Having the right bike rack in your camping gear arsenal gives you the ability to expand your camping adventures with pedal power. Having your bicycles along on your camping trip lets you explore more area than you can hiking, and into places vehicles may not reach.
A quality bike rack to get your bikes to your destination safely is essential. You need to trust that the bike rack on your RV will lock your bicycles safely in place, then be easy to unload when you get to your campsite.
You might be surprised at all the different ways there are to attach a bike to a caravan. Not all are universally compatible. To help shorten your learning curve, we have done the lengthy investigation work for you with a breakdown of the top bike rack options.
Hitch-Mounted Bike Racks
A tow-hitch-mounted bike rack is one of the most common camping accessories for securing bicycles to an SUV or similar tow vehicle. They tend to be very easy to install and reasonably priced.
Some can be mounted with a hitch adapter that connects the rack to the tow vehicle and the caravan or trailer itself. Others need to be securely bolted in place or can be attached to the back of an SUV like a backpack.
The advantage of the ones that use a hitch adapter is that you can also use the bike rack on the back of your vehicle when you want to get around with your bikes but aren’t necessarily camping with your caravan.
The drawback of this setup on the front of a caravan or camper trailer is that it limits you to only one or two bikes. Any more than that and you risk damaging the bikes when you reverse a sharp corner. If you need to transport bikes for a family of four or you’re new to reversing a caravan, this might not be the ideal bike rack for you.
Rear-Mounted Bike Rack
Rear-mounted bike racks are arguably the most feasible caravan bike carrier for a family of 3 or more people. Especially if you have a lot of camping equipment. It’s much easier to load and unload the bikes than mounting on the front trailer frame or hitch.
The bikes are also less likely to get damaged when reversing. Assuming you have someone watching you when you back the caravan into a tight campsite!
One possible drawback of a rear-mounted caravan bike rack is that it’s designed to live its life on the back of the caravan. When you get home, you need a separate bike rack to do something as simple as transporting a bicycle to the local park.
Some rear-mounted bike racks are installed on the rear exterior wall of a caravan. While others are affixed to the back bumper or ladder of an RV. The bonus here is that you can even use it to store camping supplies on trips when you don’t bring your bikes.
A-Frame Bike Racks
An A-Frame bike rack is a more permanently affixed take on the tow-bar hitch racks we talked about earlier. Except these bike racks are permanently bolted or welded to the A-frame front of the trailer frame or the lower front wall of the caravan.
A-Frame bike racks are best for only one or two bikes as there’s a risk of exceeding your tow ball weight or making contact when reversing the caravan around a corner. This type of bike rack also leaves the rear of the caravan clear.
Roof-Mounted Bike Rack
You can install a roof-mounted bike rack on your tow vehicle or the top of your caravan. It’s a great way to transport multiple bicycles. However, there are pros and cons to both installation locations.
With a roof-mounted bike rack on your vehicle, you can still transport your bikes on an average day, when you leave the caravan at home. However, it also takes up valuable roof storage space that you might need for a bigger camping trip.
When you mount the bike rack on the roof of the caravan, you still have all that roof rack space available on your vehicle. However, most caravans aren’t engineered to have hardware components attached to the roof.
So, you have to be extremely careful not to create any unnecessary roof leaks. There might also be language in your caravan’s warranty or insurance prohibiting you from making any permanent changes. Be sure to do your homework before committing to a permanently installed roof-mounted bike rack.
Wrapping Up
Adding a bike rack to your camping essentials expands the range you can explore when you go camping. The right bike rack for your caravan will depend on the size of your rig and how many bicycles you need to transport at one time.
A rear-mounted bike rack makes the most sense if you have a motorhome RV or you need to transport more than two bicycles on your camping trips. A roof-mounted bike rack is a sound alternative. You just have to make sure it’s allowed under your warranty, and you install it without making any new leaks in your caravan’s roof.
