Bike rack

[Bannedtom]

Stupid question but why don't more people use bike racks on the back of caravans, is it simple down to payload or balance??

I have two bikes that weigh in at about 40kgs so to cancel this out I would put the awning at the front of the van, or is it not that simple??

 

[Zafiral]

Tom

You will have a major pendulum effect with weight so far from the axle. If you get any sway (god forbid), it will be much harder to correct.

Also, how high is your payload as you will be adding 80kg there on top of the battery, gas bottles and all the other odds and ends. If you have a motor mover too, remember that take 30kg of your payload too.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hi Tom,

Zaffiral has pointed out the dynamic effect of adding mass to teh extreme ends of a caravan, but there is also the practical aspect that the caravan may not be constructed to have that amount of extra weight fixed to the rear wall.

The practice is quite common on the continent, but there are two significant differences that may apply. Firstly the continental caravan tend to have longer A frames, which tend to be less prone to instability issues, and secondly most continental vans have addition strengthening members in the back wall to accommodate the extra weight.

Some UK manufactures do offer rear wall bike rack fixings, check with your supplier.

 

[starlightdj]

Hi Tom

I have a swift make of caravan, they have posted on their site that most of their vans are built with the fixing points for a bike rack built into the pannels.

They will take most makes of racks but advise that they are fitted by a dealer due to the fact that they have to drill the pannel and it could invalidate any warrany re water ingress.

They dont seam to reckon their will be a problem with the towing.

Hope this helps

John

 

[VonRyan]

Hi

If its a Bailey, don't even think about it. I was going down the same route and my dealer contacted Bailey on my behalf and their reply was NOT to fit a Bike rack/Carrier to the rear of the van. End of idia. I have seen them on British vans but they have all been Swifts

Von Ryan

 

[Reg]

I contacted Bailey direct and they would have fitted mounting points from new they seemed OK that the dealer could retro fit them.

I think that there is a lot of old wives tale hysteria when it comes to putting bikes on the rear of vans.

I don't think the pendulum effect of say 80 kilos, when considered as part of the overall weight of well over 1000 kilos, will have a significant effect unless your outfit is so seriously badly matched.

If 80 kilos is going to make such a difference then you will probably have wobble problems sooner or later anyway and should take a serious look at your outfit (i.e. car to van weight ratio).

 

[dan1]

Does anyone use a towbar mounted carrier, if so, what make/model do you have?

I tried one from Towsure but once I hitched up the van, I wasn't confident of the wheel not catching the van so returned the rack for a refund.

I'm looking at the Witter ZX89. Anyone use this rack?

 

[DomDom]

Your main issue will not be wheels catching etc. You need to think about the weight of the rack and bikes since this forms part of the noseweight.

EG. If you car can cope with 100 kilos on the towball and your rack & bikes weighs 80 kilos you only have 20 kilos left for caravan noseweight.

I know because I looked at this for my Range Rover rather than risk damaging the car by trying to lift them on to a roof rack. Even with a 150KG noseweight limit, our Elddis Crusader van is simply too heavy on the ball when combined with the bike weight.

Take the ideal 7% of your van weight as the noseweight. Then subtract this from what your car can cope with. I would hazard a guess you don't have a lot left for bikes.

For me this was 1900KG x 7% = 133KG which left 17KG for bikes and rack. Need to be some seriously lightweight bikes then

Dom

 

[Sproket]

Dom ....

The max nose weight of your Elddis will only be 100kg not 133kg ...

MTPLM 1900kgs / 37.32cwt

Mass in Running Order 1630kgs / 32.01cwt

Essential Habitation Equipment 102kgs / 2.00cwt

Maximum User Payload 270kgs / 5.30cwt

Maximum Hitch Weight 100kgs / 1.96cwt

Your tow bar may be capable of 150kg but you are overloading your coupling if you tow with it at 133kg....

 

[DomDom]

Dom ....

The max nose weight of your Elddis will only be 100kg not 133kg ...

MTPLM 1900kgs / 37.32cwt

Mass in Running Order 1630kgs / 32.01cwt

Essential Habitation Equipment 102kgs / 2.00cwt

Maximum User Payload 270kgs / 5.30cwt

Maximum Hitch Weight 100kgs / 1.96cwt

Your tow bar may be capable of 150kg but you are overloading your coupling if you tow with it at 133kg....

Yep, I do only tow at 100, or as close as I can get to it. I was illustrating the calculation but even so, few vehicles can cope with 150KG, 75-100 is the norm, which would leave both halves of nowt for bikes

 

[Lakey]

Our previous caravan, a 2001 swift Challenger 550 had a rack fitted to it when we bought it! Never put bikes on it cos i use a roof mounted rack. Made a great towel dryer though!!!!

 

[Chris_Hyde_Cheshire.]

Hi, I bought a Thule 9705 which was towbar mounted. The bike rack would carry four bikes and also hinged down allowing boot / tailgate access. However with bike rack and bikes on it was awkward to hitch up and vice versa, so the bike rack went on ebay. I previously had the roof mounted type and may go back to these, my only problem is I now use a Cmax as a tow car and these are quite tall so again i may struggle......?

Hope this helps.

Chris

 

[Lakey]

Hi Chris,

I have a 4x4 which is also tall! I bought one of those decorators benches which i keep in the car (about

 

[ChristineandAlan]

HI i have a bike rack that fits behind the towball,i prefer to put the bikes on the roof,in case they get in the way when i reverse the van.i just come back from france been there for a month,put the bikes on back of 4/4 to save paying extra for hight.by the way i use the double step from caravan to put bikes on roof of our sorento ALL THE BEST ALAN P/T

 

[Chris_Hyde_Cheshire.]

Gareth , Christine & Alan - Both brilliant ideas thanks. I will look into a folding ladder but it depends how small they go for storage. Otherwise I will use the step once I get round to getting the roofbars and cycle carriers.

Thanks,

Chris.

 

[MrsMothy]

We have a sort of hydrolic roof rack that pivots down the side of the CRV so that we can attach our tandem and then raise it onto the car roof one handed although you still need two hands to fasten the usual array of buckles to stap the wheels etc in place.

 

[DeliDave_]

Mrs Mothy,would you kindly post a link to your hydraulic roof attachment am very interested.

Many thanks

 

[MrsMothy]

Hi DeliDave

http://www.atera.co.uk/

 

[MrsMothy]

Hi DeliDave

http://www.atera.co.uk/

 

[MrsMothy]

Hi DeliDave

http://www.atera.co.uk/

 

[MrsMothy]

Hi DeliDave

http://www.atera.co.uk/

 

[MrsMothy]

Hi DeliDave

http://www.atera.co.uk/

Hi Deli Dave

Sorry about the short and sweet post. My laptop must be haunted methinks! Anyway, what I meant to say was that this is a link to the webpage of the company that made? ours. I've put the link to the home page because they do several types of rack including the hydrolic roof mounted rack that we use for our Audax Tandem as well as a 'half bike' (ie solo bike) version which I think you will be interested in. If you wan't to know anything else or have a look at ours (we are in East Cheshire but do get about a bit), I'm sure the mods will pass on my email address if you ask nicely and point this post out to them.

Best wishes.

Denise

 

[DeliDave_]

Many thanks for that,we have a Galaxy and lifting bikes up would be very awkward.We currently use a tailgate rack but once the bikes are on its not possible to lift the tailgate to access anything.Will look at the hydraulic ones,was thinking of adapting a ladder rack from a hitop van but would be a bit of overkill.I didnt know anything like this was available.

Thanks again