# How do you haul your tandem with out a truck



## Old School HPV (Feb 3, 2011)

Being a newbie to tandems I need some ideas on how you guys haul your tandems around. Roof racks seem like it would be a chore to lift the tandem that high and a tandem may be too wide to go onto a hitch rack. Can anyone share any pics.


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## clj2289 (Jan 2, 2010)

Sportsworks rack.


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## Schmucker (Aug 23, 2007)

The roof racks don't require you to lift it (usually). Put the fork on and swing the rear up there. There are quite a few unique solutions. Just google it and see what will work for your vehicle.


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## Sam Jones (Feb 25, 2005)

Just take the front wheel off and strap it to the frame. Then mount a front axle at the rear of your motorcycle (like a trailer hitch) and clamp the fork to that motorcycle mounted axle


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## zibell (Apr 13, 2007)

we have a Yakima hitch rack (similar to the doubledown 4) on our SUV. And just throw it on and strap it down. It rides backthere just fine for trips local up to about an 1 1/2 hours drive, anything longer then that I pull off the wheels. We've been on trips to Mammoth, Santa Cruz, Sedona and then the bike hangs on the back with the wheels off. Hope this helps.
Just use what you have and make it work.


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## Old School HPV (Feb 3, 2011)

Thanks for the pointers everyone. Except for SJ, I just could not follow your train of thought. I do have a 4 bike carrier that slides into the 2" receiver and your right it hangs ther just fine. A little wide with both wheels off but definitely acceptable. We said it will keep me out of the fast food drive thru. 
Thanks again.


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## zibell (Apr 13, 2007)

We've been able to go through the drive thru with our bike on the back with the wheels on. Just center the bike on the rack with the bars turned so that the front wheel isn't sticking straight out. This seems to work fine for us.


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## PMK (Oct 12, 2004)

Sam tows his bike behind their Honda Gold Wing motorcycle.

PK


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## Fleas (Jan 19, 2006)

Old School HPV said:


> Thanks for the pointers everyone. Except for SJ, I just could not follow your train of thought. I do have a 4 bike carrier that slides into the 2" receiver and your right it hangs ther just fine. A little wide with both wheels off but definitely acceptable. We said it will keep me out of the fast food drive thru.
> Thanks again.


Since you admitted your "newness" to tandems, here's my learning curve shortcut for ya:

If you do carry it with the wheels on, and they stick out a little, they will catch more wind than you might guess. You'll want to strap the bike in the middle and on each end to keep it from "flapping" around back there (esp. if your, I'm assuming, wife tries to drive 80mph with a bike on the rack like my wife does :nono: ). On our hitch rack, I actually installed a big foam block on the upright so I could tie off the boom tube (the big tube between the cranks) crossways to the rack. Oh, and I use straps that don't stretch as opposed to bungees.

You got a good deal!  Have fun!:thumbsup:

-F

PS - I have also carried it securely on a Dodge Neon with a 6-point trunk rack. I wouldn't plan a week-long trip that way, but it worked for a couple hundred miles.


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## twd953 (Aug 21, 2008)

I made my own tandem racks for the yakima roof racks on our 2 vehicles. Here is what you need: 

-4 plastic p clips (same type yakima uses on all of their rack attachments)
-4 carriage bolts (same as used on yakima's rack attachments) Get longer ones at any hardware if you need it.
-3 nylon lock nuts
-2 yakima wing nuts.
-8 foot long 1" square steel tubing
-1 yakima (or rocky mount) single bike tray. 
-1 pickup bed fork mount. 
-8 nylon washers
-1 yakima (or whatever brand) wheel tray strap

The pickup bed form mount comes with 2 mounting holes drillied in it. You'll need to drill a third in the middle. Drill a hole in the end of the square steel tube, and slide the square tube between the base plate and axle of the fork mount. Insert the bolt through the base plate and steel tube and tighten the nylon lock nut. Cut the bole to an appropriate length if you want. Then install long bolts through the factory drilled holes on the base of the fork mount and through the two plastic P-clips attaching it to the front rack crossbar.

Drill a second hole through the steel tube just in front of the rear rack crossbar so you can insert a bolt through the plastic p-clip on the crossbar. Drill a third hole through the end of the steel tube. 

Now, slide two carriage bolts into the single wheel tray, and place 4 nylon washers on each bolt beneath the tray. Mount the tray on top of the steel bar, with the front bolt through the p-clib on the rear cross bar, and the rear bolt through the hole at the end of the steel tube. 

Now install the two yakima wing nuts on the two bolts for the wheel tray. With the bolts loose, you can slide the tray fore-aft along the steel tube to adjust to the wheelbase of your tandem. When it's at the length you want, tighten the wing nuts down. 

The fork mount keeps the front end of the tandem high enough above the cross bars that the front bottom bracket/boom tube clear the wheel tray. 

If you do it right, you can have it adjust to fit single bikes and tandems by sliding the tray. I place one wheel strap at the front of the tray for single bikes and a second at the back for the tandem. Both of our vehicles have long roof lines where I keep the tray slid far enough back to accomodate our tandems but still short enough to fit a single bike as well. 

If you have a vehicle with a short roofline, you may not want to leave the tray extended all the way back when you are not hauling a tandem. 

I've made 2 of these racks now very cheaply. About $15 for the steel tube, maybe $25 in hardware includeing the extra yakima p-clips and wing nuts if you don't have extra's around. I had an extra wheel tray laying around for one, and I found the other on closeout for about $10. 

By scavenging parts I had on hand, I don't think I spend more than $45 to put either one together. I haven't checked prices lately, but even buying everything new, you should be able to put this all tobether for $100 or less.

Obviously, if you don't already own a roof rack, then this doesn't make as much sense. 

