Bike racks with caravans
Hello..It's some time since I put anything on this site ,so forgive me if the topic has already been discussed 'ad nauseum'. Still here goes.....I want to take our bikes with us when we go away. We have a caravan pulled by a VW tiguan 4x4. My partner is very careful about 'weights' that must be followed when towing & won't put the 'outfit' at any risk so it seems there's very little option other than a carrier on top of the car. The trouble is we're not young anymore and lifting bikes on and off the car would be quite hard. Fiamma do a bike rack that sits on the 'A' frame , so my question to everyone and anyone is "Do you have experience of this rack or can you advise us of suitable bike rack option?" On the other hand the answer might be "Forget the idea & walk !!"
Comments
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Putting a frame on the A frame will give you a very heavy nose weight, perhaps difficult to counter. A friend had a pair of bikes on a frame like that and mangle one of them when turning. We both felt one bike was enough for the weight and the space available, however it depends on what type of caravan. Some of the continental caravans have a very long A frame and are more siutable for the A frame method.
Putting the bikes on a rear rack is easy on Swift Group caravans, hoever there is speculation by people who think its too much weight on the rear and stability will suffer. We have met several who have done it and they are quite happy with their decision. We were thinking of doing it so asked them.
Wherever you put the bikes on or in the caravan they will add to the weight and you may exceed the MTPLM. You may be able to upgrade it.
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If it is a c/van made in this country there normally is not a great deal of room for a two cycle rack especially when a tight turn is needed and also would add quite some weight on the coupling head which is normally max 100kg
It may be better to fit a towbar cycle rack if there is enough weight allowance
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I put a bike rack on our Ssangyong Korando in February this year and towed our Elldis Riva Gold 554 (Avante) no problem through France. To balance the weight i loaded as much as possible forward ib the car behind front seats and on rear seat.
(Anyone else reading this that has a Korando please note it fits well as none of the suppliers seem to have a rear bike rack that they say fits!)
Like you i did not want to have to load a bike on the car roof. The following has proved excellent and is designed for 3 bikes max. You can see from the picture how it fits and it has a securing strap to the left and right to stop the rack moving sideways.When the bikes are off i can lift the rear hatch up OK with it in place It is very easy to assembly - some comments people say that have problems. If you have full edge glass rear hatch then they provide plastic toggels you have to slip inside as the metal clips must not be onto the glass - not so sure about this being so easy for use though.
Perruzo Car Rack 3 Bike Cruiser Delux
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Shame you gave up on the idea. Below are a mix and match of front and rear carriers I have fitted on present and past vans.
The rear was an adapted Fiamma designed for a Trigano motorhome. The front is a plate I fabricated and attached to the jockey wheel mount. A tow ball is bolted to this and a Thule Express carrier sits on the ball. The difficult part was the making and fitting of the carriers. This did require a lot of attention to detail.
At the end of the day the use of either or both is down to common sense, watching how you load and checking nose weight. I have travelled with this set-up in some way since 2003, covering probably 2K to 3K a year without any problem.
Colin
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