Bike racks for caravanning

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.

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. 

Sorry, can't help you. Hope someone else can.

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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We carry our bikes on the SUV roof on thule bars and carriers. One benefit of not storing them in/on the caravan is we can still transport the bikes once we are pitched.

 

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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