Front mounted bike rack?

[WaterWanderer]

Pros and Cons to using a front-of-truck- mounted bike rack? It seems as if it's a great option for me. Recommendations of where to find one??

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[jasonojordan]

Cons:

Your bike is now part of your front crumple zone in an accident
Aerodynamics will be reduced
Your bike gets plastered in bug guts and will pickup rock chips from road debris from vehicles in front of you


Pros: Hitch is available for other uses?


IDK personally not sure where a front mount application would win out and have a use case but clearly you seem to have ideas why it would be?

 

[Whatcolortochoose]

I haven't seen a front mounted bike rack on anything other than a city bus. Cons: worse aerodynamics, worse visibility, difficult to mount it to the truck probably will need to custom fab something. Pros: ???

 

[OleFordGuy]

Not sure how you could mount one on the front, it’s a unibody truck with no frame, just beer can thin sheet metal and plastic. I’ve seen them mounted on the rear using the hitch receiver ( assume you gave one )

 

[processwrench]

Typically I've seen this done using front mount hitch. For Full size pickups and vans, they are available. Particularly the vans such as ford's e350/e450 that are used in a lot of motorhomes. Not sure if anyone makes one for maverick. Without the hitch I'm Not sure how you'd do it. Maybe you could modify or adapt off a flat tow baseplate, but that would be an expensive option.

I think on a smaller truck like a maverick, I think it would be hard to see over the bike.

Plus on a motorhome I can't see a way to make aerodynamics worse, so hanging a bike on the front wouldn't be noticed, but on the maverick, I could see it being considerable.

 

[WaterWanderer]

Thanks, I appreciate all the replies! Such a great group. I 'm trying to anticipate the easiest way to tow light camper, bike(s) and 2 kayaks next summer..and keeping the tonneau locked for items. CURRENT: I just got my Maverick. I've been putting my bike in the truck bed but when I'm traveling I will need to have my bike and kayak at the same time --I've not yet done that-- I thought how easy it would be to just have a truck bed extender (kayak is 11.5') and bike on front. and then I could still utilize bike(s) on front and only deal with having kayak rack on the camper. By spring, I will hopefully have the camper and, as mentioned, would want to still have lockable tonneau/truck bed. So probably getting my cart before the horse a bit, but didn't want to buy a bike rack for hitch now if it's not going to be useful in a few months.

 

[Glen Baker LLC]

Pros and Cons to using a front-of-truck- mounted bike rack? It seems as if it's a great option for me. Recommendations of where to find one??

Interesting. Front mounted racks are out there. Seems to be more of a European thing.
I do not know if there are any currently for a Maverick.

 

[processwrench]

Depends on the camper but some you can hang something off the back, some teardrops and pop ups you can roof mount. And you can always do something on the tounge line this...

https://www.amazon.com/Lets-Go-Aero...7&psc=1&mcid=eb79ead28cd030b7b2f8c8f0f5f950dd

 

[BoskoPColtrane]

Pros and Cons to using a front-of-truck- mounted bike rack? It seems as if it's a great option for me. Recommendations of where to find one??

With a front bike rack if you are in a fender bender you pay for new bikes. With a rear bike rack if you are in a fender bender, they pay for new bikes.

 

[White Thunder]

With a front bike rack if you are in a fender bender you pay for new bikes. With a rear bike rack if you are in a fender bender, they pay for new bikes.

That sounds about right.

 

[Allen King Jr]

Get a ladder rack that adapts to allow the tonneau cover to still be used, put kayaks on the ladder rack, then obviously the camper will go on the hitch, then if a pop-up or tear drop camper, put bikes on top, if standard travel trailer type camper, but a hitch on the back for the bikes.

 

[Rivers90]

Typically I've seen this done using front mount hitch. For Full size pickups and vans, they are available. Particularly the vans such as ford's e350/e450 that are used in a lot of motorhomes. Not sure if anyone makes one for maverick. Without the hitch I'm Not sure how you'd do it. Maybe you could modify or adapt off a flat tow baseplate, but that would be an expensive option.

I think on a smaller truck like a maverick, I think it would be hard to see over the bike.

Plus on a motorhome I can't see a way to make aerodynamics worse, so hanging a bike on the front wouldn't be noticed, but on the maverick, I could see it being considerable.

I have seen this done on a full size pickup.
But the ones I have seen always used an aftermarket bumper.
No after marker bumpers for the Maverick yet.

Maybe something could mount to a Toad setup but it would need to be custom at this point.

 

[Montana]

WCGW reducing your visibility and putting cargo on the front of your vehicle?

GO FOR IT!

 

[MakinDoForNow]

Put both these under tonneau!

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