What Solutions are There for Towing a Trailer and Carrying Bikes behind a Ford Explorer

Expert Reply:

The Swagman Towing rack, part # S64675 uses a one piece top plate to secure the bikes to the rack. This style of rack is more suitable for carrying bikes with a horizontal top frame. The Swagman rack, part # S64975, uses wrap around cradles that can be rotated on the bike rack tube to allow you to carry bikes with angled frame down tubes level . With a dry tongue weight of 303 lbs on the trailer, I do not think that either of these racks would be suitable. The tongue weight capacity is only 350 lbs and your tongue weight is at 303 lbs before you put anything in the trailer or load the bikes on the carrier.

I would recommend using a drawbar with a built in receiver tube like Valley part # V75090 or Curt part # D210. These are draw bars that go into the hitch and the trailer connects to the ball like normal, but they have an added 2 inch receiver tube on top for a bike rack. If you only need to carry two bikes you can use a smaller rack than what is on the Swagman Towing racks. Instead you could use something like Thule Roadway part # TH912XT or Swagman part # S63360. We do have a review video of the Thule Roadway bike rack that I have linked to.

expert reply by: Patrick B