tgot 

I'm curious if anyone has experience with different hitch-racks, and just putting the tandem across the back of the vehicle. We have a medium SUV, and so with wheels removed the tandem would bare barely, if at all, wider than the vehicle and mirrors.

I brought the tandem home that way, wheels removed, just on a regular trunk-rack on a Jetta. But just the tandem, and not far.

My expected load would be
+ Trek T1000 tandem with kid-back (for 4 yo)
+ Trail-a-bike ( for 2yo)
+ Wife's single
+ 20" kid bike (6 yo)
+ 12" kid bike (4 yo)

That load support our "medium ride" configuration of Daddy-4-2 on tandem-trail and Mommy & 6-yo on singles, as well as the "go play" configuration of 4- and 6-yo's on their own bikes.

It seems that this would work, for the right hitch rack. My criteria follow, which I know from research so far are all available in *some* hitch racks. If anyone knows a make/model that satisfies all of them, that feedback would be great...

Needs:
+ Tie-downs for 5 bikes, or 6
+ Two-arm design (the models that clamp on just 6" of top-tube seem crazy for the long-lever of a tandem!)
+ Weight of load limited by the hitch limit (350 lbs) minus rack-weight, as I'm looking at 150-200 lbs of bikes!
+ 2" receiver model, some list anti-sway features which seems desireable

Nice:
+ Down-tilt to allow tailgate access without rack removal.

Feedback welcome.

Would this make more sense in Rec-and-Family forum?

mchell

Check out the Draftmaster by Atoc. https://www.atoc.com/
We've been using one for our Rans Screamer and a Catrike for 7 years now, including 6 trips from Canada to Florida.
I' ve seen three tandems on a Draftmaster with a 2" receiver. Pricey, but well worth it, IMHO. Mike

ibis_ti

6 bikes...whoa. If it were me. I do 3 or 4 on top including the tandem and the rest on the hitch....or you could look into one of those tag along trailers. I think that's what they used to shuttle bikes at Lake Tahoe.

uspspro

Not recommended for most, due to the width, but for racing (RAAM, Hoodoo, 508) events we use a custom modified Saris. This rack is used because we need to quickly unload bikes for transitions, repeatedly.

I, and my machinist friend, modified this rack to convert from tandem to single bike configuration as needed. It can carry 2 tandems, 2 singles or one of each.

riding_blind

as Ibis_ti suggested your best bet is going to be to put several of the bikes on top and put the remainder of the singles on a hitch rack. Failing that take a look at the draftmaster, link posted above, or the raxter which might be a slightly cheeper option.

uspspro

Perhaps a uhaul trailer?

tgot 

The custom Saris is certainly a beautiful solution. I'm going to weigh the load of the 5 bikes and total them up. Several 5-bike models claim 150-lbs capacity. Since the 12" and 20" childrens bikes are so small, it sure seemed to me that my odd load would be less force on the rack than 5 adult DH bikes. Oddly, cargo platforms with 500lb capacities for hitch-mount are commonplace.

CaptainHaddock

My main question is, how far are you looking to go? At some point, external bike racks are going to severely penalize you fuel / cost wise. As an example, I've recently driven from portland to sf and back with two half-bikes on the roof of my car and lost about 100 miles per tank, making my fuel costs about $350 round-trip, where it should have been in the $150 / 200 range. If I had had a hitch, I would have saved money by renting a small trailer (yakima for example).

uspspro

The Saris has an add on to carry two more bikes, but then we are still only up to 4!

merlinextraligh

+1 on the Draftmaster. It's very well constructed, can be configured to haul a bunch of different stuff, and is very easy to use.

Bit pricey though.

TandemGeek

If cost is no object and you're looking for a lot of flexibility while trying to avoid the bit hit on fuel mileage that roof racks can have, or the obstructed access to the rear door or trunk of your vehicle, something like a SportsRig trailer might be a good option for the fleet of bikes you're trying to take along.

https://www.sportsrig.com/Canoe-and-Kayak-Trailers.php

Yakima also markets what looks to be their branded version of a SportsRig trailer:
https://www.yakima.com/shop/trailers/...ck-and-roll-78

Definitely not cheap, since you still need to put bike holders on the crossbars... but if you look past some of the assembly issues with the SportsRig models, all reports are that they work very well and pull quite nicely. We have friends who have used these and they really are a slick way to haul bikes.

If someone was handy with a welder and knew how to do a little farm-boy engineering, they could probably build one of these for about 1/3 of the cost... that is, of course, if you exclude the value of your time, beer and have the equipment needed.

FWIW, car-topping the 45 lb triplet took our fuel mileage from about 17.5 to 15.0, noting I tend to drive about 10-over, so this cruising at 75- 80 mph. I'm guessing we'll drop $93 for gas on this trip vs. the $80 it would have cost without having a bike on the roof.



For comparison purposes, hauling two 800lb motorcycles on an open trailer that probably goes about 700 lbs with the same driving habits takes our fuel mileage down to about 11.5 mpg. So, I'm guessing hauling a bunch of bicycles on a micro trailer might knock .5 mpg off the 17.5 we normally get. In other words, it'd take a pretty darn long time to amortize the expense of a trailer based on fuel savings.

Again, the trailer would be a cost is no object thing.

smunderdog

Or if you are willing to go the mini trailer route and don't want to pay Yakima prices, you could fab an option starting with one of these...

https://www.harborfreight.com/automot...res-42708.html

rickbyb

Years back, when we were motorcycle camping, I pulled a Harbor Freight trailer similar to https://www.harborfreight.com/automot...res-42708.html with a black plastic tool box mounted along the centerline from hitch to license plate. Pulling it with a gimble hitch on a BMW K bike, the unit tracked well but was too stiffly sprung.

Changing the leaf springs to these

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-250-Rubber...358#vi-content

made the unit equal to a commercial built trailer for one-quarter of the outlay.

Bob/FLA

Another Draftmaster fan here. I have a Vision Recumbent Tandem and itis VERY LONG! The Draftmaster fits my bill and is easy to use.
Best regards
Bob

dwmckee

Gosh, I see a lot of complex and expensive solutions here. We just bought a 4-bike 2" receiver hitch rack from performance bike.At $90 it was the cheapest they sell. We put 2 tandems on it all of the time. or combos of tandems and singles. have been using it for 5 years without a problem. We never remove wheels and just let hang over 6 inches or so on either side (about as far as the mirrors do) behind our odyssey minivan. it swings down, but that is impractical when it has more than one bike on it because of the weight. My only caution is that you should get a hitch that is fixed in the receiver with a bolt so you can tighten the slack against the side of the receiver, otherwise that little bit of play magnifies to quite a bit of swing by the time it reaches the ends of your bike. Cheap easy solution. I'd also say get a 4 bike model and put no no than 2 tandems on it so you have a wide margin of safety on the max rated weight.