Off road bike rack for 35" or larger spare tires

[RubiconGeoff]

I have a receiver hitch style bike rack, but my problem is that I want to be able to bring my bikes on trips where we're also towing our Lifetime Tent Trailer. I'm looking at some spare tire mounted bike racks, but many of them seem to either be incompatible with oversize spare tires, or they look a little weak for 2 heavy mountain bikes on rough trails.

I considered a hitch adapter like this, but it prevents me from being able to open the tire carrier and tailgate, and I don't like the idea of towing a trailer off-road from one of these.



I have a heavy-duty bumper-mounted swing-open tire carrier from MetalCloak on my JK Rubicon, so strength there is not limited like it is with the Jeep's standard tailgate-mounted tire carrier.

I've been looking at the Yakima SpareTime bike carrier which seems like it would work well:



and the Thule Spare Me bike carrier:



but this one needs modification to work with a larger tire. I don't know how strong the small square tube steel is - the part that passes through the wheel center. Can this handle two heavy bikes bouncing down the trail?

At this point, the best option appears to be the Allen Sports Premium bike carrier.



But I'm open to any and all suggestions. What have you guys used?

 

[Saiyan66]

Have you thought about mounting the bikes on the trailer instead of the jeep? Have a receiver welded to the back of the trailer and use your existing receiver mount rack on the trailer. Then if you set up base camp somewhere and want to drive to a particular spot to ride you can pull the rack off the trailer and slide it into the jeep. Just a thought for another option. Im also not sure if there would be any clearance issues with the bikes hitting the trailer during sharp turns or backing up if they were mounted on the jeep behind the spare tire. The trailer mount would solve that too.

 

[brianwj]

I like the trailer mount idea also I see clearance issues on tight turns with more than one bike.

 

[HelaJames]

Check out www.mweracks.com

They look stout and move out of the way for your tailgate. It is the way I am going with my jeep, you send them pics of your jeep with ruler and they make the rack for your vehicle.

Jim

 

[RubiconGeoff]

This doesn't solve my problem because it mounts to the receiver hitch. I need to use my receiver to hitch my trailer to my Jeep, so some sort of spare tire mounted bike rack is my only option.

 

[mph]

Looking at the same situation...However, I would caution you about the spare tire rack. Had one...won't again...Offroad, your bikes take a beating!!!! Keep you posted if I find a rack that works

 

[RubiconGeoff]

Looking at the same situation...However, I would caution you about the spare tire rack. Had one...won't again...Offroad, your bikes take a beating!!!!

Which one did you have?
I'm not looking to race the Baja 1000 with our bikes on the back, I simply want to be able to bring our bikes camping with us when we tow our trailer, and I don't like the option of mounting the bikes on top of the trailer.