Bike carrier recommendation sought

[Gozza]

Hi folks
I'm after a bike carrier to fit on the tow hitch bracket and wonder if you have any recommendations? Requirements are:
1) Low price - it's only for when we take one of junior's mates away with us and they want to bring a bike: Junior's bike goes on the roof anyway (the mate's bike isn't compatible with a roof carrier for some reason)
2) Bolts to the tow hitch and still enables the ball to be used to tow the caravan (whenever I Google "Tow hitch bike carrier" all the results are the ball-mounting ones)
I'm thinking of buying a roof mount one from the roof box company (the one I already have for Junior's bike came from there) and making an adaptor so that the friend's bike will fit, but I thought I'd see if you folks had any other ideas first

 

[Sproket]

Paul
It all depends on what verical load is allowed on your towbar ......
As anything fastened to the tow bar will lower the allowed nose weight when towing your van.
Go for the roof mount & make the adaptor.......

 

[Mel]

Will it go in the van? Wedge it upright or wrap it and lay it across seats. We have done this with a youngsters bike before.
mel

 

[ProfJohnL]

Because this is only going to be an occasional need, I think you should forget the towbar idea as it affects the nose weight and go for either the roof, or inside the caravan, or possibly you might find a tail hinge gate mounted rack.

Google

cycle racks

Or similar

 

[Gozza]

We've been doing the "inside the caravan" option, but it's only a partial solution, as we load car with passengers, bikes etc and then go to the storage site to collect the caravan - collecting the caravan first isn't an option as there's nowhere near our house, or the friends' house, where I could stop with the 'van without blocking the whole road.
I'm aware that having a bike on a towbar-mounted rack affects noseweight, but I've crunched some numbers and I can achieve my usual noseweight for the 'van, and have a small bike on a rack, and still be within my car's towbar limit. I considered building something to bolt onto the towbar, but I don't have adequate confidence in my welding skills, and if I had to get someone to do it for me it would end up almost as expensive as buying one.
I just don't understand why it is that if you can buy a reasonable roof-mounted carrier for twenty quid, a towbar one - which is essentially just a plate and some tubing welded together - should be so expensive.

 

[otherclive]

The extra bike will only weigh up to a max of 16kg so should go in the van without any real hassle. You could then buy a cheapie tow bar mounted carrier for when you are on site and may want to take the bikes out without the van. I got an Avenir spare wheel mounted carrier for our Pajero off Ebay for £35 inc p&p when they retail at a far higher price new.

 

[Abbey540]

I bought one of those rear-hatchback-all-straps-and-bits-and-bobs type carriers from Halfrauds last year to transport my two princesses' bikes.....won't be using that again. Cumbersome, awkward and unpredictable.
For £20 I bought a Halfrauds 'Basic' or 'Economy' single bike roof mount. Great job. It even fits on with my uncannily large roof box...

I wouldn't mess around with your nose weight - unless you have a continental van with the larger 'A' frame? Then you're sailing...

 

[Gozza]

Well I've just seen a very old thread on the "Chit Chat" forum about people not saying thank you when offered advice...which is a good point...so...
Thanks to everyone who made comments - as I said before the "put the bike in the caravan" is only a partial solution as we still need to transport the bikes between home and the caravan storage place, and the same journey in the opposite direction at the end. Roof mounting wasn't an easy option, we already put Junior's bike on a roof mount so if I got another I couldn't use the roof box, and also none of the affordable roof mounts would fit the friend's bike without adaptation.
In the end I found one of the towbar mount ones as I described in my original post on eBay for sixteen quid plus postage, twenty three altogether. If I find it's not practical I'll get most of that back at a boot sale or something, so I'm not unhappy. I can use the rack to carry the bike to the caravan storage, then put it inside the van and take the rack off, so the effect on noseweight allowance is negigible (just the weight of the bolt-on bracket which the rest of the arrangement slots into). And once we're on site and want to go out for the day, both bikes can go on the tail rack and save me hoisting Junior's onto the roof!
And now I have (or will have, once I get organised) a bracket bolted to the tow hitch, I have another master plan to fangle up a thing that'll slot into it with a mirror on, to facilitate solo hitching-up!

 

[Danddandy]

I expect this has been covered in previous posts, but if a bike carrier is clamped between the tow ball and the tow bar, the weight of the bikes and carrier add to the weight of the car and not the nose weight of the caravan. Reducing the nose weight of the caravan, by the weight of the bikes and carrier, would make the caravan too nose light. . . Or am I missing something?

 

[Gozza]

Hi Dan
The carrier plus its load add to the weight on the tow bar - the bit of metalwork between the tow ball and the car. I'll need to subtract the weight of anything I leave on the bracket, from the maximum load of this towbar, in order to come up with the maximum I can have on the nose weight.
Or in other words - Weight of bike rack + bikes + nose weight of caravan must be less than maximum load of tow bar.
I'm planning to only use the rack to transport bikes from home to the caravan storage site - then everything can go inside the caravan so the only thing loading the tow bar will be the non-removable bracket that the main bit of the rack sits in. Of course you're right about the risks of reducing the maximum permitted caravan nose weight.