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Simple and easy to use, this 3-bike rack is perfect for a family that travels. Its heavy-duty steel frame handles the extra bounce and sway that results from being mounted on the back of your RV.
Features:
Specs:
Built for RVs
The Swagman Original is built to withstand the added vibration and stress that comes from being installed on the back of your RV. The base has no moving parts, and the mast attaches to the shank with steel-reinforced brackets. These overbuilt components ensure that the rack can take any punishment that the road may inflict.
Steel Plates with Rubber-Cushioned Cradles
The rack has upper and lower steel plates with rubber-cushioned cradles that secure your bikes by the top tube. To install your bikes, set them in the cradles on the lower plate, place the upper plate over the top tubes, and tighten the plates together using the hand knobs.
Soft rubber padding inside the cradles protects your bikes from scratches and scuffs. The padding has grooves on the surface that prevent your brake and shifter cables from getting pinched.
A threaded hitch pin is included to help eliminate rattle in the hitch receiver during transport. To tighten the pin in your hitch, use a 5/8" wrench (not included). A clip is also included to keep the pin in place.
Available Security and Adapter Bar
An anti-rattle hitch lock (sold separately) is available to secure the rack to your vehicle.
You can also add a pair of padlocks (sold separately) to secure your bikes to the rack. The plates that hold your bikes in place have holes to accommodate padlocks up to 5/8" in diameter.
If you have a women's bike, kid's bike, or any other bike without a straight, horizontal top tube, you will need an adapter bar (sold separately) to properly mount your bike. The bar fits between the seat post and handlebar stem post of your bike to create a top tube so your bike hangs level on the rack.
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (199 Customer Reviews)
Simple and easy to use, this 3-bike rack is perfect for a family that travels. Its heavy-duty steel frame handles the extra bounce and sway that results from being mounted on the back of your RV.I needed a small bike rack for my 5th wheel. I came to etrailer as my trusted source for info and availability since we live full time on the road. Plus these are hard to find in brick and mortar stores since COVID. I ordered the rack on a Sunday and received a confirmation and tracking number before I went to bed!! The package even arrived a day early. The rack is more sturdy than I had expected and look forward to safe transport of my bike. I also like I now have the ability to mount and use it on the rear of my pickup if needed. This is a 5 star rack but gets only 4 stars due to my one issue. The only issue was a small amount of what looks like welding slag in the threaded attachment hole to the trailer. (see picture) Having no other option, I just forced/re-threaded the bolt during installation. Since I hope to not need to remove the rack, I am just hoping for the best in the future.
Product is better and sturdier than I expected. I was shocked at how fast it shipped. It was extremely well packaged. I have not seen this type of care in shipping for a long time. I am very happy with the product especially at the price. It had several features I was looking for:
1. It is rigid to the hitch with no flopping.
2. The bikes can be securely locked to the carrier.
3. The unit can easily be locked to the hitch (with the additional locking bolt that I would recommend purchasing.
4. When not in use it can easily be stored FLAT in the storage area of my RV without taking up a lot of room.
I would highly recommend etrailer and this bike carrier. I will be doing additional business with etrailer in the future!
Chuck
3/16/2019
Excellent
Chuck
3/16/2019
I used it to haul my bike down to Florida from Minnesota on the back of my RV. With the base being screwed tight to the hitch it traveled with zero problems. Very heavily built. Stores flat against the wall in the storage area underneath. I am extremely pleased with this product!
Excellent product. After installing your heavy-duty 3-bike
carrier, we carried our bicycles over 4,000 miles and they
are still on the back of our 2018 Jayco 43’ 5th wheel trailer.
Thanks for your follow up to our purchase in 2019. Is good business action to follow up on the products you sell.
Happy Trails,
Bradley H.
6/21/2021
Thank You Patrick for your two-year follow up notice this June 2021. We hauled our 5th Wheel Jayco all the way back to WA. state, but without the bikes. Gave them to a charity so someone else could get some use out of them. Bought a fat tire bicycle and will arrive soon. We are State Park Hosts for WA., OR., and FL. states, so we needed a sturdy bike carrier. We have had no issues with our 3-bike SWAGMAN bike carrier that has traveled approx. 8,000 miles securely fastened to the back of our 43 RV trailer. I am very impressed with my purchase!
The bike rack I had a few years ago I liked better. It was one piece and had a release pin so it was able to tilt down so you could get into the hatch of my Jeep. The new one is a two piece and every now a then I have to realign the top half, which holds the bikes. It displaces to the left or right a few degrees and needs to be retighten. It works though just liked to old one better.
We ordered the Roadmaster dual hitch extension and the Swagman 3-bike rack for our Motorhome. We tow a vehicle and had our bikes on the back of our tow. They partially blocked our tow vehicle’s brake lights. We opted to get this assembly to attach to the coach and still be able to flat tow our vehicle. Assembly was easy, you will need two 5/8 hitch pins: 1 for the extension to the RV hitch and 1 to reattach your Blue Ox (or other flat tow assembly). Very sturdy construction. We are very pleased!
