Bike Rack

[Fatboy]

Hi every one just after some info, i drive a sorento 55 plate , ive decided to buy a bike rack for 2 bikes to take with us when we go in the caravan, i use a detatchable tow bar so nothing else can go on their. This leaves me with two options, to use a roof bike rack as i have the roof bars or use the type where it rests on your back window.........anybody got any experience / thoughts , all help will be appreiciated cheers

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Fatboy,

There are two bits of good sense which I think mighyt apply here. The first is It's always advisable to keep any trailers weight as small as possible, adn the second is that don't end load tarilers as this reduces the outfits control of instability, so for these two reasons alone the roofrack option makes sence.

There could be some other considerations, for example not all caravans have the necessary wall strength to support a bike rack. and it would add some length to the caravan that might compromise close quarters maneuvering.

If you have a roof rack, then you can take the bikes out when not using the caravan - more versatility.

There are some downsides to roofracks, the first is can you reach to put them up there?, and when traveling around away from the caravan site you will encounter more wind noise and loose some MPG.

Take you choice.

 

[woodsieboy]

If you are talking about the bike rack that fits on the back window of the towcar,we used one and it worked well with up to 3 bikes on it,admittedly they were not adult bikes but near enough.The difficulty we had was that we struggled to open the rear door on the discovery we used it with when the bike rack was in use and the caravan was hitched up.We also tried the roof version and found it just too much trouble to try and lift the bikes on and off.In the end we used to carry the odd bike in the caravan braced so that it could not move about.

 

[Percy1]

I have a Sorento I tried bikes on the roof once it was hard struggle putting the bikes on the roof, due to the height of the vehicle, we also had a rear mounted bike rack which was fine however they do stick out a bit hanging over the A frame, my van has a long A frame and I still had to be careful when manouvering the caravan espeically whilst manouvering on the campsites. Due to van being German and designed with bikes in mind I now have fiamma racks on the A frame and on the rear wall. I have not noticed any issues whilst towing through Europe