Spare Tire Bike Rack

[grantandash]

Hey all, looking at this:

https://yakima.com/products/spareride?_ ... MIQAvD_BwE

From what I can tell it should fit. My only concern would be the weight capacity of the spare tire mount. Mine is bolted to the rear welded bumper, seems pretty study. The rack itself weighs 20 lbs and my bike is 27lbs. You guys think it could work? Thanks!

[chin_k]

I through about using the same rack a few years ago, but did not do anything about it. The main issue is that the spare is in a continental cover, and if I put this on, I will either need to get rid of the cover completely, or drill holes on the round plate. I assume the bar is long enough to reach the wheel, but I guess you can turn the wheel/tire around to get that to work.

Will the bike be in the door's way when you put the bikes on the rack? t maybe too far to the driver side and make the bike too far into the left to be well protected. It meant for a center-mounted spare, you know. I knew some of you have bikes that cost more than the Chinook...

Another thing is how is the rack mount onto the spare tire mount exactly... or it is mounted onto the spare wheel, and the spare wheel is mounted onto the spare tire mount?

Sorry that I ask more questions rather than helping you there.

[grantandash]

Good questions Chin.

It's mounted between the spare and the spare tire mount, onto the bolts that the tire mounts on. So you take the tire off, install the plate, and put the tire back.

I figured I'd put the continental cover in storage and just buy a standard elastic-y one to put over when I'm not using the rack (it's easily removable). I don't have any problem with the bike being in front of the door when attached as I would only use it when we're moving and would take the bike down once we got to camp.

But BUT, the big problem you revealed is the fact that the tire is so far off center towards the driver's side. The bike would definitely stick out and I don't want to be any wider than I am. Darn. I wish these mounted vertically.

Back to the drawing board...

[Jlfchinook]

I just installed a Curtis 2 inch receiver on the front of both of my Chinooks and use a standard receiver bike rack it seems to work fine for me, I normally carry two bikes on front.

[LosLaureles]

Look at Sea Sucker if you want to carry bikes vertically on the rear. I have owned a SeaSucker bike rack for years. I have only used on the roof of my cars. I have a rear hitch and kuat tray rack for the Chinook so I can't comment on SeaSucker Chinook experience. But the product was developed for ocean boats and evolved into bikes.

[grantandash]

Look at Sea Sucker if you want to carry bikes vertically on the rear. I have owned a SeaSucker bike rack for years. I have only used on the roof of my cars. I have a rear hitch and kuat tray rack for the Chinook so I can't comment on SeaSucker Chinook experience. But the product was developed for ocean boats and evolved into bikes.

Wow! Thanks for pointing this out. I've never seen that one before, seems very intriguing, might just be a solution!

Did some quick measurements and realized my bike would block the rear storage which I need access to when on the road (it's where I keep all my "oh shit" equipment), so I suppose I would hang this on the door, is that crazy? I don't need to access the back door on travel days, do you think it would work to mount it there?

Thanks!

[chin_k]

Pretty interesting idea of using vacuum cup as attachment.

[grantandash]

Look at Sea Sucker if you want to carry bikes vertically on the rear. I have owned a SeaSucker bike rack for years. I have only used on the roof of my cars. I have a rear hitch and kuat tray rack for the Chinook so I can't comment on SeaSucker Chinook experience. But the product was developed for ocean boats and evolved into bikes.

Thought I'd post an update. I took your advice LosLaureles and purchased a SeaSucker. Just got back from our first 800 mile journey with it, and it was great! I was pulling over every 50-100 miles for the first half of the trip to check it, but it never once needed an additional pump, rock solid, by the last leg of the trip I wasn't worried about it at all. It's a great product and I wouldn't have found it otherwise, so thanks!

Also here is the reason for the season. My Chinook only has a front hitch, so I used it to bring along Ash's Vespa. Also nerve racking but it worked!

Nice to finally have our two-wheeled vehicles on board! Thanks again.

[chin_k]

Did you try to use the backup camera to keep an eye on the bike on the SeaSucker? Does it support locking mechanism (I afraid someone may take the bike off)?

[grantandash]

Did you try to use the backup camera to keep an eye on the bike on the SeaSucker? Does it support locking mechanism (I afraid someone may take the bike off)?

Yes I totally used the backup cam to keep an eye on the bike. But eventually turned it off because I found myself obsessively looking at it every 10 seconds.

I'm not sure about a locking mechanism. I suppose if you could find some kind of locking quick release skewer for the front bike tire that would work. But I found myself not too worried about it, I was either driving, or at camp and had the bike off and locked up. I find it unlikely someone would even try to figure out how to take the bike when it's mounted up like that and want it without a front tire. It would take some doing. Might be naive but it wasn't a big concern for me.