not being able to get into the back with bikes attached. In the long run, this could be designed to have the entire assembly attached to the tire carrier, and then just two clasps on top to allow everything to swing open, but also allow the stability you'd need while driving.

Then I got rid of the Jeep. And bought a Taco.

This setup lasted about a day, then I discovered my latch wasn't up to the task of supporting the bikes, so off it came.

Note: this setup didn't fail, it just bounced like crazy, so I decided not to possibly sacrifice my own and my friends' fancy carbon bikes with this arrangement. The rack itself worked great, I like the design, it's stable, secure (lockable), albeit slightly inconvenient that you have to pull the front wheel--especially now that my Fox 36 has 5 bolts to undo in order to get the wheel out.

Hope this helps, I've got some ideas for a new design that I hope to build when I build a new tire carrier bumper when I get rid of my flatbed and go back to a normal bed, it'll essentially mimic the design of TireGates, have either an integrated hitch, or have a bolt-on something.

 

[Box Rocket]

Cool solution CaptureColorado! Gives me some ideas for sure as I'm brainstorming how to haul my bike too. Good stuff.

 

[capturecolorado]

Thanks! I'll try to send you pictures of what I come up with when I finally get around to building the new stuff. Stable bike hauling is important to me, so hopefully what I have in mind pans out.

 

[character zero]

Keep us posted! I've got a NSR-4 as well, love the north shore racks!

Some nice bikes on here too. If ANY of you guys want a KNOLLY just ping me here or on mtbr I can get you hooked up like you wouldn't believe!

A quick pic of my tundra loaded with some wood to build freeride features and camping with the kid...

 

[Wasatch]

Good stuff here!

Thanks for the input CaptureColorado & mtndude23 .

I am looking for a set-up VERY similar to CaptureColorado's. Also, about the '600 lb' comment, It will actually be more like 250# MAX with the tire, bikes and rack included...

From this discussion, I have decided that I will probably eliminate the Jerry Can mount to save on weight. Because, having an empty bike rack on would be pretty comparable in weight. So, I'm thinking as long as I utilize a heavy duty pivot, this SHOULD work well.

Also, putting the hitch receiver closer to the latch rather than further away would be more secure when shuttling, agreed? Or does that not even matter...

 

[Dances with Wolves]

This is how I did mine, since the photo I've added the stock bumper cover bacck to the truck so my plate and plate lights are in the stock space again. One thing I will say though, with the bikes on there-it's really long!

I love your bike. I collect Konas & Voodoos. Joe murray!

 

[calicamper]

I ran a bike rack with my hitch gate on the J80. But the bike rack was in the fixed hitch and had to be unloaded before the tire carrier could be swung out. Heavy... bikes sticking out + 30lbs each roughly levered off the back was heavy. I much prefered them in fork mounts on the roof for long trips but mileage sucked.