Bike Rack Recommendation?

[ofamily]

We recently bought the Transfer v2 so that I can load the bikes for our kids’ bike camp to mount on our daily driver. This rack is super easy to use, very solid construction and I’m speaking as a non-biker and never loaded a bike rack before. I was able to load and strap it down on my 1st try.

It is RV rated for a chassis mounted hitch. We have not yet tried it on our Escape 21 because the hitch is bumper mounted. Hubby needs to weigh the rack and the bikes to see if all of that is under the weight limit for the bumper as is. We looked into reinforcing the bumper but were told that it wasn’t possible.

We would recommend buying the Kuat lock kit as well, all works really smoothly altogether. Hope this helps if you want the Kuat.

[ofamily]

The Transfer v2 rack fits fine. However, be careful of how you load the bikes. We have the 3-bike rack and as per the instructions, hubby loaded his bike closest to the hitch and then the kids’ bikes as they are smaller.

Before we left, he told me “I wonder if the handlebar will hit the rear window. There’s space but with all the bouncing about on the roads, will that be an issue?” Let me show you what our trailer looks like now.

Now, we don’t believe this is the fault of the bike rack in anyway! Please take this as a cautionary note in how you place your bikes on any bike rack so that your rear window doesn’t pull a shattering act like ours. I suspect this will cost around $1000 to fix plus my time to run stuff around from the RV place to the glass place and back again. We are sadly done camping for the year. We had to turn around on the trip when this happened and we’ve cancelled our last trip. Repair time is estimated to be 4+ weeks because the glass has to be manufactured.

[Treblemaker]

We have the Swagman XC2, used it for 3 years on our 2015 21’ with no problems. Formosa bike cover with a see through “window” for til lights, plus of course the ones mounted higher on the camper, we only cover when bad weather is expected, though. The 1UP is ideal, but didn’t make sense for our budget at the time, and we have no complaints about the Swagman.

[MrLynn]

ofamily, your report got me out to look at our Kuat rack with 2 bikes, which we just set up for the first time on our Escape. Looks like it'll keep the near handlebars a good 9" from the window, and the bar that goes over the front wheel should keep it from moving.

[mfschu]

Oh my, that's a bummer! Thanks for sharing, maybe you'll help me or someone else to avoid the same fate. Is a standard replacement window available through Escape or I believe their window supplier is Lippert? Better luck next year.

[Jwinfrey]

Originally Posted by ofamily

The Transfer v2 rack fits fine. However, be careful of how you load the bikes. We have the 3-bike rack and as per the instructions, hubby loaded his bike closest to the hitch and then the kids’ bikes as they are smaller.

Before we left, he told me “I wonder if the handlebar will hit the rear window. There’s space but with all the bouncing about on the roads, will that be an issue?” Let me show you what our trailer looks like now.

Now, we don’t believe this is the fault of the bike rack in anyway! Please take this as a cautionary note in how you place your bikes on any bike rack so that your rear window doesn’t pull a shattering act like ours. I suspect this will cost around $1000 to fix plus my time to run stuff around from the RV place to the glass place and back again. We are sadly done camping for the year. We had to turn around on the trip when this happened and we’ve cancelled our last trip. Repair time is estimated to be 4+ weeks because the glass has to be manufactured.

So sorry this happened. Maybe you could make something like this work for you. I knew my handlebars would hit. I came up with a foam spacer that friction fits over the fork tube. It acts as bumper against the spare tire. I know I could have turned the handlebars but I like my bike ready to go. We haven’t had any issues with this set up.

[mcdonner]

Love our 1 Up.

[DanK]

I simply loosen my handle bars and turn them 90 degrees if you put cushioning on your spare tire you are now putting another force on the tire carrier.

[Mike G]

So many toys, so little wiggle room!

[splitting_lanes]

Originally Posted by mcdonner

Love our 1 Up.

Agreed. Same here

[C&G in FL]

A word of caution…..If you purchase a 1up, be sure to store your sales receipt in a safe and easily remembered location. They wouldn’t sell me a wrench because they claimed that all purchases are tied to an email address and when I entered my email address the 1up website it came back as unrecognized. Their policy is to only sell wrenches to those who obtained bike racks from them. Of course they were happy to sell me a license plate bracket 4 years ago that was linked to my email address. A call to customer service was useless. Was told to provide a sales receipt. I wasted two hours searching before I finally found the sales receipt, and contrary to what I was told, there was no email address but a “Sale Number.” So much for every sale is tied to an email address. I can only guess that they weren’t asking for email addresses in January of 2015 or the sales associate who took my order failed to put it on the order. I’ve emailed a copy of my sales receipt to 1up and expect to hear back today.

