Electric Bikes - Will a normal car bike carrier collapse with a few ebikes on it?

I have the Trek Valencia+, so not much more weight than a normal bike. Still, if I put that and a regular bike on my car carrier, will it collapse and dump the bikes on the ground? How about if it's the Valencia+ and a bike with the Currie kit, surely much more weight?

What do people use to transport the ebikes?

I understand the typical rack for e-bikes are the hitch receiver mount ones. They support the bike by the tires.

The average bike weighs between 30 and 40 pounds. The Currie weighs 55 pound without packs. Bike racks very widly so I would highly recommend looking at the racks weight rating. If you can't find any info at home you maybe able to look for your rack on the internet or email the manufacture for the weight rating. I decided to replace my "trunk lid" rack with a very heavy duty 4 bike hitch rack because I am carrying 2 Currie bikes. As I said the rack can carry 4 normal bikes but the last 2 positions can be left off making it a very heavy duty 2 bike rack. I felt $200 for this rack was well worth the money. Of course I already had a hitch on my wife's car.

EDIT: One added benifit is how much lower and easier it is to lift the bikes onto this rack and they are held onto the rack much more securely.

Not what I have of course. Just one of those that mount on the trunk with straps.

Not what I have of course. Just one of those that mount on the trunk with straps.

That is the kind that I have. I remove the battery and it seems to be fine.

Not what I have of course. Just one of those that mount on the trunk with straps.

Just keep in mind an ebike can be anywhere from 40 lbs to 70lbs without the batteries. The question was for a couple of ebikes. That's 80lbs. to 140lbs. I have carred 2 ebikes eack weighing 50lbs on a cheapo trunk mount rack for a year. Gotta tell ya it scared the blank out of me and I was only traveling short distances. Nope I'll put my trust in the heavy dute hitch rack. I like the idea my in made for 4 bikes and carrying only 2 bike with it. Make it really safe in my opinion.

Just keep in mind an ebike can be anywhere from 40 lbs to 70lbs without the batteries. The question was for a couple of ebikes. That's 80lbs. to 140lbs. I have carred 2 ebikes eack weighing 50lbs on a cheapo trunk mount rack for a year. Gotta tell ya it scared the blank out of me and I was only traveling short distances. Nope I'll put my trust in the heavy dute hitch rack. I like the idea my in made for 4 bikes and carrying only 2 bike with it. Make it really safe in my opinion.

You should be careful when giving advice like this. Some cars only have 100 lb limit tongue weigh and 2 bikes @ 50lbs each plus the rack will exceed this. Just because the towing weight can be up to 1000lbs doesn't mean the car can handle 1000lbs on the hitch.

All good thoughts. I'll check into the limit of the carrier I currently have. I'm sure I never bothered looking when I bought it years ago.

You should be careful when giving advice like this. Some cars only have 100 lb limit tongue weigh and 2 bikes @ 50lbs each plus the rack will exceed this. Just because the towing weight can be up to 1000lbs doesn't mean the car can handle 1000lbs on the hitch.

Surely you're less likely to damage the hitch with that weight than the trunk with that weight. Might want to take a look at your car's load limit in general with max occupants its not hard to exceed it on alot of cars let alone piling on cargo. I know on my corvette you could exceed it with just two moderately large men.

Most cars are unibody construction and the trailer hitches for cars generally don't mount on to any type of "frame". The risk of damage is not the hitch, but rather the sheet metal to which the hitch is mounted. Many cars have tongue weight limit 100lbs nowadays. Even if 150 lbs for the rack and two electric bicycles do not exceed the GVWR of the vehicle, it may exceed the tongue weight rating of the vehicle.

Most cars are unibody construction and the trailer hitches for cars generally don't mount on to any type of "frame". The risk of damage is not the hitch, but rather the sheet metal to which the hitch is mounted. Many cars have tongue weight limit 100lbs nowadays. Even if 150 lbs for the rack and two electric bicycles do not exceed the GVWR of the vehicle, it may exceed the tongue weight rating of the vehicle.

A very good and important point. But there is always a guestion as to what the true tongue weight is. One could say the carrier plus bikes weigh only 80 pounds (it would likely be closer to 150# though) but is this the actual tongue weight? No it's not because of the distance from the actual hitch. It's an over hung load that is dificult to calculate exactly what the tongue is seeing weight wise.

a class A htich has a tongue weight rating of 200lbs. always on the safe side, use 1/2 of that for normal operating so i would not try to exceed 100 lbs on that hitch. but if in doubt check with your hitch installer, and maybe they have a recommended bike rack for your hitch.

I hope I don't need an SUV to haul around the ebikes. Sort of defeats the whole purpose. Maybe we should ride them instead!

I hope I don't need an SUV to haul around the ebikes. Sort of defeats the whole purpose. Maybe we should ride them instead!

No you just need to go to a hitch shop and get some information on your car. Just tell them what you are planning to do with the hitch and give them the weight of the rack and the bikes.

What type of car is this going on? Does the bike come apart?

Normally to tranport my bike, I take the front wheel off and I can fit it in the back seat or trunk. In fact, I can fit two mountain bikes in the trunk if I take the front wheels off.

Right now, a 1991 Honda Accord. It can fit one bike, front wheel removed, in the rear seat. Maybe. It could fit my old bike but I haven't tried the Valencia+. It might just make it. Lying down two bikes in the trunk, with good padding, might work although it would not be nice to the bikes. The trunk rack should take the Valencia and one other bike but I wouldn't want to try it with a second ebike, especially since the Treks are about the lightest ebikes around. Anything else would be heavier.

Keep in mind that the potential damaged you cause if you have a rack failure is not only to your bikes and your own car. Consider if the rack falls off the car and it plus the 2 bikes are bouncing down the road behind you and right into another car or they hit a person. Could get real costly real fast.

True, but then you could also claim that your bike went 60 mph!

I once had a partial failure - I looked into the mirror and saw the bike sagging to one side, pulled over and found that a strap had fallen off. We rigged up some rope to hold it. Then there was one time that a bike was hanging so that the front tire was about 6" from the exhaust pipe. It partially melted the tire. I learned not to hang tires in front of the exhaust.