New SMB Owner: 1993 E250 RB30

[BrianBlair]

I've been looking for a solution that would allow us to leave our bikes on the rack while still being able to easily access our rear doors. Our floorplan is a walk through and we quickly realized that camping with the bikes on the back was a bit of a pain when it came time to access the back of the van.

Wilco started making these a few months back. They plug into any 2" receiver and let you run any hitch mounted rack/accessory. I'm using the trays from a Thule T2 mounted directly into the Hitchswing on a section of 2" square steel. This let me customize the length to get it as close to the van as possible without contacting anything.

[MountainBikeRoamer]

Originally Posted by BrianBlair

I've been looking for a solution that would allow us to leave our bikes on the rack while still being able to easily access our rear doors. Our floorplan is a walk through and we quickly realized that camping with the bikes on the back was a bit of a pain when it came time to access the back of the van.

Wilco started making these a few months back. They plug into any 2" receiver and let you run any hitch mounted rack/accessory. I'm using the trays from a Thule T2 mounted directly into the Hitchswing on a section of 2" square steel. This let me customize the length to get it as close to the van as possible without contacting anything.

Really dig this!!!!
Only thing I'd like to add would be a 90-degree swing up/down swivel joint on the section of square-stock those Thule trays are mounted to, so that they can be folded up/out of the way when not in use.

Question --- how "rattle free" is this Hitchswing when it is in it's closed position? Curious how much (if any) play there is in the design for the locking pin. It would drive me bonkers if there was any rattling or loose knocking....

I'm really sold on this. (You know that I've got the same interior layout that you do....the walk-through interior makes a solution like this (that opens up the rear door area) look really attractive.....)

Way cool.

[BrianBlair]

Originally Posted by MountainBikeRoamer

Really dig this!!!!
Only thing I'd like to add would be a 90-degree swing up/down swivel joint on the section of square-stock those Thule trays are mounted to, so that they can be folded up/out of the way when not in use.

Question --- how "rattle free" is this Hitchswing when it is in it's closed position? Curious how much (if any) play there is in the design for the locking pin. It would drive me bonkers if there was any rattling or loose knocking....

I'm really sold on this. (You know that I've got the same interior layout that you do....the walk-through interior makes a solution like this (that opens up the rear door area) look really attractive.....)

Way cool.

Hey!

I figured you'd dig this.

When the swing away is closed there is very little play. When it is open you can feel a little bit of wiggle. I think I can likely tune the wiggle out with a shim on the pivot bolt.

Also, all of the surfaces that could potentially contact each other and rattle/clack are padded with rubber bumpers. I've driven a few dirt roads with it and haven't heard a peep yet.

Let me know if you want to check it out sometime!

[BrianBlair]

The original countertops in my van were pretty rough around the edges to say the least. Years of use and multiple spilled drinks led to lots of water damage/expansion around the edges. With the help of a very generous forum member(he'll remain nameless as I doubt he wants to be helping all of us replace our crappy Sportsmobile "woodwork") I was able to replace the counter tops with laminated baltic birch. They turned out really, really nice and an enormous improvement over the original.

I also replaced the faucet with a new one for two reasons: the old one was looking pretty tired and I wanted one with the ability to thread on a shower hose/head. The screen on the window behind the sink slides open and the shower hose gets passed outside to hose off/take a quick shower.

Next up....Fox Shox front/rear and new springs up front. Hoping to improve the ride quality and create enough space to run 265/75/16.

[BrianBlair]

Southern side of Joshua Tree, BLM land. Pretty nice out here!

[BrianBlair]

Finally got rid of the chrome center caps and lug nuts. Also managed to black out the Thule rack.

[marret]

Looking good.

I got a HitchSwing as well and it works great so far.

[BrianBlair]

Finally got around to updating the original, 24 year old shocks/springs/coils.

Fox 2.0 front and rear. New Moog coils up front, new leaf springs in the back.

[simplesez]

Awesome! I'm looking forward to doing the full suspension update in my 1996 this summer. Waiting on rear springs now.

The hitchswing is cool. Pretty soon Rocky Mounts is going to have a bike hitch rack that has that feature built in.

[BrianBlair]

We've been heading up to Blue Ridge above Wrightwood quite a bit this spring/summer. Way cooler temps up there at 8k feet than where we live at 2k. Good access to the PCT as well as a few good peaks.