Adding 2 inch receiver for bike carrier, non weld install?

10sne1

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2019
Posts
150
Location
Lakeland FL.
I understand the bumpers are typically not made for adding a bolt on receiver hitch, so one needs to add support by welding it to the frame. I was looking for an alternative to welding it?
Thanks
 
There have been a lot of bolt on hitches on trucks, vans and cars for decades with no problems as long as they are put on properly, you should be fine with one that bolts to the frame as long is fits good and you use good bolts tightened properly and checked frequently.
 
There are a few bolt-on 2" hitches available. All that I know about are only rated to 300 lbs. Don't forget that the bikes and racks have to stick out much further than they do on a car/truck from the receiver. That greatly increases the moment arm as they bang up and down going down the road. So the effective weight can be several times the actual weight. It is also why most (but not all) bike racks prohibit use on an RV (check the actual rack manual to make sure). One or two high end road bikes on a good rack?- probably do-able. Two e-bikes on a heavy e-bike rack? Pretty risky, even with a weld-on.
Look at over the hitch racks, using the truck bed, or putting a rack on the front of the truck.
 
Thanks for reply’s. I guess I was asking if anyone knows of a hitch that is ready and designed to be bolted to the frame? Thus not welded. Yeas many to bolt up to bumper. But, not aware of one to the frame?
Thanks
 
Here's what I did. Welded two short tubes(receivers) to each frame rail of the trailer. Made a carrier to fit my bikes. This will be my third year carrying my E-Bikes with us. I can remove the carrier anytime I need to.
 

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etrailer carries a rear bumper support bracket kit - I bought one but haven't put it on this trailer, maybe the next one.
Here's the link https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Mount~n~Lock/MO22FR.html
This is the one I used from etrailer. It works well and we carry two E-bikes (we remove the batteries to help reduce weight). We've had them on for a few years and we used a bike bag to keep them clean.

Be forewarned - drilling the frames requires some of the rear-most coroplast to be lowered and then reattached. And drilling into the frame does require and electric drill (not a battery operated one unless you have a big one with lots of batteries), and good, sharpe, cobalt drill bit(s).

Oh - I had to but the bumper off first. No big deal using a sawzall.

We put two heavy ebikes on the rear bumper using these - Mount-n-Lock-SafetyStruts Amazon.com and a bolt on Curt hitch - Amazon.com
We've taken two 3,000 mile trip without any issues.
We used these on our bumper to carry 2 non-bikes and they worked. We carried them for a few years and they held up well. See above comment about carrying 2 (much) heavier e-bikes.
 

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