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Originally Posted by SR1355
appreciate your insight and comments. quick question about your bike rack, did it mount after the spare, resulting in a lever action due to the bike being so far out from the gate. Thanks for the quick math on the weight of the cooler and cans, the rack material weights 56.32# give or take a # or two.
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Yes, it mounted to the bolts holding the spare (there's pics somewhere on elcova w/the mount), and it did have lever action on the rear gate. After I moved the spare to the roof and just had the bikes on it, it still flexed but obviously not as much. I'd love to have someone stand on the rear bumper w/the bikes on (2 of them) and see how much the rear gate flexes when going over bumps.
As a note, I have beat up my hummer, and gone over good bumps w/the tire and 1 bike back there and there's no noticeable permanent deflection. When you do get this all done, and put in a cooler and jerry cans, see if you can measure a before/after deflection while fully loaded. I'm extra conservative, but if you prove the rear gate can handle the weight, super!