Super happy with my purchase, the Swagman makes it easy and safe to transport you bikes. Saw one on the highway the other month and decided I needed to keep my investment safe and not worry when driving, found etrailer.com and continue buying other parts. Recommend purchasing the key lock for the hitch to keep it safe from theft. Great customer service!
I purchased this rack because I had one in the past. It held up well, was easy to use and secured the bicycles I transport on the back of my trailer securely.
etrailer's communications was clear. The product arrived earlier than the original delivery date. etrailer is one of my go to resources for purchases. I really like that I can reach out and receive great customer service from an online seller.
William
3/7/2023
This rack continues to perform well. Holding up well in the weather
Order shipped same day. Product is well built and works very well with 5th wheel. This resolves the issue of placing bikes in truck bed. Very happy with product. Thanks etrailer for your quick response.
The product did not come with instructions as to the installation of the pin locking it to the hitch. A left-handed person will naturally put it in from the left, which doesn't work. It can only be inserted and function properly if inserted from the right side. As simple sentence in this instructions could have covered this. Yes, the world is right handed, at least most of it. A left-handed person is going to put it in from the left side. One sentence could've clarified this.
Easy to assemble and use. Great for hauling kids bikes or any standard bike without a thin walled frame. It clamps down the bike with confidence and simplicity. Swagman is simple and bombproof.
Worked perfect on our 5th wheel. Was worried we would not get shipment on time for our trip due to COVID staffing shortages, but Courtney came thru for us. Thank you so much. Excellent customer service.
Installed both items within 15 minutes and am quite pleased with the results. A thunderstorm rolled through, as evidenced by the pictures, so I was unable to utilize the rack. I plan on riding the Ghost Town Trail tomorrow along with a friend. I rate these items with Five Stars !
The rack is very solid on the back of my 5th wheel. We've just covered about 600 miles with some rough bumps along the way. Nothing budged. We are only carrying one bike at this time, but it looks like it will handle three just fine.
Initial impressions. I have a Swagman from a few years ago and it was a failure on my 5th wheel. It mounted using either the 2" or the smaller receiver and I had it installed, with proper adapter, on a 2" receiver. A rough road caused the receiver bar to bend and we almost lost the bikes. This one is only 2" receiver and the bar is much more substantial. I expect it to work very well. Swagman has a replacement bolt/pin that will allow locking it to the receiver and they have an optional cable that locks to the receiver pin. Those will add security and probably something I will purchase.
Charles
3/9/2021
We have been using this bike rack during our full time travels for 8 months and have had no issues in more than 6000 miles. I have 2 65 pound electric bikes on it. I added a locking hitch pin. I do wish it had somewhere I could attach my cable lock for added peace of mind. I do use the padlock on the clamp that holds the bikes.
Very, very heavy. When you put your bike on the rack, the bike hangs very low. I have a Honda CRV and put my women's bike on the rack. When I drive over even a little teenie bump, the tires of the bike have hit the road and bent the bike. I will never buy this again. There is no way to adjust the height of the pipe coming out of the hitch. Terrible design. Very, very, very heavy. And I do not have a fancy bike but I was on the Interstate and hit a little tiny bump......at 55 miles per hour, it bent my entire tire and rim! Cost me over $100 to fix it. Never again. Only a child's bike will work on this. DO NOT BUY this bike rack.
Heather A.
10/24/2018
It sounds like you need an adapter bar to keep the bikes level on the bike rack. The adapter bar will give the bike a level hanging surface so they are not crooked on the bike rack. It should help them from hanging too low and creating ground clearance issues. I recommend the Kuat adapter bar part # UB01 because it extends from 15 inches to 23 inches so it will work on adult womens bikes and childrens bike frames.
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I’ve purchased plenty of products online and this is my first review of a product ever. First I will say that the customer service at etrailer was excellent for me. The product and shipping were excellent as well. This swagman original 3 standard bike carrier ended up being exactly what I had hoped. It’s easy to use and put together and seems built fairly well. It’s operation and use is very simple and I really like that about products. Just took my first long trip with it and it performed very well. An anti-rattle hitch tightener from somewhere like [overstock store] for under $xx is an absolute must and huge difference maker. Without one of those the carrier is going to be naturally a little bit loose in the hitch receiver just like any other device you put into a hitch receiver would be. The hitch tightener device makes 100% difference. It is best to secure the front wheels of the bikes when they are on the carrier with something like a bungee cord, but that takes less than 10 seconds to do and it also makes an absolute big difference in the way everything travels. There are holes in the carrier that allow you to loop a cable and lock system through it and around the bumper or hitch of your RV. I tried that as well and it worked perfectly. Maybe the thing I was worried about the most when I ordered it was whether or not it would extend far enough past the spare tire mounted on the rear bumper of my RV. The advertisement for the product said that it would and it absolutely did, easily. The only reason for the four stars is because the plastic knobs that tighten down the brace for the top bars of the bike could possibly be over tightened and either stripped or cracked. Stepping up the quality of those two knobs would easily make this a five star review. It’s not a big concern, you just have to be careful to not over tighten like any other plastic thing with threads. Overall very happy with the product and very pleased with my first order from etrailer.
Sierra K.