It is a bit of a chore to get the bikes on/off the rook rack, particulalry on a taller vehicle. I can get our tandems on and off ok by myself, and my wife has done so, but it's not an easy solo task. 

We do a lot of riding with our kids as stokers, and they aren't tall enough to help getting the bikes up/down.


Take the front wheel off the tandem and mount it on


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## Old School HPV (Feb 3, 2011)

twd - 
Thanks for the DIY rack description. We do have a Yakima roof system on our van and a hitch rack on our Jeep. Your description sounds in line with what I was thinking about with the addition of making the fork mount swivel so that I can load myself. Do you have any pictures of your racks that you can post? That would really help. 

Also, I was thinking of mounting the box tubing outboard of the vans existing factor racks to make it easier to load the tandem. But I am concerned about placing that much load on just one side rather than spreading the load across the whole roof width. Are your racks mounted inboard of the factor roof rack?

Thanks


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## Teamburney (Nov 21, 2010)

Ok, here is what we do. 1UPUSA makes a great hitch rack, all very nice machined aluminum. But for the tandem, I called and asked if they could customize one for a tandem and all they had to do was send me two extra pieces to lengthen it.Now here is the measurements you have to deal with. The law is 102" wide for any vehicle. Our tandem is (ECDM) 100" which is exactly the same as the side mirrors on our Escalade. Fly some red flags on the wheels and you're good to go. Next time I have it loaded on the back of our car I will take a photo and post it. The great thing is, no removal of wheels, pull off and ride.


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## Stevoo (Mar 9, 2007)

Have hauled the big bike inside our old Honda Accord wagon. Just take the wheels off. I love wagons. Now hauling on the roof or a Toyota Matrix. Made my own "fork-up" adapter to allow 20mm thru axle mounting. I machined the bore for a good fit to the axle and it does not flop around. I heard that the genuine "Fork-up" adapter was a sloppy fit and folks were having trouble with that so I payed special attention to that. Otherwise I leave the wheels on and use tie downs in the bed of the pick-up. It is nice to have a pick-up at times. If you fold down the front passenger seat and you are willing to have your significant other sit behind you in the back seat you can also carry the big bike inside a Toyota Matrix.


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## twd953 (Aug 21, 2008)

I don't have any photos of the racks, but I sketched up the basic concept on CAD. We have Yakima lowrider towers on the factory rails of our van, and I have ours mounted just outside of the towers so that I can lift the tandems up easier. The yakima crossbars will flex a little bit, but nothing to cause concern.

We've got tens of thousands of miles on these racks with our tandems loaded included several cross 5,000+ mile cross country road trips. We've seen some horrendous wind and thunderstorms with no problems. Oh, and when my wife drove it into a parking garage (yeah....don't ask), the tandem rack was undamaged, which is more than I can say for the yakima towers and cross bars, tandem, or the roof of our van.

















You'll want the widest bar spacing you can get to best support the tandem, yet still accomodate a single bike (assuming you want to do that). Since the cross bar spacing is dependant on your vehicle, I can't really give you any dimensions as to where to drill the holes in the steel tubing. I just determined the maximum cross bar spacing I could get, then measured the wheelbase of our tandems and single bikes and made sure it worked out so I could slide the wheel tray far enough fore-aft to accomodate both singles and tandems.

The obvious drawbacks of this system is common to all roof racks (wind resistance, bugs, lifting the bike on/off, wives who drive into parking garages) and has the added drawback of having to remove the front wheel, which is a bit of a pain on the mtn tandem with a 20mm thru axle fork.

However, I'm not a big fan of hitch mount racks, and I've already got the money invested in roof racks for two vehicles in order to carry single bikes, kayaks, rocket box, etc... so this was by far the cheapest solution for us.


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## de lars cuevas (Jun 19, 2006)

semi-off topic: my quite large Duratec road tandem (about Cannondale XL/M size) fits into my 4.14m Berlingo:










I just take the wheels off and transport diagonally, standing straight up, so i can even leave one third of the rear seats up.

And a friend of mine even fit the same bike in his 4.16m Renault 19, pulling the rear seats down.










So transport inside a decent stationwagon should be no problem.


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## PMK (Oct 12, 2004)

twd953 said:


> However, I'm not a big fan of hitch mount racks, and I've already got the money invested in roof racks for two vehicles in order to carry single bikes, kayaks, rocket box, etc... so this was by far the cheapest solution for us.


OK, I just must ask.

Is this for taking out teams in front of you like in Top Gun, or is this to propel you to the front.

Either way I'm nervous.

Photos of these rockets please. Sounds kind of cool.

PK


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## twd953 (Aug 21, 2008)

PMK said:


> OK, I just must ask.
> 
> Is this for taking out teams in front of you like in Top Gun, or is this to propel you to the front.
> 
> ...


Hmmm.....hadn't thought of actual rockets. Will have to look into that. We could just blast those trail obstacles that won't clear the timing chain.

Maybe this link will help.

http://www.yakima.com/shop/cargo/rocketbox-series


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## PMK (Oct 12, 2004)

twd953 said:


> Hmmm.....hadn't thought of actual rockets. Will have to look into that. We could just blast those trail obstacles that won't clear the timing chain.
> 
> Maybe this link will help.
> 
> http://www.yakima.com/shop/cargo/rocketbox-series


Yeah, so that is how you say you get your bike to the trail...I am on a conspiracy theory that this is really what you put in that Yakima "Rocket Box". :nono:











And for your road tandem






Regardless of what you may say now, it will be some kind of big cover up.:skep:

If we get in front of you, we will be run down:bluefrown::bluefrown:, behind you we will be incinerated.:madmax::madmax::bluefrown: I am very scared.:eekster::eekster:

PK


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## J (Mar 25, 2004)

I open the rack super wide on my 1up, put mine in there and bungee it down.


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