Bike Rack Warranties

After reading horror stories of people mounting receivers to their bumpers on the campers and having the actual bumpers fail I thought I would be smart. I hired a welder to put an actual frame mounted hitch because I did not want that to happen to me. Well we put the hitch mounted bike rack on the new receiver and took off for a week long vacation in the black hills. Driving down Interstate 90 at 70mph I was flagged by a passing motorist. As I quickly exited the freeway and came to a stop and walked around the back of the camper I discovered something I never thought of. The actual metal on the bike rack failed and I had dragged my bikes damaging 2 and totaling two others. Now just for clarification, I had four bikes on a 4 bike rack carrier (not overloaded). I called the manufacturer only to discover that putting a hitch mounted bike carrier on anything other than the vehicle you are driving VOIDS all warranties. After a small discussion I did get them to replace the bike rack but the bike repairs and replacement had to actually go through my insurance company. So just an informational heads up to the many people I see with the bike racks on the back, check your warranties and good luck!!

WOW, never heard of the bike rack failing. Would you mind sharing the brand name so the rest of us can verify our's is OK.

I recently went through a lengthy search for bike racks before settling on a Hollywood 4-bike tray style rack. I did contact them about putting in behind the 5th wheel and they replied strongly stating that none of there racks were rated to be put behind a towed unit. I initially thought this may be due to the angle of entry and exit on ramped entrances that most racks would drag as they are not angled upward. But the biggest reason is that the forces are much greater the further you mount something from the axles.
I did find one rack that was rated for use behind a trailer, made by Swagman, but it was the hanging rack style which doesn't work well form most newer bikes. This particular rack does not have any of the moveable features, such as titling to allow trunk or tailgate access. It is completely fixed in position in the hitch.
So I'm rolling the dice knowing full well possibilities. The Hollywood rack is very well constructed, almost too well. It weighs in at about 80 lbs without bikes. The tray style is the only way to go. Simple to load and you don't scratch up you bikes.
I did abandon the 1.25" hitch and fabbed my own 2" receiver behind the WC.

I destroyed 2 of them before I bought one that was specifically designed to work with RV's. It was made by Swagman and "I think" I got it from Etrailer.com. At any rate, I've been using it for 5 years now and it's still like new.

I put some eye bolts on my recently replaced new and improved bumper (see photos in link) and use a ratchet strap to secure the bike rack and to keep it from bouncing.

The bike rack brand that failed was Thule and it is their revolver model. Since getting it replace I too use a ratchet strap accross the top to reduce the bounce. I could not actually find one rated for an RV by Thule and was not in a position to spend the money on a different manufacturer rack.