Truck bed bike mount

**Reeder** · 02-17-2004, 10:07 PM

Anyone have a clever way of mounting bikes in the bed of a truck and keeping both wheels on? I have seen all of the Yakima, Thule products but they mostly require taking off the front wheel. I'd like to be able to mount 4 bikes also.

**toonces** · 02-18-2004, 03:53 AM

Originally Posted by Reeder

Anyone have a clever way of mounting bikes in the bed of a truck and keeping both wheels on? I have seen all of the Yakima, Thule products but they mostly require taking off the front wheel. I'd like to be able to mount 4 bikes also.

I drew up a schematic of such a mount but I never got around to building it. In a nutshell, it invloved wood built to slots to hold the wheel, then a ratcheting strap to hold the bike firmly against the rack. with the right spacing and alternating front/back/front/back facing, you can easily fit four bikes in a compact truck. Longer handlebars may require some kind of staggering.

That's the hard way. The easy way is to use the ratcheting tie-downs from Home Depot, Walmart, etc., to pull the bars against the wall of the bed as they're hooked to the truck bed tie-down loops. I've seen it done, done it, and it works fine. Just a matter of having enough places to tie the straps to the bed.

**Bear** · 02-18-2004, 07:13 AM

Originally Posted by Reeder

Anyone have a clever way of mounting bikes in the bed of a truck and keeping both wheels on? I have seen all of the Yakima, Thule products but they mostly require taking off the front wheel. I'd like to be able to mount 4 bikes also.

By mostly I take it you've seen the Yakima Anklebiter rack mounts that clamp to a crankarm and do not require removal of either wheel?

**Reeder** · 02-18-2004, 08:14 AM

I've seen the anklebiter but I don't want to permanantly mount that big of a rack to my bed.

I want to mount those short yakima trays with straps to the bedrail at the front of the bed to grab one wheel. I am not sure if that would be enough though. Ideally I would have something grab the other wheel or frame or crank.