Alco Sawiko bike rack

The carrier as advertised is fitted to the Alko chassis which are already lower ,our friends looked at one for their Bailey motor caravan but  for just the "problem"you have noted, decided to have the Fiamma rack on the rear bodywork,which can carry four non electric cycles,so would that be a better option for your two  electric cycles 

I am looking at a similar solution for our new motorhome. I have been looking at the racks on offer from Road Pro which are similar to the Sawiko. We find that the Fiamma Bike rack fitted on the back of the motorhome is too high for us to comfortably get our bikes on and off. The AlKo chassis are quite low but in all of the six years of owning our Bailey 740 we have only grounded once and that was on a difficult left turn up a slope from a main road.

David

To late for the OP, but is a possible option to have a towbar fitted and a towball platform bike rack added? Should raise it to a more manageable height.

Similar to this one

THULE VELOCOMPACT

Carries two 20kg bikes without batteries but there are 50kg racks.

As the Op mentioned with the rack fitted it seems to extend the already low quite long overhang behind the axle

I put the wrong weight per bike, it is 25kg per bike, even better for Ebikes.

We have had a Thule bike rack on the rear panel for the past two years.  Our bikes are heavy, 25kg each without batteries, so difficult to load and as we get older the problem gets worse.    Not to mention the worry about the damage they are doing to the van, even though they are within the warranty range.

We considered the Road Pro, which is very popular in Holland and Belgium, but we would have had to commute to Coventry to have it installed and up and down to Coventry if we had any issues after the install.      Even though the Sawiko is more expensive we thought, as we have an ALKO chassis, it would be the best arrangement.

We did consider a tow bar, because we already have a Volvo/Thule towbar rack.    I now wish I had gone that way, even though an EU Type Approved tow bar was going to cost over £1,000.   The Sawiko won that debate because when not in use it just folds up, out of the way.

Lets hope we can find a solution at the dealers tomorrow.

BillC

Today my bike rack was sorted.   Dealer referred me to LNB Towbars in Bristol.    30 mins to get there. 5 minute inspection and we were sent to lunch to return in one hour.    Found a Toby Carvery one mile away, had lovely lunch then back to LNB.   My van was outside, all sorted.   Great job, paid for by dealer.   Of to Spain a happy man next week.

Highly recommend LNB Towbars.   Run by a couple who are motorhomers!

BillC

Bill

Would it be rude to ask the cost?

David

In my case it is purely out of interest, but how was it physically sorted?

A pair of offset brackets that lifted it all a bit, or bent brackets so its rear was lifted? An hour's job indicates nothing too radical was needed.

Hi David,

The Sawiko Velo III cost £1,470, plus £180 to install.    I don’t know what LNB will charge my dealer for there one hour fix.     There is a cheaper rack called The Road Pro, which will cost around £1,400 fully installed, but as I said earlier, I would have had to travel upto the Midlands to get this one.    I have found out since that LNB sell another German model which is cheaper again.

The fix to my install involved cutting two squares of metal, about 3” square, from a plate that ran across the underside rear of the van, to allow the chassis extension to be fitted to the end of the chassis.   This plate is cosmetic, rather than structural.    It’s a very neat job.    I think it was a job beyond the scope of my dealer but routine to a specialist tow bar/rack fitter.     He obviously had the specialist cutting equipment at hand.

I also wrote to ALKO over the weekend, via their web site, and was surprised to get a reply yesterday.   I asked them about the supply of their chassis adapters for specific motorhomes, which they state they do, but not in my case.

They are keen to learn what went wrong and have asked me to send photos of before and after.    My problem was that I am off to Spain for a couple of months next week so I was looking for swift solution.

I am very happy with the outcome and very pleased with the new low fitting rack, which has an 80kgm weight limit.   Oh, and folds up out of the way when the bikes come off and can be removed quite easily if not in use for a while.

BillC