Bike rack on the Escape

[canoeman]

The Escape's bike rack is rated at 150 lbs. The new electric bikes are heavier than the regular bikes. Two electric bikes will weigh more than 150 lbs. Has anyone beefed up the Escape receiver so they can carry two electric bikes?

 

[occer]

This question has been asked a few times. Try the search function.
I think the general consensus is the concern of having to much weight at the very back of the trailer.
The recierver itself will carry more then 150 lbs, but a trailer heavy in the back can cause the trailer to loose control, It's very hard to regain control once the trailer starts to fishtail. Packing / placing heavier items forward, to the front of the trailer can help bring the trailer back into balance.
If you ever have a trailer fishtail, you will be very careful in the future with weight distribution.

 

[Ron in BC]

No problem. First move the spare tire forward. Mine's undermounted up front. 70# off the rear moved up ahead of the axle.

A second benefit to moving the spare tire is it allows the rear load to move closer to the bumper.

I made my ebike carrier and it has a secondary bracket. This shares the load but more importantly keeps the carrier from rocking side-to-side.

Ron

 

[John in Santa Cruz]

my electric bikes are more like 40 lbs each. I've hauled them all over the place on a 1Up Supert Duty on my E21C

 

[Ron in BC]

Wow, real lightweights. My small folding ebike is 39# and my mountain fat bike is 70#. All bikes aren't created equally.

Ron

 

[John in Santa Cruz]

Its a pretty normal class 1 ebike using decent grade bicycle components, 29 x 2" wheels, Shimano 9-speed drive train, Shimano mid-drive, hydraulic disk brakes, a Rockshox air fork.

 

[Ron in BC]

Mine's a wee bit larger and heavier. I live at the entrance to world famous mountain bike trails and I have a lot more confidence pounding down some kinds of exciting trails than I do on my other lighter bike.

Definitely wouldn't carry it on a single mount rack. Been behind too many bikes rocking back and forth and seen the aftermath of what happens when metal fatigue or failure kicks in.

Ron

 

[John in Santa Cruz]

yeah, big difference between a dedicated downhill mtn bike, and a cross country.

 

[John in Santa Cruz]

btw, the 1Up racks are amazingly sturdy and well made.

 

[C&G in FL]

For what it’s worth, in 2015 when I was completing my build sheet I was told by someone “in the know” at ETI lowered the rating on weight rating on the hitch receiver for liability reasons (too great a potential for accidents caused by trailer sway due to improper weight distribution). At the same time, I was told that it would not matter if I exceeded the capacity by a reasonable amount on my 5.0TA because the 5th wheel is far less susceptible to sway.

 

[John in Santa Cruz]

For what it’s worth, in 2015 when I was completing my build sheet I was told by someone “in the know” at ETI lowered the rating on weight rating on the hitch receiver for liability reasons (too great a potential for accidents caused by trailer sway due to improper weight distribution). At the same time, I was told that it would not matter if I exceeded the capacity by a reasonable amount on my 5.0TA because the 5th wheel is far less susceptible to sway.

that concurs with a statement by another forum member who had a mechanical engineering friend look over his rear bumper, and proclaimed it was way overengineered and not to worry if you put more weight on it than the stated 150 lbs, other than being concerned with tongue weight. 10000 miles of bouncing around Mexico earlier this year without any issues (other than tongue being a bit light if I wasn't careful with our load inside the trailer)

 

[WillyB]

We've been toying with the idea of e-bikes. But I've lost some strength over the past few years and just getting my little 40'ish lb Napoleon TravelQ 285 in and out of the bed of my truck is getting more difficult. Good thing someone invented Advil!

This is one on our list. The $800 Lectric XP Lite 2.0 weighs 49 lbs with one removable battery (7 lbs I think) and no racks, fenders, etc.

 

[John in Santa Cruz]

I would look into mid drive ebikes, such as the Specialized Turbo Como SL. They are more expensive but they are also much more like riding a conventional bicycle except the power assist is on demand and quite transparent. you pedal, they assist. pedal a bit harder, they assist more. they have full sized bicycle wheels rather than little 20" BMX style wheels.

you can get a ramp for the 1Up hitch racks so you can roll your bike up onto it.

 

[Ron in BC]

This is one on our list. The $800 Lectric XP Lite 2.0 weighs 49 lbs with one removable battery (7 lbs I think) and no racks, fenders, etc.

