The Jack It Bike Rack tows your bikes between the RV and your tow vehicle.

We have struggled with transporting our bikes to the campground since we purchased our travel trailer a few years ago.  Our family had transporting bikes down pat when we owned our pop up camper with a dual hitch extender.  A dual hitch would not work with our travel trailer, and we had grown tired of packing our bikes into the camper while we were towing.  We finally purchased a Jack It Bike rack late last year, and I'd like to share some of our experiences so far.

Both of our bikes tow safely and securely from place to place.

Jack It Bike Rack Review

You will see many ways that RV's transport bikes going down the road and at the campground.  Every RV has different needs based on the size, how much weight can go on the bumper and more.  It is important that you do a little investigating before you start outfitting your rig with the bike rack of your choosing.  During our walk, our RV dealer highly encouraged us not to put a bike rack on our bumper.  He said it was not rated for that much weight and should look for alternatives.  

Having the right bike racks has encouraged us to bike more while camping, and we have loved it!

Why did I feel like I needed a new rack instead of just shoving them into our RV?  

• Its impossible to get in and out of our RV if needed while traveling with bikes inside.
• They can fall and damage your interior or even your bike.
• It ends up being dirty and messy overall!

On tow days, we stop at a place and will grab drinks out of our fridge or snacks from the pantry.  Bikes inside made this a chore or impossible.  We couldn't access our bathroom if needed on the road with bikes inside.  And it was actually more frustrating to load and unload them from the interior than on our new racks.  

The learning curve to get the bikes in place was a little tricky, but we feel better about it after a few times.

The Jack It Bike Rack fits over the tongue jack of your RV and will tow your bikes between your tow vehicle and your RV.  It is a good alternative if you can't attach a bike rack to your bumper.  Before you purchase a Jack It bike rack, take a look at installation videos like the one below that explain the process.  You may need a professional to help you install your bike rack if you don't have the necessary equipment.  We have a friend that was able to help us.  This help saved us time and money.  It is always wise to consider the whole process before purchasing new gear that you will need to install.

The Jack It Bike Rack stands over the tongue jack with two wings, one to each side, for you to attach your bikes.  Each wing has cradles that fit to the front and back for each of your bikes.  One bike will be in the rear position closest to the RV.  The other bike will ride on the front closest to the tow vehicle.  

We found the loading the bikes was a little tricky for us at first and required a little practice.  You can adjust the position of the cradles to best for your bike frame.  I have a commuter bike with the little rack for a bike trunk or pannier.  This affects the frame shape of this bike.  So, adjust the cradles as needed to help you attach your bike.  We were really stubborn about adjusting the cradles and made loading far more difficult the first couple of times we used it.  Don't do what we did and make like easy on yourself.  If you find that your bike is not aligning with the cradles, make an adjustment so that you can load and unload with ease.  When everything is aligned properly, loading and unloading should not be difficult.

Don't be afraid to reposition the cradles to make sure that your bikes fit properly.  This was the most difficult part for us.

If you need help loading your bikes onto the rack, I found a helpful video for that as well.  At about the 9 minute mark, there is a section that show exactly how to load your bikes.  We found this video really helpful in sorting out how to load and unload the bikes.  The Jack It System overall is fairly intuitive, but we still needed a little visual direction to help us sort it out.  

I recommend putting your bike that rides in the back position on first.  This is the one closest to the RV.  Put your front bike on second.  There are some heavy duty rubber fasters that hold the bike in place and secure the bike to the cradle.

Once in place, the bikes ride securely when towing.  The biggest challenge we had was loading the bikes because we have struggled with the position of the cradles.  Our only other challenge was making sharp turns when backing down our drive.  We have a 90 degree turn into our drive, and we had to remove the front bike to get down our drive when we returned home.  Aside from this, it was easy for towing and transporting.  I also feel like once we get over the learning curve of loading the bikes each time it will get easier.  My husband's bike is much simpler to load than mine.  

Overall, here are my thoughts about the Jack It Bike Rack System.

Pros:

• It is a better way to tow your bikes.
• They are not inside of the RV.
• The attach securely and ride safely to and from the campground.

Cons:

• If you are not very tall or strong, you may struggle to position the bikes up high on the bike rack wings and cradle.
• It takes a little learning to get everything aligned and secure.

Overall the pros outweigh the cons, and I feel like we have made the best decisions for our RV experiences.  My husband is 6 foot 4 and can easily load and unload the bikes nearly by himself.  I mostly get involved to help his maneuver and position the wheels on the cradle.  

The Camco Ladder Bike Rack is what we use to transport our son's bike.  It has worked well also.

We do have a third bike to transport.  For our son's bike, we purchased a Camco Ladder Bike Rack.  Installing this bike rack took almost no time, and it is very easy to load the bike.  This rack will hold two bikes, but it is small.  And I would encourage you to use it with children's bikes.  It is rated to hold 60 pounds.  And we experienced no issues with this rack.  Since it hangs from the ladder, there was zero impact to our bumper.  

No matter what, we would have needed two racks because we have 3 bikes and most racks that would work for us only held two.  I feel like we finally have just what we need to get our bikes to the campground securely and safely.  Its been a long time coming, and I'm glad we finally made a move to get this done.

Get out there and make biking a regular part of your RV experience.  We loved biking in Austin!

Having the right equipment makes all the difference when you are RV'ing.  I'm also super slow to dive into a new project or piece of gear until I've investigated it fully and made a firm decision.  Even with a learning curve, I still feel confident that we will bike a lot more and enjoy taking our bikes with us more often.  

Until next time...happy camping!

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