spare tire mount and more - Event Date: 06 Nov 2011

I really don't like the rear reciever spare mount shaking on our RPod.

I plan to tongue mount my spare on the trailer tongue with a universal trailer tire mount.

 

I  plan to have a rack fabricated from aluminum for the rear reciever that may carry 200 pounds of toys, may design as a basket and bike rack.  Will elevate the rack high enough that it will not drag behind the trailer and plan to stabilize the rack from the outside corners to the frame corners at the rear of the trailer.  Maybe carry my pair of Honda 2000 generators back there sometimes (47 pounds each).

 

Any thoughts or concerns?

 

I have dealt with trailers a bunch, but this is our first hard shelled camper.

 

Jim

Not suggesting that you change your plans of converting the spare tire mount to a bike rack but    ....if the hitch toungue is loose in the receiver, one solution is to add thin aluminum stock and shim out the the excess space. Had to do the same thing on the main hitch on the truck.

I haven't personally experienced the the following, but when I posted a thread/question about mounting bikes in the place of the spare tire I was cautioned by current owners that it would cause some swaying/fishtailing of the Pod due to the fact that they are wider and sit out further away from the camper ?

Another factor to consider is the weight you are adding to the tongue of the trailer. Not sure what the tire/rim of the Pod weigh but they aren't light.

Right now I have racks on top of my tow vehicle (Toyota Tacoma) to hold the bikes and they are at the outer edges of the load bars and fairly easy to load/offload but I still like the idea of having the bikes at the rear of the Pod.

I guess I'm conflicted.

MJ

 max weight for rear receiver is 250#

There we go. I knew there was a picture somewhere.