Jamboree Rack Design

[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.

[evldave]

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.

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!

[SR1355]

60 plus views.... no additional comments....

[Demo]

Well, I wrote a long comment but then decided not to post it. Didn't want to burst your bubble.

So here it is, I think that putting anymore weight on the already overwieght rear door is a bad idea. Unless you don't plan on keeping your H3 long, I predict that your rear door will begin sagging and will require readjustments becoming more and more frequent. I would put my time and effort somewhere else. Additionaly I think it will make access to your roof rack much more difficult. Not to mention the concern you have of pushing the tire out over and inch. Save your money and get a good adventure trailer. My two cents, hope it helps.

[Demo]

Oh yeah, your design looks great, I just don't think the vehicle is made to handle it.

[evldave]

I noticed in your pic you already have a roof rack. Why not just put the spare up there and mount the rack to where the spare mount goes? You could load it up real good and not risk hurting the rear door. Get rid of the whole cone-shaped thing and clean up the back and it would look real nice!

[SR1355]

While I agree it may be too much... I would think that the engineers at GM would know that a company coming up with something like this is going to happen and they would provide extra capacity in the design... maybe not. I guess the only way to find out is to do it and see what happens... could be an expensive experiment.

The saga begins...