Bike racks for caravanning
We are new caravaners and are looking to find a way to take our bikes with us. Our own research suggests a Pendle Higher Hang on Tow bar rack could be the way forward (Inside the van or inside the car are proving difficult and very time consuming). Is anyone using one of these, what are your thoughts and does anyone have any comments or advice? Many thanks.
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If you are thinking of putting a rack on the back of your caravan you may very well be making the unit unbalanced and subject yourself to producing "snaking". A bit like the tail wagging the dog. However it can have disastrous results.
I don't know the details of the car and caravan but seriously suggest you take advice as to how the rack will affect stability.
Continental caravans have an elongated A frame whereby bikes can be carried on the front. The elongation spreads the noseweight load.
We have carried bikes on an attachment to a Witter towbar with a stanchion slotting into the attachment but this tended to impede the turning circle when the bikes were on plus I had to remove the jockey wheel. A bit of a faff. So we carried them inside. Firstly in a small 2 berth by removing the front wheels of the bikes and covering the exposed forks. The wheels went on the back seat in covers. Then when we upgraded the caravan we were able to fit them inside without removing the wheels.
The alternatives are a bike rack attached to the back of the car or roof mounted.
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Thanks Wherenext.
The Pendle is designed to fit on the back of one’s car, apparently quite high to negate the problem with turning but we wanted to be sure of this aspect.
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I’ve used the witter bike rack on the towbar and agree it gets in the way. Car roof mounted racks are good, however you need to lift the bikes high to fit them. I’ve had a Fiammi 2 bike rear mounted rack professionally fitted on a 2003 Swift Accord and towed all across Europe as far South as Barcelona and never had any stability issues over the 10 years we had the van . My current van is a 2019 Swift Challenger and I had the Thule rear mounted bike rack fitted by the supplying dealer. My experience was that the rack on the rear of the van was far easier to lift bikes onto and being at the rear of the van meant they were not in the way of the jockey wheel or causing a problem with turning they also never caused me any stability issues.
Careful loading is clearly key with bikes on the rear wall of a caravan.
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Hi, There have been a few threads recently re carrying bikes, from caravanners and MHs.
My problem is that I have an ebike which is heavy to lift to a roof fitted rack and need to carry the bike when towing.
I have discounted the rear of, on the a frame of and inside the van so choice is in the car, on a tow bar mounted rack or on the roof.
Each solution has problems, which will be different for different people. I was looking at the Thule Outride as my bike has a thru axle, and bid on some on ebay, but the bike shop has advised against using one.
That leaves inside the car, which will necessitate removing the fromt wheel and bars and affects the passenger and luggage space, or on a Maxxraxx which seems to be the only rack that will allow you to ‘carry and tow‘.
The problem is that the actual tow bar, mine is a removable Tow Trust bar, has to be a quite specific size and shape and the attachment must be fitted at an approved supplier.
I had considered this rack before by had a retractable bar which could not take the adapter.
The two bike version is app £360, that’s to fit a swan neck-flange mounted is app £100 less-so it’s not cheap either and the weight of rack and bike is going to be 30kg so a big chunk of my noseweight.
So currently, with our first trip two weeks today, it’s looking like it’s going to be inside the car.
Jean wants to use the roof box to make up for the lost storage but we also want to take two kayaks so beginning to think the best solution, short term, is to take my old, much lighter and roof mounting compatible, bike!
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Allan,
One of the bikes we carry on the roof is an electric one. With the battery removed it is still quite heavy but within the limits of the car roof, bars and bike rack.
Luckily I am still able to lift the bike but who knows for how much longer. Some of it is technique and I find the easiest and probably only way, is to hold the bike horizontally up over my head with arms fully extended before approaching the car before gently lowering it onto the carrier track.
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Thanks everyone for advice and comments.
Also have e-bike and unlike some of you, no longer able to lift onto roof rack, so if there is anyone out there who has used a rear fitting car rack would be interested in your comments.
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We are regular cyclists when away in our caravan, and as such have taken a lot of care to keep safe.
Firstly, your towbar will have been type approved, as required by law. It is almost certain, that the manufacturer will tell you that sandwiching anything between the bar and the ball, negates their type approval. In short, it’s illegal.
If you add weight in the form of a bike carrier and bikes, to your towbar, then you need to deduct that weight from the car’s hitch weight limit. That reduction will reduce the caravan’s nose weight available to a point where towing stability is compromised. In short, it has the potential to increase snaking risk.
You can only fit a carrier to to the rear of your van, if you can find strongpoint, whichever are by no means, commonly provided.
You can carry your bikes inside the caravan, at the expense of using up some of its permitted payload. It’s difficult enough to stay legal on that point, without the additional burden of bikes.
If your car has enough space to carry bikes inside, then it’s a safe option. You’ll probably need to remove the front wheel. The more confident you are, at bike dismantling, the easier they will be to transport inside.
Spending out on roof bars and bike racks is expensive but safe, though hoisting them up can become harder as you age. A second consideration arises with the increase in affordable carbon bike frames, which shouldn’t be clamped. Your fixings need to be applied to the wheels only.
The tyres on off road bikes are often one of their heaviest elements. Carrying the wheels in your car, with the awkwardly shaped frames in your caravan, might be an acceptable compromise for you.
In Utopia, you’ll have lightweight bikes, carried on the roof with lifting aided by a step at sill level on your 4WD. And you’ll be young and fit too!
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A few years ago we were staying on a site in Germany. The family opposite us had a tandem and a single bike and were OAPs. They had the tandem as they had a disabled daughter with them.
When they came to leave they used a Cantilevered hoist to do all the lifting of the bikes to the roof of the car. They did not assist in any way apart from placing the bikes into the roof mounted carrier grooves. Once the bikes were in place they dismantled the hoist.
I cannot find anything on the web apart from something on the Patent office webpages yet I know one exists. This would be about 5 years ago.
Maybe if Lutz reads this thread he might know of such a device in Germany. I don't know if the area we were staying makes any difference but it was the Spreewald, about 80 miles south of Berlin.
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We have a Witter ZX99 bike rack that fits on a plate at the back of the towball. We have used it on several makes of cars including Ford SMax and Ford Kuga with no problems manoeuvring the caravan. We have 2 full sized eBikes total weight around 44 Kg for the pair. The only issue we had was that you can't get into the boot of the car with the bikes in place, no big deal when staying for more than 1 night as the bikes were taken off.
We used to carry the ebikes on the back of our Kia Sedona, the rack clamped onto the top and bottom of the tailgate and had 2 rails that bikes sat in. When we moved to the SMax we couldn't use that rack as the tailgate couldn't take the weight, so we moved to the ZX99.
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It appears that BMW used to do a "Bicycle Lift/Hoist". but I can't find any info on it now.
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Thanks Tammygirl will have a look at a Witter.
We have one e bike and one ordinary so this could work. Weight is not an issue, my concern is the manoeuvrability (if that’s a word) and space between car and caravan - there are so many conflicting comments.
Can I ask what caravan you have?
And a bit thank you to everyone else who has commented. I have googled every suggested option, watched loads of videos and read lots of specs. Many thanks.
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We currently have a Coachman caravan. We have also used the Witter with Lunar and Elddis caravans.
My OH says it can depend on how/where your bikes sit on the rack, ours sit quite high due to the way the frame is. If the bikes sit low then you can get an adjustable cross bar to fit to the bike frame which lifts the bike to a higher position.
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Thanks Tammygirl, that is very useful. Food for thought.
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