New bike racking solution with rolling tonneau

[LittleNeckLightning]

Gonna give this a try - 2 fork mounts in the T rails and just tie down the wheels with cleats. I’ll need more tension than the bungees pictured, but I think this is the quickest and easiest solution for me to NOT have rails and racks, and be able to rack the bikes in bad weather to keep gear covered. The Bak x4s I have is rated for 400lbs on top, so I should be good, but any suggestions are welcome! Cheers - Oliva

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[Prickly Pear]

Nice Litespeed!

 

[LittleNeckLightning]

Ayeeeee thx!

 

[Sovande]

Gonna give this a try - 2 fork mounts in the T rails and just tie down the wheels with cleats. I’ll need more tension than the bungees pictured, but I think this is the quickest and easiest solution for me to NOT have rails and racks, and be able to rack the bikes in bad weather to keep gear covered. The Bak x4s I have is rated for 400lbs on top, so I should be good, but any suggestions are welcome! Cheers - Oliva

Bike storage is the biggest complaint about the bed size.anothet 6 inches and mine would fit with wheels on...

I currently use a suction cup fork mount attached to the rear glass with the rear with in the bed or in a rear crossbar if I have the bed full.

Gonna give this a try - 2 fork mounts in the T rails and just tie down the wheels with cleats. I’ll need more tension than the bungees pictured, but I think this is the quickest and easiest solution for me to NOT have rails and racks, and be able to rack the bikes in bad weather to keep gear covered. The Bak x4s I have is rated for 400lbs on top, so I should be good, but any suggestions are welcome! Cheers - Oliva

 

[JLB]

The convenience of loading the bikes clamping the forks from the side is very nice! Let us know how it works out. I may change to your design instead of my hitch mount rack for short trips.


If the bungee side does not pass the highway speed test, may I suggest strapping the rear of the bikes from the seat post at the top of each bike frame to two adjacent cleats on the truck so that there is a triangular shape in the downward pull to leverage against the pull and buffeting of the wind. Use non-stretchy ratchet straps. Not much tension, just enough to be rigid.

 

[Prickly Pear]

I'd hate to have my bikes mounted sideways like that and have to really jam on the brakes. Make sure those skewers are tight! That's the main advantage of fore/aft mounting, way less side loads on the forks. I had a bike tip once during unloading and bent my drop out almost 90 degrees. Thank god it wasn't my carbon fork.

 

[JLB]

"...way less side loads on the forks."

Forks are pretty tough, but only if both sides are securely fastened.

If one side of the fork is loose and pops out, the other side will bend with minor vibration, wind buffeting, braking, and crosswind forces. That's why most newer hitch mount bike racks hook onto the top of the bike frame and the bottom of the bike by the wheels (or fork) at the same time to zero forces that could otherwise tip the bike over and bend one side of the fork or the strapped point of the wheel.

Diagonal straps to the seat post also solve the problem.

Pretty much every type of taller than wide item in a truck needs diagonal straps to keep from tipping

 

[icegradner]

Think I'll stick with the bed rack mounted bike rack, or a hitch mount.

 

[LittleNeckLightning]

The convenience of loading the bikes clamping the forks from the side is very nice! Let us know how it works out. I may change to your design instead of my hitch mount rack for short trips.


If the bungee side does not pass the highway speed test, may I suggest strapping the rear of the bikes from the seat post at the top of each bike frame to two adjacent cleats on the truck so that there is a triangular shape in the downward pull to leverage against the pull and buffeting of the wind. Use non-stretchy ratchet straps. Not much tension, just enough to be rigid.

Thank you, I agree that ratchet straps to the seat tube area is the way to go. Today I drove top speed 35 with 2 of them bungee’d tight with no issues, but I’d rather not have elastic involved. The actual tonneau bounces a little bit as well, so the straps are in order. The convenience was unmatched. This was super easy, and secure, and less of a pain then loading them into the bed and strapping them anyway. Cheers!

 

[LittleNeckLightning]

Update on this - I moved the fork mounts to the rear away from the bulk head so I have the option of dropping them into the bed, or on top. And I grabbed some ratchet straps for the cleats, and they are solid… I think this form of mounting is probably better for the unibody Mav than a truck box, it will move less and stress the mounting points less id imagine. Hope so! Cheers

 

[JLB]

Those bed seats look like fun!

To clarify my suggestion for the straps with a triangular shape, the strap over the yellow handebar bike would connect to the cleat behind the black handlebar bike, and then to third cleat evenly spaced on the other side. The result is two straps on one bike having about a 20-30 degree angle from each other so that one strap pulls the bike sideways toward the front of the truck bed and the other backward. Similar straps for the other bike, so two bikes use four straps and three cleats. The angles in the straps then have leverage to pull against tip-over forces from the wind. The straps then don't need to be very tight to firmly hold the bike upright, and the forks are no longer stressed by highway speed wind forces.

Using angles in straps more firmly holds all cargo, especially tall stuff like bikes!

Sorry for the long wordy post...

 

[Maverick123]

Bike storage is the biggest complaint about the bed size.anothet 6 inches and mine would fit with wheels on...

I currently use a suction cup fork mount attached to the rear glass with the rear with in the bed or in a rear crossbar if I have the bed full.

Do you have any pictures of the suction mount installed on the back window?

Did you have any issues with this? My ebikes are 52 lbs each, I'm curious if this would cause issues with the window seal, etc

 

[Sovande]

Do you have any pictures of the suction mount installed on the back window?

Did you have any issues with this? My ebikes are 52 lbs each, I'm curious if this would cause issues with the window seal, etc

I ended up going a different route. I ended up with a tonneau cover with t-slots and some crossbars. I mount a Yakima bike holder to that.

I used the seasuckers 4 or 5 times and it worked fine - though I definitely never considered the possibility of it pulling the window seal, that may be a good point. I also used them on the roof of my old F-Type, which was all glass. No issues there either.

 

[Cancunbadlands]

That's a great idea! For sure!

 

[BDennis]

Nice Litespeed!

I had the same thought, love that titanium.

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