# Home made Hitch rack??



## PCLehr (Nov 27, 2007)

I have been looking for a hitch rack for my SUV for a couple of weeks now. I have a hard time paying $300-400 for one. I have all but given up watching craigslist also
I know there are many creative people on these boards. I'm sure someone has had the same feeling & made one themselves. If you are one of them, please post up some pics for ideas for the rest of us!

Thanks in advance


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## bank5 (May 7, 2008)

Performance has a Thule 4-bike hitch rack for $129 - http://www.performancebike.com/shop/profile.cfm?SKU=23008&subcategory_ID=9999

Also, this one looks pretty good for $170 -- http://www.performancebike.com/shop/Profile.cfm?SKU=22745&item=40-3559&slitrk=search&slisearch=true


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## kntr (Jan 25, 2004)

Where are you at? Id sell you my T2 for a good price.


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## canker (Jul 26, 2007)

Had a buddy that could weld make that up for me. I have a tow bar on my miata, no receiver, and the only rack I could find to fit it looked like a POS. It is just made out of thick gas pipe, a big ass bolt with a the head cut off and welded into the pipe, and some random crap he had laying around. Works pretty well although if I could do it again I make it shorter. I did end up ditching the yellow noodle float pads for just more pipe insulation. I use to run two bikes on it pretty often but since my friend got heavy all mountain bike I only use it when I ride alone.


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## bmxerben2000 (Oct 29, 2008)

I guess you can call this a half hitch rack. The design is fairly proprietary to a Jeep Cherokee (others may work though) because you need to have the bar on the roof rack close enough to the rear to reach the front wheel. I designed this rack because none of the currently available racks really suited what I wanted. The design criteria for the bike rack were

- had to be able to hold 4 bikes
- couldn't stick out very far past the bumper for rough road driving (ie washouts) The Thule T2's that can hold 4 bikes really have a problem with this
-bikes couldn't stick above the roof too far to avoid striking low tree branches
-loading and unloading had to be relatively quick

Unfortunately the bike rack will only work with mountain bikes due to wheelbase constraints. Other than that it's been working awesome and has been everything I hoped it would be. I have to give credit to my friend Scott who helped a ton with the fabrication and also helped in working out some of the ideas, and to my friend Andy who also helped with the fabrication.


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## 2005avtj (Feb 16, 2009)

NICE!...yup you could build/fabricate just about anything if you know how to weld. I built a bike rack for my Honda that has a 1 1/4 receiver. I think I over built it by using heaver gauge steel but its better to be safe then sorry.


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## twowheelsdown2002 (Oct 26, 2004)

bank5 said:


> Performance has a Thule 4-bike hitch rack for $129 - http://www.performancebike.com/shop/profile.cfm?SKU=23008&subcategory_ID=9999
> 
> Also, this one looks pretty good for $170 -- http://www.performancebike.com/shop/Profile.cfm?SKU=22745&item=40-3559&slitrk=search&slisearch=true


I second the suggestion for the Performance X-port. I got mine for $119 and I couldn't even come close to building it for that price myself, plus all the hours it would take.

It takes less than a minute to mount, and holds the bikes very securely. We have had it over a year now on our Element, and it works great, and folds up to take up a very tiny amount of area.:thumbsup:


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## PCLehr (Nov 27, 2007)

Intresting? Never thought of standing them upright? Cool Idea!
Good ideas so far, keep them coming!

Thanks to all who replied!


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## andrewhove (Apr 15, 2009)

find a scrap steal place and in my area its like 40 cents a pound at this point. Yu could get all the metal you need for under 20 bucks and then weld it for pretty cheap.


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