Club 80-90 Forums

Hi,

Sorry if this has been asked loads before, but i cant seem to find a definitive answer.
Does anyone know of a 4 bike solution for a TD California?
Fiamma only do a 3-bike door mounted rack, but i note the T4 has a 4 bike solution. Could i modify the 3 bike rack to hold 4?
I have a swan neck tow bar and have seen some neat on-ball solutions, but slightly worried by talk of nose weights and front wheels lifting off the deck!

Any advice greatly appreciated

Never thought about nose wights, good call. See plenty of cars with 4 bike racks but they're ok because they have the engine at the 'wrong' end!! I'm going to put van on the weigh bridge and see what the front axle loading is and then the rear axle loading. Were looking at a carrier too but I don't want to have to leave bags of cement in the front footwell a to counter balance it!

I've seen mention of 50 to 75kg nose weight, which with four bikes and the rack itself doesn't give any room for error.
I'd be interested to see what the actual numbers are.
Can't quite believe no-one out there, from my research anyway, has a solution..
Humph

Those figure are lowwwwww. Worryingly so because the bike furthest away from the hitch is heavier than if it were above the hitch, thus, 2 bags of cement in the footwell (not over hanging the front bumper) wouldn't compensate for the bike weights! A bit of a concern as I'd also like to mount my motorbike carrier on the van too, not sure how the steering would like that especially as the racing season is a winter one and the venues are down country lanes. Could be exciting in the frost/ice.

There was a recent thread on here about bike carriers.

The Thule model mentioned at the end is also available in Decathlon.

Can't comment on nose weights though.

The hanging option looks interesting as that's lighter and closer to the van..

It's obviously been tested otherwise they wouldn't sell it but it would scare me having that on the back

The Paulchen rack system can carry four bicycles. The base rack clamps onto the tailgate with brackets and has secondary legs that transfer some of the vertical load onto the bumper. You can still buy new from Paulchen:

http://paulchensystem.net/products/de/h ... us-t3.html

Alternatively, these racks come up for sale from time to time, but you need to check you get the secondary legs in the package as four bicycles is probably a bit too much load to put on the door hinges alone.

I have a towball mounted rack. I'm not far off 18st (on a bad day) and it'll hold my weight with my feet off the floor no problem and mines va quick-clamp type.

CovKid wrote:I have a towball mounted rack. I'm not far off 18st (on a bad day) and it'll hold my weight with my feet off the floor no problem and mines va quick-clamp type.

Maybe you could provide a new service there. Swinging off people's bike racks, just until you get a sweat on, then give them the CovKid seal of approval.

You would have to maintain the physique......... For test purposes and continuity of course.

Agree, I could be hired (for a small fee and providing a crowd can be gathered) to put unsuspecting camper owner's bike racks through their paces. Wait till they've gone to the beer tent first obviously.

Seriously though, the towball ones are excellent. It amazes most people just how strong they are. The big advantage is you can lock them with a padlock when they're on, and they pack away very well if you need to take it off.

Having tried both styles, I much prefer the towball type but I appreciate theres a bit of a "I own a Fiamma" with some folk. Thats ok too.

CovKid wrote:Agree, I could be hired (for a small fee and providing a crowd can be gathered) to put unsuspecting camper owner's bike racks through their paces. Wait till they've gone to the beer tent first obviously.

:D:D:D

Fiammas are great...until you want to clean the a*** end of your van. It's your worst enemy then

Not sure it helpsbut I had one of the VW bike carriers on y T5.
It had a max load of 60KG.
60KG is a good amount of weight, so much so we used to put our 2 bikes and the Kyham Awning on there and were still under the max load.
I did consider that load and weight can be different as hitting a sharp dip can increase the load etc etc (physics eh!).

Also, it's one thing sating 4 bike carrier and another getting them all on. We managed it once and that was with 2 adult, 1 small bike and a childs bike. It was awkward and little more than a tangle of handle bars and peddles - maybe that was just us.

Had this on the back of my old bus,it was modified from t4 rack. Held 3x adult and 1x kids bike easy enough.