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Make your own Tow Tray from a Running Board

The Mundo is great for hauling another Mundo or any bike for that matter.  The Mundo Side-Loaders provide a cradle for the front wheel of any bike to be towed.  The only problem is that you need to use lots of padding to keep either bike from getting scratched.  Then I had a brainstorm (look out, marketing puke in R&D) and came up with a pretty cool way to modify a Mundo “Running-board” to solve the problem.  I call it the “Mobile Bike Rack”.  This solution makes hauling another bike a snap.  Loading a bike to tow takes less than a minute, and no scratches!

You can purchase the running boards from your local Yuba dealer or order your running boards on-line here.

-Steve

Here’s what you do.  First, I made mine to fit the left side of the Mundo, so when I’m towing a bike it doesn’t end up hitting something on the side of the road.  Then:

1. With the running board mounted on the Mundo, use a marker pen to draw the outline of the side-loader on the underside of the running board.

2. Take the running board off and draw a line between each of the strap holes using a straight-edge.  Draw the rest of the slot to be cut out.  I made my slot 2″ wide to fit the Mundo’s WTB Freedom Cruz tire that comes stock on the Mundo.

3. Make sure the slot is as long as you can make it.  Draw rounded ends to complete the outline of the slot you are going to cut out.  Using a jig-saw with a fine-tooth blade, cut out the slot. Sand the edges with some 100 grit emory paper.

4. Use the piece you cut out as a “scratch guard” that will be mounted the Mundo’s frame.  Draw a line between the strap holes and remove excess.

5. Make marks on the scratch guard to align with the braze-ons on the rack and drill 3/16″ holes.

6. Mount the scratch guard onto the rack.

7. Wrap the mounted scratch guard with some padding to protect the fork of the bike being towed.

8. Here’s the finished product.  (Minus the padding)

9. The front wheel of the towed bike fits right into the slot.

10. Use a Yuba Strap to secure the towed bike to the Mundo

And you’re off!

6 thoughts on “Make your own Tow Tray from a Running Board

  1. steve_bode says:

    Thanks, Russell. actually, we used the MBR to haul a kid’s bike yesterday and realized that you could cut the hole a little shorter and back further and it would work better for a kid’s bike’s 20″ wheel.

  2. Russell says:

    Brilliant! I take my two boys (3 and 4 yo) out riding a lot. My 4 yo likes to ride his bike but always gets tired halfway through so we’ve been just using a bungee cord to strap it on with a similar result to what you have here. However, not nearly as secure and bumps around a bit. This is a really elegant solution to that problem.

    Thanks again!

  3. Steven Vance says:

    This is perfect. If I get the running boards, I will make this! I even have the right saw.

  4. Eurico Alves says:

    Great project Steve! Congratulations!

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