Fortunately, the 1up rack performs far better than the company’s telephone representatives. And even if they have your email associated with your rack purchase, many companies and/or organizations have been known to lose records through fires or ransomware attacks.

[2Travelers]

Originally Posted by mcdonner

Love our 1 Up.

Mark me down as another happy 1UP owner. I have the heavy duty double and carry two basic mountain bikes. This is our first season with it. On our first trip I noted the clearance between the rear trailer window and the handle bar of the innermost bike and thought it sufficient to avoid impacting the glass, and it was. On our second trip, I rotated the handle bars of that bike 90 degrees for added insurance. Easy to do.

I put off the purchase of the 1Up for a couple seasons, because of the price and because I had a solid Yakima rack that had survived a rear end collision and so I thought it plenty strong for the back of the trailer. It's a hanging style rack with a 2" receiver and has served me well for years. Putting it on the back of the trailer rather than the back of the car is whole different ballgame. Despite adding a receiver clamp and using tie down straps to further stabilize it, the movement in the rack was enough to allow the bikes bang into each other.

The 1UP solves all that and gives great peace of mind. No longer am I curious or worried about the bikes on the back bumper and what is happening out of my sight. The bikes are easy to load and unload and we are more likely to use them for short hops.

[JimB]

Originally Posted by mcdonner

Love our 1 Up.

We also love our 1Up. Have owned a number of racks over the years but this rack is one of the best in terms of securing very solidly to the receiver and over all workmanship.

[Upfisk]

We have about 2" between the inward bike handlebars and the rear window. That scares us. So we bungie cord the inward bike near the handle bars through the spokes of the outer bike to the frame of the 1up. We do the same with the inner bike seat post. The inner bike now can only rock and move outward when we hit bumps. We have traveled this way for 2 years, over Mexican topes, and it seems to work. The foam between the inner bike and spare tire might be something to add to our prevention measures also. We cover the bikes with a Formosa bike cover and it has to slip between the handlebars and rear window, and the bike frame and spare tire. The other solution which we don't like is to get a hitch extension to move the bike handlebars further away from the window. But that then acts as a lever arm to increase the weight load on the back of the trailer. As our E19 is already light in the front that's not something we'd like to do.

[daniel108]

I use the 1up and tape a short piece of pool noodle to the inner handlebar to keep it off the rear window, otherwise it would clearly hit. We have a 4 bike rack. I use it with 2 bikes on the back of the trailer and use the other two trays (with a pair of little stands I made) to hold the other two bikes inside the trailer. 4 bikes on the back along with the rack weight is too much. Then when we get to our location, I can convert it back to a 4 bike rack and use it on our tow vehicle to go to trail heads. I also have two of the trays drilled so I can put them on our roof rack if necessary (keep the bikes out of the trailer), but I mostly try to keep weight off the tow vehicle roof as much as possible since I don't like how it feels towing. When we bring bikes we need 4 since my wife and 2 boys all mountain bike with me.

[TahoeJoe]

You guys know the 1Up hitch insert is adjustable, right? If I push mine all the way in, yes there would be clearance issues...so I simply pull it out of the receiver far enough before tightening, and it's fine. Per 1Up instructions, as long as the silver ball is 2" in, it is OK. Perhaps my setup is different (e.g. shorter handlebars), but just wanted to make sure y'all knew that...

[Rossue]

We never had a problem with our 1Up towing with a Yukon or Expedition. Using the Transit T-250 however with much stiffer rear end caused a rear window shatter even with 9" + separation of the handlebar.

[JimB]

As others have mentioned, a quick remedy to this is to loosen bolts on handlebars and turn your bars sideways. I do this and strap bikes to the back of the 1 up hitch to limit the amount the bikes can move back towards the trailer. Takes less than a minute and solves the problem without fail.

[splitting_lanes]

I just cut a piece of pool noodle about 6-7” long and slid it over the handlebar closest to the window. In the event that I hit a bump so big that the bike would hit the rear window the pool noodle should absorb the impact. Great idea, daniel108

[WillyB]

I'm searching for a bike rack that doesn't cost more than my mountain bike and one that is rated for RV travel. Plus, one that will not let the handlebar shatter our rear window.

We will need a two bike setup and one that will carry a drop bar cruiser bike for Miss Nancy.

The Kuat Transfer V2 looks like an option but It appears window to handlebar clearance might be a concern.

There appears to be some great options out there but at unreasonably high price points.