10/14/2021
Excellent review that covers all of the quirks of this bike rack and others like it! It is true about the knobs. We sell replacements for this reason: Item # P1040.
Helpful Links
Things I like:
1. Great build quality, heavy duty not worried that it will break on me.
2. Holds three bikes
Things I Don't like:
1. The screw knobs to lock the bikes in place, this takes forever when you have skinny top tube bikes
2. It's heavy
3. Does not have a way to swing down if you need to open the back of your car. I have to unpin it and slide it out of the hitch just a bit.
4. Does not store easily, it's such an awkward shape that's not easy to store when not in use.
If this is something that you're going to keep on your vehicle all the time, I would pick a different model.
Jenny N.
4/20/2022
I do have an alternate bike rack to recommend. It is part # S63365. While it weighs the same, it has two arms that use anti sway cradles with rubber straps. The arms will fold down for storage and it tilts forward for easy rear-cargo access. It carries 3 bikes and fits vehicles with 2 inch receivers.
A friend gave us their bike rack to travel from NY to SC. It was so flimsy and loose we did not use it. I borrowed my son's once in SC (this model), and it was simple and worked extremely well. I bought the same for our next trip to SC. It holds the bikes firmly with easy ability to lock bikes onto the rack, I just need to purchase a locking hitch pin.
One drawback is that it does not tilt so you can't access cargo without removing the rack.
Otherwise a good value!
Heather A.
10/26/2018
The locking hitch pin you will need for this bike rack part # S64152-2 is swagman threaded hitch pin lock part # S64027. This swagman bike rack does not tilt away for cargo access. I recommend swagman trailhead hanging bike rack part # S63365 with the tilt away feature. The trailhead tilts forward to allow easy access to vehicles rear cargo area. You will still need part # S64027 for the lock.
Chk3
10/26/2019
Very well!
My only concern is that because we are going to use on our fifth wheel, it would be nice to be able to have choices on where you could put the connecting pin. It still appears to be far from the trailer. This is my second swagman, my other is over 20 years old and just broke on the way to our winter destination. I am wondering if I could have an additional hole drilled into the steel?
Judi Y.
4/11/2020
We have had a small problem, the top plate didnt hold well and one of the bikes slipped and twisted the plate. We are still able to use 2 of the 3 spots for now. It seems hard to find something that will be safe on back of trailer. We are very diligent about checking and tightening on every stop but still happened.
It is a tough bike rack which I can use with my travel trailer. I would give it 5 stars but the rack does not swing down for unloading. However, I don't think there is rack suitable for a travel trailer which also swings down. E-trailer shipped the bike rack in a timely fashion and the rack is exactly as advertised.
Heather A.
6/1/2018
We do not have any bike racks that are travel trailer approved that swing away or down. If the bike rack is rated for motorhome, 5th wheel or camper use they have a fixed stinger that goes into the hitch receiver to avoid any excessive bouncing. We do have the Swagman trailhead part # S63381. This is a 4 bike rack where the arms fold down for storage but the whole rack does not tilt down or fold.
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This rack is very secure and the easiest one that I have ever used.
This rack worked perfectly. It had plenty of clearance between my tailgate and itself. I also bought the leveling bars for each bike and they also worked perfectly. They made bike even with the top of the tailgate and I could only see some of the handlebars. There was no excess movement to cause me any distractions while driving. It’s made out of heavy duty steel tubing and easily held the weight of our bikes. It was super easy to put together and attach to my hitch. You will probably need a 2.5 - 2 in. reducer like I did. Overall, this was a great product. I’d recommend it to anyone.
the transaction with etrailer was seamless. shipping was fast. the hitch itself is heavier than I anticipated. but it is very robust and does the job better than expected. I'm happy with it.
The Swagman Original - 3 Bike Rack for 2" Trailer is built solid and I have no doubts that it will be able to withstand the physical stress of riding behind my 5th wheel. The bike rack does not fold, which is fine with me since it will be attached on the receiver of my pick-up truck or 5th wheel. Putting it together was somewhat easy. You do need a torque wrench to tighten the bolts/nuts to exactly 60 lbs to be on the safe side. One more thing, the bolt that secures the bike rack to the vehicle's receiver is threaded. When assembling the the bike rack receiver bar, make sure the threaded side is to the right if your are right-handed or left for left-handed people. It is so much easier to to thread the bolt in if positioned the right way. I know, I had to undo mine and turn the part 180 degrees to set the threaded side to the right. In all, I am still very satisfied with my purchase. The staff at etrailer.com is outstanding. The sale and customer service people go out of their way to make sure you get all the information needed to make the right choice.
It was a great bike rack for the money. It was not convenient when traveling with overnight hotel stays. Had to take bike and rack off my SUV to get to luggage. But since it's only a few times a year, not bad.
I have a step thru bike and found it difficult to use the clamp bar because it could scratch the bike. So purchased inexpensive accessory that goes into clamp and has a sliding bar that allows the bike to hang from front handlebar and under the seat.
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Tim Z.
5/16/2022
Still doing fine a year later. The rack is fine. Knowing what I know today, next time, I would get a rack with double support bars for the bikes. The single support works but is more challenging to stabilize my 2 old school pedal bikes.