Our first mistake - wrong bike rack for our MH
we collected our new (12m old) Bessacar 562 last week & asked the dealer to fit a bike rack suitable for our two e-bikes. We tried to use it this morning & found it a Herculean struggle just to get one bike up there. The rack is very high up and we are both short so this isn’t going to work for us. We should have realised this would be a problem from the positioning of the horizontal rails, we should have gone for a Thule Lift V16 rack which you can mechanically raise. It would have been helpful had the dealer talked us through the options instead of just fitting the basic Thule Excellent rack.
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Lesson learned, do lots of research. Sorry but it’s unfair to blame the dealer if all he got was fit us a bike rack............ They won’t know what you are or are not capable of lifting.
You are lifting the bikes without the batteries fitted I assume? Can make a significant difference.
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Yes I did remove the battery. And I'm not blaming the dealer as such, as I should have noticed how high the horizontal rails were. Just suggesting it would have been helpful to have a bit of advice about the right rack given that we are newbies, not tall and not in the first flush of youth! After all that was the whole point of going to a specialist dealer. As you say, lesson learned!
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Second lesson - never take a dealer's word for anything. That's any dealer. They have one interest only and it's not what's best for the customer.
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If indeed you were specific in requesting a cycle rack suitable for carrying two e-bikes, then IMO they have failed in providing something "fit for purpose" and quickly correct it under the CRA 2015.
They are the vender and the one with the supposed expertise in their wares therefore there is more than a passing obligation to determine what would be suitable for you. In that they have failed.
I would "lean" quite heavily, but very politely on them till they twig they have made an error in what they have provided..That they did not explore the questions they should have asked is no get out clause, they were the vender.
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Hello and welcome. I hope you have more success, you will, with your new hobby 😀.
Sadly you've learnt very early it doesnt pay to trust the dealer! I'm with the others as I think they've all given good advice but I'd start with ocsid advice first.
I don't think you were being unreasonable in expecting feedback on the sort of bike rack suitable and available for your vehicle but the leisure vehicle world, builders, dealers etc have a good deal of catching up to do on the quality, and value for money, warranty work and general helpfulness to really offer a service. It seems making them, together with sell for as much profit as possible, do little in the way of pre delivery checks and wait for warranty work for months as it seems spares aren't readily available.
All that said, it's a great hobby and I can't wait to get another motorhome, but dreading it really because of the above.......
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I am not sure its right to blame the dealer either. Obviously we were not there during the conversation. The dealer has fitted a bike rack that can carry two ebikes. Unless you made it condition that it had to be at a lower level the dealer has done what you requested? The easy lift systems are very much more expensive, did you discuss these at the time?
David
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Outinthesticks, rereading my first response to you, it sounds rather terse and unhelpful, and am sorry if it came across as such.
As others have explained, dealers don’t overall have a good reputation, once they have sold you something, so you do need to be super cautious, do a lot of research, and check out every aspect of your purchase, service, extra work.
I hope that your problem gets resolved, without having to part with much more money, and that you go on to enjoy both your new MH, and get around safely and without too much hassle on your ebikes. 🙂
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We have a similar issue with our new Bailey as the fixings for a bike rack are quite a bit higher than on our previous van. We have considered all sorts of different solutions including a chassis mounted bike rack where the bikes would only be 15/18 inches off the ground but at £1600 we kicked that into the long grass! I did think about the Fiamma lift model similar to the Thule but not convinced about all that weight so high up. Also considered having a tow bar fitted so we could use a towball mounted bike rack but again total cost over a thousand pounds. Given that Margaret is not keen on cycling on the roads I do wonder if we will abandon the idea of taking bikes with us.
Back to the OP. If you want to change the type of rack you may be able to sell the unwanted rack to another motorhomer which might lessen the pain a bit. Motorhome brand specific Facebook pages are a good place for such sales.
David
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We have a Thule tow bar mounted bike rack for our Jeep, well worth the significant sum we paid for it, but as you say DK, you have to factor in the cost of tow hitch as well. We used a mobile tow bar fitter to do ours, it’s much cheaper to go direct than go to dealer who will sub contract such work out to be honest. They have to be Euro standard fitters, but essentially are the same folks who the dealers use, but of course the dealer adds his tidy sum to the charges as well. The tow bar you choose just has to be designed to fit that vehicle, in theory, you could fit it yourself.
We have no respect for dealers of vehicles of any kind, new or second hand. Once the money is with the dealer, their care, commitment and attitude alters significantly. The only decent experience we have had was buying our MH second hand. Very nice, did exactly what he promised, gave us a very good hand over, even picked my OH up from station close by. Thankfully it’s proved to be issue free, and we have it checked out locally.
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A postscript: the dealer has agreed to replace the bike rack with the Thule Lift version, I will pay the difference in price between the two racks. I think that is a fair and reasonable outcome in the circumstances.
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Thanks for the update. Good luck with it.
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Good result!
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