That design is similar to our smaller bikes. One great thing for us is that they both fold and can be carried behind the seat in the truck cab. Not as high to lift in and totally out of sight.

Despite their small footprint the riding position is decent and we've gone on some pretty long rides on them.

Ron

 

[hitectoys]

I had the heavy duty double 1up rack on the back of my 5.0. The weight of my two ebikes plus the rack was 160 lbs. As I traveled down the road I would keep an eye on the bikes with the back up camera. No matter what size bump we would go over the bikes would wobble front to back a lot. This worried me as sometimes the wobble would be excessive. I started adding multiple rachet straps to try to minimize wobble. No matter what I did the bikes would wobble. On one trip we arrived home and to my surprise both bikes were on the rack bent backwards. The 1up arms that rachet on the tires were all bent and it wasn't a little bend either. I later read on the Hollywood rack web site that 5th wheels rear motion when traveling is different than a bumper pull trailer or a car or truck. Their claim was that the 5th wheel motion would eventually cause a normal rack to fail. They carried a rack that was specifically designed for a 5th wheel trailer. You may think this was a marketing ploy to sell a higher priced rack but I noticed that when I put the 1up bike rack on the back of my truck or car my bikes did not wobble. My intent here is not to disparage the 1up. I know it is rated as one of the best racks on the market. It just did not work for me on the back of my 5.0 with two 50lb ebikes. I now use the Hollywood 5th wheel rack and the bikes do not wobble. I probably went overboard but I had a welder come out to my house and weld additional bracing to the bumper since the Hollywood rack weighed more than the 1up and I was exceeding the 150 lbs. rating by about 25 lbs.

 

[Ron in BC]

weld additional bracing to the bumper since the Hollywood rack weighed more than the 1up and I was exceeding the 150 lbs. rating by about 25 lbs.

I'd like to see anyone carrying bikes on the rear of a trailer to add some forum of secondary bracing. If not welded on then clamped on.

I hate being behind bikes wobbling back and forth and get away from them as soon as I can. Once you've seen on a freeway, including the mangled bikes and rack that failed, the carnage that can occur it makes you very careful about about carrying bikes on the rear of a trailer.

Ron

 

[John in Santa Cruz]

strapping them to the bumper isn't going to help at all on up-down bouncing, and there's really nothing else on the back of an Escape I'd think is suitable as a tiedown.

btw, I hope you saved the pieces of your bent 1Up, virtually every part of that rack is replaceable.

 

[Red-ESC]

The Escape's bike rack is rated at 150 lbs. The new electric bikes are heavier than the regular bikes. Two electric bikes will weigh more than 150 lbs. Has anyone beefed up the Escape receiver so they can carry two electric bikes?

I remove the e bike battery and store it in my tow vehicle. It reduces the weight and makes it easier to load and unload the bike. It also makes it less desirable to steal. My bike rack is RV rated and uses bolted pins on the pivot points. It firms up the rack making it tight and solid. I also use a ratchet strap from the top of the bike frame to the hitch to reduce any movement of the bike in the rack and as backup should there be a catastrophic failure. It is solid on all types of road and has done many thousands of miles. I check all the stress points for signs of fatigue and weld cracks and all looks good after 5 years. If I decide to carry two bikes in the future I will need to remove the spare.

 

[peleuba]

The Escape's bike rack is rated at 150 lbs. The new electric bikes are heavier than the regular bikes. Two electric bikes will weigh more than 150 lbs. Has anyone beefed up the Escape receiver so they can carry two electric bikes?

Lots of good information in this thread. And, as has been mentioned, this is a well worn topic. The search function is really good.

I've heard those same stories of folks "in the know" that say the bumper is under rated vis-a-vis its true weight carrying capacity. But I was not comfortable exceeding the manufacturers stated carrying capacity of the bumper/hitch. So I beefed up my hitch with a design I came up with and metal I ordered from one of the many online sources.

A picture is worth a 1000 words... Here are photos of what was done.

 

[Davin]

I use a North Shore bike rack for a family of four mountain bikes. We have two GC batteries on a reinforced base in the front bin for counterweight (and lots of other gear loaded toward the front). I used PL to attach length of aluminum flat stock to the roof of the trailer. At the rear, the flat stock has a hole drilled for a carabiner. We use a climbing rope between the flat-stock and the rack as reinforcement. The slight stretch in the climbing rope seems to reduce bouncing and gives me more comfort in the capacity of the hitch/receiver.