My new moto hauler with bumper rack alternative.

I've been a Toyota truck guy for the past 25 years. The last 15 of which was with The Mighty Toyota that I drove up to 450,000 miles before selling. A moment of silence for the Mighty Toyota please. *sniffle*

Anyway, I felt it was time for something different. I don't get to ride enough to justify the expense of a van and I actually hate big cars. I just want a small SUV that I can throw all my stuff in with a bit more security than throwing gear and stuff in the back of a truck.

The plan was to get a little Ford Escape and build a rack off the back. Now, I know that people swear up and down that they have no problems whatsoever with their rail-into-trailer-hitch type of setups, but I just can't handle seeing the bike waving all over the place like a sail in the wind. It just freaks me the fugg out. Plus, I don't want to have to hassle with storing a rack on the side of the house or anything like that.

So the plan was to build a rack off the back that supports each wheel independently. I picked up a Ford Escape that had a factory Class 2 hitch already on it. Basically what I did was weld a receiver off of each side of the existing hitch using class 3 materials. Class 3 was probably total overkill but the local metal shop already had precut lengths in stock and it was cheaper and easier (I have limited tools!) just to use that than try to get hold of Class 2 stuff and cut it and blah blah blah. Anyway, the class 3 receiver just barely fit into the frame rails of the Escape. Then I bent hoops to carry each wheel that will slide into each receiver.

I bent up a couple hoops and the idea is that when not in use, they are in place in an inboard mounting position and they just sort of look like little nerf bars. This way I'm not having to store a rack on the side of the house or whatever. It’s small, compact, out of the way and just sits there on the truck. Then when in use, you switch the hoops to the opposite receiver for what you would call an outboard position so that it can hold the bike.



In the existing receiver of the existing trailer hitch, is a piece that extends out and is used to hold down the bike using those load links attached to the foot pegs. When not in use, it just stays in the back of the truck. This set up holds the bike super fugging solid! As in it does not wobble at all!! You do not even know the bike is there, it doesn't wobble for shizzle, it doesn't move, the front of the car is doesn't get light, nothing! It fugging rules!




Then I made a little rack to carry a stubby 2.5 gallon gas can. In all reality, this is perfect. I'm lucky if I get to ride 3 days a month and it's only for the day. So two and a half gallons will do me just fine. This project came out as good as I could have hoped. No loading ramp, no storage issues no hassle! Yes, I do realize there is an issue with my license plate and brake lights being obscured and, oh, well, I guess we'll just see how long I get away with that! Hahaha






I have the bike placed as close as possible to the car so as to minimize the leverage forces
of a bike hanging off the back.



I know the way the hoops are mounted sorta on top of the square pieces is kinda odd and honestly I was just sorta thinking of this as a prototype plus the fact that I have a pretty basic set of fab tools and skills. I’ll probably re-do the hoop pieces sometime down the road when I can mooch my friends tube bender again. But honestly, I'm so frigging happy with how it came out and how well the whole damn
set-up works that I might just keep it as is.

FWYT reporting, over and out.