We've decided we want to take our bikes so that we can have the very great pleasure of cycling in Death Valley!
Since there are five of us and many of us are growing larger by the year it's time to sort out the bike rack. We've been using a strap-on Yakima for years and it's always been a pain to get adjusted and only manages three bikes!
Fortunately, CruiseAmerica confirmed that the RV has a standard 2" hitch receiver suitable for Class III loads.
(I just learned more than I imagined about hitching and towing from the Internet!)
Now here's the thing. Our 2005 Ford Freestyle doesn't have a factory fitted hitch receiver so it's time get one installed.
You can see from the diagram it's quite a hunk of metal! Now, if we got Sunnyvale Ford to do the work we'd be looking at $280 in parts and a load of labor too.
Amazingly, this is where U-Haul comes to the rescue - it turns out that "since 1945, U-Haul has been America's number one trailer hitch installer" - who knew!
You can see from their website that you can custom order a hitch receiver for your car that can be installed at a local branch - Mountain View in our case - all for the princely sum of $253.40.
We just got in under the wire, since they'll give you free shipping (saving ~$150) if you wait a week or so for delivery to the branch. We just had enough time to get the hitch installed next Friday ahead of leaving Saturday.
Hope there's no hitch in the arrangements.
When we did our RV trips, we took Duncan's and both of the kids' bikes. We didn't use them as much as we'd thought they might be used.
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