Hitch For Bike Rack Project
 

I thought I would share my Boxster modifications to facilitate installation of a hitch receiver for a bike rack.

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With the previous Boxster and now this one I was always bummed on nice sunny days that I had to take the Subaru to the trailhead with my mountain bike and not the Boxster with the top down. So I finally bought some materials, a donor impact beam from eBay and a 110V Harbor Freight welder package off Craigslist and got to work.

My main criteria for the design and finished project was:
The hitch needed to be hidden when not in use.
Easy to access without any tools.
The hitch will not be used for towing.
Capacity is one mountain bike or two road bikes.
The project revolved around using a 1UP USA bike rack system.

Searching the dark corners of Google and various Porsche forums there are existing hitches out there, many of them homemade, but none of them met my criteria. So I started to figure out how to mount a piece of 1 ¼” receiver tube into the rear impact beam where the tow hook goes. I figured if the rear impact beam is plenty beefy enough to drag the car around and for towing as others have proven, it will be strong enough to hold a bike and a bike rack.

I cut a hole in aft wall of the impact beam to accept a 1 ¼” receiver tube where the tow hook block used to be.

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The distance between the bumper cover and impact beam is about 3.5” so that is how long I cut my receiver tube. I then welded two pieces of 1” angle to the tube for mounting to the impact beam. I also welded a piece of flat steel to one end of the tube to cap it off and to provide a place for a bolt common to the impact beam. Yes I know my welds look like crap, but they are stout.

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I flipped the tow hook block 180 degrees to the right side, but the left side would have worked to.

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The receiver tube assembly is attached by 4 Allen head bolts to aft wall of the beam and one bolt to front wall of the beam.

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I drilled four holes in the beam so I could get an Allen wrench in to tighten the bolts.

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This design works because the 1UP USA bike rack system doesn’t require a hitch pin through the rack and the tube. You tighten a bolt in the end of the rack and an expander in the rack keeps the rack in the tube.

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I modified the bumper cover to provide access to the hitch and the relocated tow hook block. I also added some aluminum angle on the bumper cover to support the hinged license plate bracket.

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nice and clean!

Very slick!

Sent from my POCOPHONE F1 using Tapatalk

Nice work.
A couple of observations.

(1) Seems like the bike, as mounted, juts way to the passenger side (as opposed to being more or less centered). Probably not a huge issue...I guess you just kinda have to keep that in mind if/when passing someone, eh?

(2) You ever get pulled over for having no readable tag when you have this mounted with a bike in place?

This is awesome! I don’t have access to this type of fabrication, unfortunately.
This doesn’t look all that difficult otherwise.
Where is the rear tow hook located? I am ashamed to admit that my car has only been winched onto a flatbed from the front.

This is frickin' sweet. I solved the problem by buying a Panamera. :)

I have a "Will-Wood" (??) hitch I mounted on my 986.2 Box and have been thinking about how to modify it to accommodate a smaller 1-Up hitch. I had thought of just cutting the aluminum impact bumper to allow the hitch rack to slide deeper into the receiver but haven't done it yet. Primarily because I wasn't sure how/if I could get a keeper pin into the hitch.

If you're relying only on the expansion ball in the 1-Up hitch, are you not concerned that it could loosen and leave your bike on the road behind you?

(I have the larger 1-Up rack on the Pano. They're sweet. But I'd like to be able to run a hitch rack on the Box during the summer.)

BTW, super clean install. Absolutely excellent work. Thanks for posting.

With the 1-Up rack you can skew the bike one way or another depending on where you set the arms that hook over the tires. I think the photo angle is deceiving here. Either way the bike doesn’t extend past the mirrors on either side of the car.

I haven’t used the rack a ton, but I haven’t been pulled over for it or my driving habits. I figure it’s worth the risk as I only put the rack on when I know I will have a bike with me. On my Subaru I drive around all summer with the a Yakima hitch rack that blocks the plate when it’s in the flipped up position. I’ve never had problems with that either.

The rear tow hook is centered in the impact beam directly behind the rear license plate. To do the mod I scooted it to the right a few inches, but still hidden behind the plate.

The 1-up rack I have doesn’t have an option for a hitch pin, so the expander ball is the only retention option. I do worry a little about the rack pulling out as I have found that the ball can loosen over time. If not caught in a timely manner it may work itself out of the hitch. I periodically check the rack and tighten as needed. On the Boxster I check every time I put a bike on since the receiver tube isn’t as deep and the bike is more exposed to the wind as compared to a taller vehicle like an SUV.

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