I do the same as Charlie. I have a 2 bike hitch carrier and a Yakima roof rack with another 3 bike carriers if I want to transport myself and 4 friends.

The hitch carrier I like is made by the company 1UP. With a 2 inch receiver hitch, you can get a hitch carrier capable of supporting 4 bikes. I got the 2 bike carrier which gives you the option to add another couple carriers if you choose to. These racks are very well built, all metal, no plastic.
1UP USA | OFFICIAL SITE

nice bike!

My trail bike is ~30.5lbs probably closer to 31.5-32 with mud and a spare tube and 2 CO2 cans strapped to it. I've hung two bikes like mine and a third through the window w/o a weight issue. 3 bikes, 3 dudes, all our gear, NBD.
My bike is size Large with 150/140 travel and 2.6 tires. I can just barely make this fit happen. It certainly would not fit with another bike inside.
We get all 4 seasons here. So I run dry lube on my chain, but the chain still collects dirt/muck and leaves marks on stuff. My bike is never clean.

Newer bikes with larger wheels (and even a newer 26er) are just longer than they were pre-2000. I have a size large 1998 GT avalanche that's probably 4-6" shorter than my size large 2017 Giant Trance. My current bars are 800mm wide and the old ones may be 670. Everything is just larger. I used to run a setup like you described in my Runner before I switched to 27.5. My current Trance will fit inside on a fork-mount alone...but just barely. No room for another bike at all.

However on my Pisgah trip earlier this year, we put two bikes on my hitch rack and shoved one through the rear window with the 'tailgate' dividing the bike's downtube and fork/wheel. I was able to carry three trail bikes (2-27.5s and a 29er) and three guys and all our gear safely and conveniently. A yoga mat was used to cushion the truck where the bike was chucked over the 'tailgate'. This is not terribly convenient as maneuvering the bike through the open window is/was a ***** and even worse with a rack in the way. I have done it this way on short around-town bike trips when I've left the rack off. But you can't secure the truck or the bike, so parking it and walking away takes a fair bit of trust/nihilism.

where I live, bikes getting stolen off of car racks is really common, so I keep mine in the back.

I ended up going with

1UP USA | OFFICIAL SITE

Ordered the single rack super-duty with a add-on. So I have a option of single bike rack. Or attach the add-on and carry two bikes. One of my friends has this rack. And it’s very nicely built. Not to mention all aluminum.

That’s a great rack and will last a long, long time. I might advise adding a locking hitch pin to it if you don’t already have one. We’ve got jackholes here in the Chattanooga area stealing the nicer, empty bike racks off cars just to simply sell the racks. I guess that since most racks aren’t serialized, tracking the theft is next to impossible.

Hey: I'm seeing a lot of replies, but they didn't seem to address the fact that you have a rear tire carrier. What bumper do you have, can you send a picture? I used to work at RackNRoad and dealt with Jeeps with the tire carriers all the time.

99% of the time if you still have the hitch option an extender: 8" Receiver Tube Extender (2" Shank, 3,500 lbs.) SKU #45791 for $65.85 by CURT Manufacturing will do the trick with your standard hitch mount bike rack.

I use a simple axle mount on my rack. Then just strap the back tire to another crossbar. I have also hung the bike off the back using this method too and it works well and keeps everything a little shorter, just have to pull the bike to open the hatch.

nice bike!

Wish it was mine but it is not haha, just transporting it for a friend.

Wow awesome find there. Thank you. I actually haven’t had much time to even assemble the new bike carrier. So I haven’t had a chance to take any photos. Although I will. I think with this extension it will clear pass the tire. My bumper is SAVAGE OFF-ROAD. Since my rack is aluminum. It’s light and shouldn’t be to bad with the extension. Plus the bikes are light !!! Hopefully 8” is enough. Again, savage rear bumper with 285/75/15 tire.

I have a rear swingout bumper (4XInnovations), and do some moderate wheeling with bikes on during our Colorado/Utah trips. The main issue is getting the bikes tucked in close to the truck and high enough to not get dragged going over ledges, and if they do get dragged, held in such a way as to not damage them.

Even though the bumper's receiver is higher than normal, it's still not really tall enough to get the bikes up out of danger, so I use a receiver drop adapter installed upside down - this also works to get the rack far enough out to clear the spare tire. Then the main issue is that you can't really get into the rear hatch without removing the rack - since the dropper reaches up and blocks the swingout. So that's a bit of a PITA when camping/overlanding - every evening, have to unload the bikes and unbolt the rack to get into the rear (there's a cargo platform - so to get to the stuff underneath the raised floor, the hatch has to open).

And the rack I'm using is just a simple type that has two arms that you're supposed to hang a bike on via the top tube. But modern bikes don't have nice straight top tubes - my Niner's is very curved and if I mount it the 'right' way - the front wheel drops *way* down, so I end up setting the downtube on top of the arm on one side. The plus side of that style rack is that if a wheel getts nudged or brushed - then the bike is just secured to the rack by rubber straps or bungee cords - and can fairly easily move and avoid damage.

On the Gold Bar trail out in Moab a week ago (+/- a coupla days):


Far from ideal, but it sort of works. I keep trying to think of a better solution, but I don't want them on the roof because sooner or later I'm going to run them into something. It would be nice to have a rack that holds the bikes by the wheels so it doesn't beat and scratch up the frame (putting a dirty mountain bike frame onto a rack - grit gets to grind away as you bounce along a trail).

I sometimes ponder putting some fork mounts on the rear end of the rack and just letting the bikes dangle down. Downsides to that are that out of the 3 mountain bikes we generally drag around, they would need different form mounts (QR, regular thru axle, boost), plus road bikes. And with the fork fastened firmly to the mount, if something reached up and bumped the rear wheel, something bad is likely to happen - no give.

I'm currently pondering a 1up just for the ease of use and lack of damage to the bikes - an improvement over the current rack. But I think it would need an even taller riser/dropper than I'm currently using because from the measurements on the 1up site, the rack would hang lower than the wheels currently do. Don't want to wreck the rack. Maybe something silly tall like this: https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Adjust-.../dp/B071R35K26

I'd still need to remove it every evening to access the hatch area, but at least the bikes would be less beat up. My wife refuses to put her CF Niner on the current rack.

I saw a Jeep with a bike rack that mounts onto the tire. The bike rack mounted through the center of the wheel and bolted onto the structure of the tire carrier.

I regularly do similar trails to you and went through 4 different racks and ended up with the ISI bike rack system. They are out of Austraila, but they regularly work with US customers. At the time of purchase a few years ago, they didn't have a US vendor, but maybe they do today? I've never scraped and the departure angle is better than anything I could find. They are expensive, but very much worth it to me. I never have to worry about harming the bikes and they stay put really well. They do have extensions on the hitch so that it can work with a rear swing out. Customer service is top notch too. I don't have access to any of my photos with the bikes loaded, but this photo gives you an idea. Their website has a lot of customers photos that you can check out. /iSi Advanced 4x4 Bicycle Carriers | Extreme Duty | Offroad | Cars | 4x4 | Caravans and Camper Trailers

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Picture of it folded down to access the rear, also the silver bars do come off completely with a turn of T-handle near the bottom.

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