Question:
Has anyone successfully adapted a bicycle rack to carry bikes on top of
a tent trailer?
A friend has a Coleman trailer and wants to carry four bikes on top of
it when folded. He says he'll consider putting them on the car instead,
but he'd rather have them on top of the trailer if possible.
Answer:
-I have a tent trailer and actually never thought of the idea until I saw
one on the freeway the other day. It was an old Apache like mine and woth
some modifications the Yakima mounted on some rail-type things that run
along the sides of the roof and then mount the rest as you would on a car.
It looked good and I wanna do it now.
-When I use a rack that contacts the bike's frame tubes (as opposed to
one that clamps the front dropouts and back wheel), I've wrapped the
frame tubes with strips of inner tube rubber for protection.
The strips are roughly 3 feet long by about 1 inch wide. When I have to put
my bike on a rack that hangs from the rear of a car, I'll tightly wrap the
frame tube with about half the inner tube, hang the bike on the rack's hooks,
then use the remaining half to wrap the hook and bike together, going around
and around many, many times. Finally, I'll hook the end of the inner tube strip
over the rack hook, using a hole I've punched there. I do this at both hooks.
The end result is an extremely solid connection that does away with the
relative movement that causes wear; and a tight layer of padding to protect
against any wear that might occur.
