Surco 501BR Ladder Mounted Bike Rack

Great rack! I own a 35' RV travel trailer and as with most of them, the back "bumper" is anything but a bumper. It is just thin tubing that holds the sewer hose in storage and is not rated for any load such as a hitch type bike carrier. I purchased this rack and was very pleased with the packaging, quality of the parts and how easily it attached to my trailer ladder. In my particular case I also have a spare tire near the ladder so the bike wheels stick out about a foot past the side of the trailer which I wasn't pleased about at first but then realized it allowed me to visually check the bikes while moving. Took a short trip and encountered very rough roads, but the rack held firm and the bikes didn't move at all. I used the rubber straps included with the rack as well as the nylon strap to further secure them to the ladder. I recommend this rack if you also do not have an actual bumper on the back of your RV or if you like the idea of getting the bikes stored a bit higher off the ground. I also like the unique ability to swing the rack out of the way if you need to use the ladder to access the roof of your rig; didn't see that on any other rack.

This review is for a trailer mounted bike rack. We had a receiver hitch rack but it continually bounced to the point that we almost lost a bike and eventually it cracked and couldn't be used. I purchased another that was more sturdy, a Highland Sportwing which was great but with it's Y shape I couldn't get it to fit around the spare tire and even with removing that it would have blocked the taillights; therefore, I returned it. The installation was very easy and once mounted with a bike on it I could detect no bounce. In fact the trailer moved before the bike did. To be fair, we haven't used it on a long trip yet so will edit this review if we notice any problems but I have a feeling we will not. One installation hint: be careful when you attach the brackets that you don't tighten one side first and then the other. They need to be started finger-tight and then a little at a time to make sure they are equal on each side. (Similar to how you would tighten the lug-nuts on a tire.)

Bought the rack because friends have one which they like. Product descriptor says "Fits on the ladder of any van or RV"; this is not so. Descriptor fails to mention that the clamps provided will fit only 1" diameter ladder rails, no mention is made of other available sizes. Took me about two hours to purchase four U bolts, modify them to fit snug on my 1.5" diameter ladder rails, tape the rails for protection and install the rack. The rack swivels so that it will swing flat and lock in place with pins when not in use; the pin fits fine on one side, cannot fit the pin on the other side, I'll most likely have to enlarge the hole to get it to work.

As usual easy ordering, great service and speedy delivery by Amazon.The product seems to be well made with heavy aluminum extrusions and stainless machine screws and rivets. The locking pins however appear to be plated steel and may eventually rust. The straps that hold the bikes to the rack are a rubbery material with large holes that fit over a pin - they seemed secure enough but I wonder how long they will hold out after long term exposure to the weather - I have a feeling they may be prone to tearing after a while.The rack arms attached easily and quickly to the rear ladder on my motor home (a hex wrench is provided). As complained about by another reviewer, the fact that the rail clamp screw heads face the motor home was absolutely not an issue for me - perhaps if the ladder rails were say less than 2" or so away from your camper this could be a problem. Two stainless screws fasten each of the four rail clamps via threads cut into one of the clamp halves - these grip the 1" ladder rails securely. I was somewhat surprised though that there was no thread locker or a lock washer provided to prevent loosening. Also, stainless and aluminum will galvanically corrode (dissimilar metals) so it might be a good idea to coat the threads with something to slow down this process.Once installed the rack arms felt secure and operated smoothly, and I was very pleased with the installation at this point. That is, until I tried mounting my two bikes on the rack - they just don't fit right - one arm has to take virtually all the weight of both bikes. BTW, both my bikes are just ordinary standard straight frame traditional 26" mountain bikes, one with a 19" frame, the other with a 21" frame.The instructions included are rather sparse and contain a few grammatical and spelling errors. They are also somewhat contradictory - in one place they say the rear axle of the bike must be centered in the middle of the ladder, in another they say the vertical frame tube of the bike must be centered on the rack arms. I found it impossible to center the rear axle as indicated - on both my bikes it ended up just about over the left ladder rail and there was no room for horizontal adjustments, so this puts almost all the weigh of both bikes on one arm of the rack. If the front derailleur wasn't there I may have been able to slide the bike frames over a bit. Also, in my case, if I mounted the bike wheels to face the outside of the motor home they would stick out farther than my mirrors, so this eliminated the option of putting the bikes in opposite directions on the rack to distribute the weight more evenly.A web strap came in the kit but there was no mention of what to do with it in the instructions - I assume it was for lashing the lower part of the bike to the ladder, and yes it will be necessary to devise some means of securing the lower part of the bikes to the ladder somehow - the trick will be how to do it for your bikes in such a way as to not scratch up your bikes, ladder or camper. I don't see how that 1 strap alone would do the the trick.As for loading/unloading the bikes on the rack it was not ideal. I wanted the bikes up as high as possible to not block the tail light and I was able to mostly accomplish that by mounting the top clamp of the rack just above the top step on the ladder. However, getting the bikes on or off required gripping the bikes by the front of the frame and press-lifting them into position - I can do it but it is a little more than awkward, I also needed a folding step stool we carry so I could get high enough. Then, I needed to break out the step ladder so I could reach the tie downs.So anyway, it was clear these racks were not going to work for me, but they are decently made and they may work for your bikes, just consider some of the things I ran into before you buy. I ended up returning this rack and ordered a hitch for my toad (from Amazon of course), so I can install a standard hitch mount bike rack which holds the bikes in a horizontal position. A more expensive solution to be sure if you don't already have a hitch, but a lot easier to load/unload the bikes and probably a lot more flexible of a solution. Also much less costly than a roof mount bike rack.

Works great.

I bought this a couple of months ago in anticipation of bringing me and my wife's bikes with us when we were camping.I installed it and proceeded to put the bikes on it. When I put the second bike on one of the tubes bent down. It is NOT rigid enough to hold two bikes in your drive way much less bouncing down the road in a RV . Amazon wont give me my money back because I waited to long to try it out. I assumed it would work fine but was I wrong. Another thing is even if it did hold up there is no way to keep the bikes handlebars from slamming into the RV and tearing it up. Very disappointed and feel ripped off.