# Loving New Rv But 2 Questions For The Group



## montero (Oct 2, 2007)

Hello,

New owner here. My family and I have had our new 21RS out 3 times already and we love it. I do have 2 issues that perhaps you can help me with:
- I do not like to have to carry our bikes inside the RV during transport. It is safe to add a 2" receiver to the bumper for our bike rack to carry the bikes?
- Our oldest child is still too short to get on the top bunk without assistance. Is there a ladder or another safe method used by the bunk user that you may recommend?
Thank you for your help and I do look forward to your responses. Eddie Montero in Yorktown, VA. GO NAVY!!!


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## 2500Ram (Oct 30, 2005)

Welcome to Outbackers.com









Both questions are asked here and talked about in length but the short story is no to a "bumper" mount hitch, bolt or weld to frame is recommended. The aluminum bumper isn't strong enough and could fail. The ladder mod is also popular. Try a search and it will pull up some pictures. I remember one member made a rope ladder (like the rope ladder you climbed in elementary school) from the floor to the top bunk. Others have just built and bolted on ladders.

Check out the gallery top right'ish and start looking at pictures.

enjoy and glad you like you OB.

Bill.


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## Aunt B (Apr 30, 2007)

Hi Eddie,

Welcome to the forum. And congrats on your new 21-RS. We purchased ours new in April and we are still camping. This is our favorite time of season. Being in Ohio we probably only have a week or two left so we're taking full advantage. Since we both have the same camper we just want to warn you don't waste your money on one of those aluminum ladders you see at the dealers and on line because they are just too long. We did and I had to cut it down and do some mods to it to make it work and for 60.00 bucks I could have built one out of wood and had money left over for a couple of nights at our favorite camp site. You will see a ton of mods on this forum and the bike rack mod is one of them. There is also a great mod to store and lock your hitch to the tongue of your trailer. That's the one I'm doing this winter. We don't like to put our bikes in the bike door either. My bh thinks we're going to scratch something so we throw bikes in the back of the truck. But if you don't need to use the bottom bunk there are some storage mods also for that area. At any rate happy camping and enjoy!

Aunt B
Go Bucks!! #1

2007 21-RS
2007 Silverado Crew Cab, 5.3, 3.73 locker.
1000# Equili-z-er


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## Lady Di (Oct 28, 2005)

Welcome 4monteros!









Enjoy your OB, have fun.


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## Nathan (Jan 2, 2007)

The rear bumper is a welded steel box. By reading past posts on this subject, some are sucessful at using a hitch hooked to it. Some were not







. Most of us don't try it.








I also use the bed of the pickup. However, if I didn't have that option, I would probably look for either a hitch mounted to the frame, or one of thos over the tounge deals that I have seen advertised.


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## campmg (Dec 24, 2005)

Welcome to Outbackers and congrats on the new 21rs. That sure is a popular model.

As others said, these two questions come up often. Most won't put a receiver on the bumper but will weld to the Outback frame.

As for the bunk ladder, my F.I.L. is handy and made us a nice ladder out of wood. There's some pics in some of the members' albums that give good ideas.


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## having_fun (Jun 19, 2006)

I'm one of those that use a bolt on 2 inch rec., I then relieve the stress with straps to not "twist" the Outbacks rear steel bumper. I try to make it so that all the weight in strait down on the bumper. Downforce is not the issue with these bumpers, its the twist. Not had a problem in over 2000 miles although I would like to add a little bit more welded support. If you do it, which I'm not necessarily recommending, keep a very close eye one it. I did have to remove the alum cover over the bumper.


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## hpapa4 (Apr 11, 2007)

First welcome to Outbackers and congratulations on the new Outback. Seems like your question has been answered so I will leave it at that.


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## gerrym (Oct 23, 2006)

First off, the bumper is pretty weak. Our bikes go in the back of the truck.
Secondly, look about this site and see some people made pretty nice ladders for cheap. I'll be doing the same this off-season.
We used our 21-RS for 31 nights this season and really like it.


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## Sayonara (Jul 23, 2007)

Congratualtions and welcome !! Ill be looking to have a welded 2" receiver added to my OB frame so i can add one of those bike racks or storage platforms.

Good luck and enjoy!!!


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## ntputter17 (Aug 17, 2007)

We had a 4 bike rack on the bumper of our 23rs for @15000 miles, never an issue. We have since moved it to the 32BH and again no problems............Just lucky I guess.......

Kirk


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## H2oSprayer (Aug 5, 2006)

2500Ram said:


> The aluminum bumper isn't strong enough and could fail.


Aluminum bumper? Mine is square steel tube welded to the frame and covered with an aluminum cover. I agree that the way Keystone supplied the finished product to the public was, well, lacking to say the least. However, there have been several fixes mentioned to allow people to safely attach a bike rack to the rear of the camper. I was one of the unlucky ones to have been told (and supplied with) a bumper mounted two place bike rack. After a few trips with the bikes on the rack, I noticed that the bumper steel was riping away from the welds where it attached to the trailer frame. Here is a picture of the solution that we came up with: 








By adding the cross bracing, we have not had any problems since the initial problem was noticed in 2004.

Chris


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## smithfries (Apr 27, 2007)

4monteros said:


> - Our oldest child is still too short to get on the top bunk without assistance. Is there a ladder or another safe method used by the bunk user that you may recommend?


Welcome to Outbackers Eddie. Congratulations on the new trailer.

I'm not the build it yourself type so I bought a bunk bed ladder from a local furniture store. It is a nice wood that fairly well matches the accent wood colors. The store owner (friend of DH) even cut the bottom for me so it is not too tall. When my son is not in the bunk I store it up on top of the bed. It does interfere with the bathroom door a little bit, but not too badly that it creates a problem, since it is just my son and I in the TT.

Elizabeth


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