We had been debating for a long time about what to do about our bikes, and a generator.

We’ve been using attachment points by Yakima called Locking Blockheads (https://www.yakima.com/locking-blockhead) in the bed of our truck. They work great but … it’s not the easiest thing to use with a 5r. You’re either putting the bikes in first, then trying to hitch up looking thru the bikes, or hitching up first then trying to lift the bikes up into the bed and getting them attached afterwards. It works but … after a while, it’s really a nuisance and a half. We really wanted a rear mounted receiver hitch style bike mount on the back of the trailer. After going to a bunch of bike shops and online research, we decided on a Swagman Escapee (https://www.swagman.net/product/escapee/). What we found a lot is that most bike racks are not approved by most manufactures for rear trailer mounts. There is a lot of constant force applied to a bike rack at the rear of a trailer and most manufacturers won’t certify that their racks can handle these forces. This Swagman is RV Approved.

 

We also have decided we want a generator. We may not use it often but we want the option to have AC power if we go boondocking or primitive camping. We looked and looked and decided we wanted a generator tray on the back that would lock the generator in place. I didn’t want to keep it in the bed of the truck and have to constantly lift it in and out. We decided to buy a Harbor Freight Predator 3500W generator (https://www.harborfreight.com/engines-generators/inverter-generators/3500-watt-super-quiet-inverter-generator-63584.html). Honda’s are pretty much the ‘king’ of portable generators but … they ain’t cheap. The Predator has great reviews online, nobody who has one hates them. They’re quiet, probably about as quiet as the Honda … and you can buy the 3500W unit for significantly LESS than the Honda 2000W unit. We found one tray just for generators that looked ideal. The Torklift Lock and Load (https://www.torklift.com/rv/lock-and-load)

 

We considered a bunch of different cargo trays but what I objected to most was the fact that just about every one I saw, was a single center receiver hitch mount. Our setup was going to be a fairly significant amount of weight. I didn’t want to rely on just one receiver. And to add to the dilemma, our rig wasn’t setup for ANY kind of rear receiver hitch capability at all. So … we decided to have a dual receiver custom built hitch system added directly to the frame of our rig.  We have an RV repair center in our area called Jim Donnie’s (http://www.jimdonnies.com/) that besides doing RV work, also builds or modifies custom rigs like food trucks and custom trailers. So we enlisted them to design and install our custom two receiver hitch system to handle both the bike rack and the generator tray.