Spare Tire and Bike Attachments to Sprinters

[jerrysimps@aol.com]

I want to add a spare tire holder and bike rack to the back of my Mercedes Airstream 19. Some spare tire holders attach to the back left door, whereas others attach through the rear hitch. I have seen some attachments that hold both the bike and spare tire from Agile Off Road and Wilco Offroad. I would appreciate responses from some forum participants about which products you have purchased that worked well and not so well. Thanks

[rowiebowie]

Congrats on your Airstream 19.

I have a secondary-hitch mounted spare tire holder (I don't own your model) and I often wish I had the nerve to remove it and free up access to the rear door. I haven't had a flat tire on the road in the past 40 years.

But I figure by tempting fate, I get a dose of comeuppance. But at times, I'm still tempted to remove it.

[sg13]

I have used a Roadmaster 195225 Spare Tire Carrier for a couple of years. It mounts on the center hitch and blocks both back doors from opening more than a couple of inches when upright. But you can remove a bolt and then pivit the tire down either to the left or right and get much better access. The spare is heavy but the Roadmaster has a telescoping handle to help with leverage.
The Roadmaster itself has a secondary hitch and I can add my bike rack there when needed.

It's expensive but I am impressed with the quality of it.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&psc=1&fpw=alm

[Berry2k]

look at owl vans

[Raxel7851]

Although I do not have a Sprinter Class B, I did install the Wilco swing away spare tire carrier on our Travato. It’s an extremely solid and well built unit. A tad pricey, but IMHO worth it. I like the swing away feature. You can “piggyback” a hitch mounted bike carrier to it as well, although we haven’t tried that. We like the swing away for several reasons, but the most important to us is that it gives us another exit in case of an emergency in the front of our van.

[Boondocker]

For our Roadtrek SS Agile, we bought a Kuat Pivot 2.0 swing away hitch and are waiting for a Hollywood bike rack for our 2 ebikes. The hitch swings away to the passenger side since the spare tire is mounted on the driver's side. The whole set up will add probably 2 feet but we can swing the hitch away for access to the back. I agree with Raxel7851 that we want an emergency exit in the back of the van.

[Raxel7851]

Boondocker. Are you going to piggyback your bike rack to your spare tire carrier? We just bought 2 E-bikes and are thinking of the Hollywood bike rack you bought. We did see a Kuat E-bike rack, but it’s pricey. Can you let us know how you like the Hollywood rack?

[Boondocker]

No, our spare is on a drop down mount next to the 2" hitch. We are waiting on the Hollywood rack before we mount the Kuat. They were both pricey but we researched what would work best and our bikes weight about 65 pounds. Ease of mounting them and the swing away were the 2 factors we used in our decision. We found a few people on the FB Roadtrek forum with the same set up and they were happy. The rack won't be shipped until the end of the month but I'm happy to post when we have the whole set up.

[Raxel7851]

Thanks Boondocker. Those E-bikes are a tad heavy. BTW, you didn’t happen to but the Rad E-bikes did you? We bought 2 of the Mini’s.

[Nspekter]

I’ve been looking for a swing away hitch with a high enough rating to handle the 250 lb. Vespa we carry. Has anyone seen one?

[Raxel7851]

Wow that might be a tall order NS. I bought a hitch rack for my moped and it’s rated @400 lbs. but it doesn’t swing away. The hinge would have to be pretty stout.

[Boondocker]

Hi Raxel7851,

We bought 2 of the Lectric Step Thrus. We looked at the Rad Minis but the Lectrics are $899 so we went with them. We've had them for about a week and only tried them a couple of times so far. We're trying to make time to take them out for a longer ride. So far, so good!

[Texasnielsen]

I have the integrated tire carrier/ ladder designed by Owl Van Engineering and am very happy with their product. Not much to say about a tire carrier- it works as designed, well made,etc. The ladder has been especially useful. Use it a lot more than I thought I would for roof access (cleaning and so forth). Did the installation myself. Took a couple of hours at a casual pace. I have a Revel so the look of an exterior carrier may be different than what you’re looking for a with the Airstream.

[atlebj]

I just installed the Owl Vans and this is a great spare tire carrier. Install was straigh-forward, does not require modifying the hinges, allows the driver side door to open, tire hangs high enough that it clears most car bumpers when parking, and the fit and trim was excellent! I purchased a refurbished MB rim on eBay (looks brand new), got a tire from TireRack and voila!

[Boondocker]

No, our spare is on a drop down mount next to the 2" hitch. We are waiting on the Hollywood rack before we mount the Kuat. They were both pricey but we researched what would work best and our bikes weight about 65 pounds. Ease of mounting them and the swing away were the 2 factors we used in our decision. We found a few people on the FB Roadtrek forum with the same set up and they were happy. The rack won't be shipped until the end of the month but I'm happy to post when we have the whole set up.