BIKE RACKS AND CARRIERS FOR CARS MEGATHREAD - all questions asked and answered here

Calvin27

Eats Squid
4WD thing was just a dig at an uninformed comment suggesting a small car couldn't handle a bike rack
My post.
(there were a few '4's in there, but no 4wd lol)

It's amazing how life changes when you've got a bit of spare change. It wasn't long ago when we bouht along our own roof carriers and fit 4 bicycles on a little holden barina with 4 fully grown blokes heading for buller. Did the same with snow gear on a 2 door honda civic (guy had a car pass and we were tight asses ok).

Nowadays won't bat an eyelid for $700 for a decent carrier because it does something a bit better of saves a few minutes setting it up in the morning. When I was searching I soon figured out that it was easier to just spend an extra 15 minutes walking around lysterfield carpark to see what everyone else had and get real life experience how they load and unload their bikes and the pros and cons of each.
In short, settle down, stop getting all delicate about your tonka trucks.
You're still telling me to stop being delicate about tonka trucks (I drive my wife's 10 year old honda civic) and my original post had nothing to do with 4wds. I don't have a dog in the fight , and surprisingly anti-4wds lol, but that you've read me wrong probably suggests you should get some clear air and go for a ride.
 
Last edited:

moorey

call me Mia
I want someone to fit their own towbar & then have it fall off.
Preferably not someone carrying my bike.

I consider myself reasonably handy...other than actual mechanical work...but wouldn’t trust 10’s of thousands of dollars of bike on a tow bar I’d fitted, whether on a manly 4x4 or little French shitbox.
I had a highly reputable, heavy duty, off-road, professionally built rack snap in half on the highway a few months ago. It wasn’t the tow point that failed, but it demonstrates the forces at play with a couple of bikes hanging off the back.
 

Calvin27

Eats Squid
I wouldn't fit a big heavy towbar to the rear of a small car as it's weight that's felt in ride & handling...
Not a fwd anyway. Part of the reason why I didn't go tow rack on the fwd beater is because the weight and limits start to stack up. People think a bike doesn't weight much but having two bikes (one might be an ebike - flame suit on) haging out 1.2m from the rear axle would be like having 6 20kg bags of concrete in the boot - from a leverage perspective. Works but not ideal.

In my view, the best solution is still front wheel off and shove the bastard in the boot if possible. I've got a baby seat now so was told strictly not to do that anymore :S
 

moorey

call me Mia
Not a fwd anyway. Part of the reason why I didn't go tow rack on the fwd beater is because the weight and limits start to stack up. People think a bike doesn't weight much but having two bikes (one might be an ebike - flame suit on) haging out 1.2m from the rear axle would be like having 6 20kg bags of concrete in the boot - from a leverage perspective. Works but not ideal.
Do you mean like a sedan boot, with weight well behind the rear wheels? I’ll trust your calculations. At least there’s a chunk more weight in a sedan.
On a small hatch, with all the weight well back behind the rear wheel, that weight could indeed effect the handling on a small FWD car.
 

Mr Crudley

Glock in your sock
Has anyone installed their own towbar? I am trying to keep costs down at the moment, and I am looking at various kit options. Car is a 2016 Madza 6 sedan, for what it's worth. As far as I can see, the official towbar costs twice what a kit item does.
I have a 2010 Mazda 3 that I put on a towbar. The Mazda ones aren't ever cheap.
Try a wreckers too.

If you only want it for light duties like a bike rack and not caravans then you can get 'class a' one via Ebay for a few hundred that will do. Bolts straight up but would get torn off and left behind if it tows anything more that 50kgs of so from memory.

I didn't have to remove the bumper bar either.
 

moorey

call me Mia
Bolts straight up but would get torn off and left behind if it tows anything more that 50kgs of so from memory.
50kg at the hitch? 30kg+ of bikes and rack hanging out behind the car an potentially bouncing is surely going to blow that out of the water pretty quickly.
I could see it being fine for one bike on a compact rack.
 

Calvin27

Eats Squid
Do you mean like a sedan boot, with weight well behind the rear wheels? I’ll trust your calculations.
Ya got me, I literally looked at my hatch and eyeballed the leverage haha. of course the overall mass is lower, but the leverage is about 3-4x from my view out the window :). Maybe 5 bags lol?
 

EZZA 84

Likes Bikes
Interesting topic. I run a RackNRoll behind my wagon with a 100kg dirtbike on the back, heavy duty towbar rated to 2100kg (210kg ball weight).
I did quite a bit of research before I bought the carrier as I was worried about that much weight hanging off the rear. The back of the car does drop down with 130kg (bike + 25kg rack) or so hanging out the rear but no more so than towing our 1200kg Jayco camper.
It 100% affects the handling of the car, you can feel the extra weight in the rear for sure. I just look at it the same as towing a heavy trailer/camper and drive accordingly.

363306
 

takai

Eats Squid
50kg at the hitch? 30kg+ of bikes and rack hanging out behind the car an potentially bouncing is surely going to blow that out of the water pretty quickly.
I could see it being fine for one bike on a compact rack.
Towbar ratings are static load, and have SWL multipliers.

For what it is worth I have used an old Gripsport crank rack on everything from the old Mazda 121 bubble we had right through to the Ford Focus. Not a single issue with bar weight on any of them.

This entire shitstorm is really getting out of hand.
 

Cardy George

Piercing rural members since 1981
.

This entire shitstorm is really getting out of hand.
No shit storm, just someone with a strong opinion and no tolerance for using vehicles for things other than looking 'good'

Anyway, the tow bar on the Colorado was literally a bolt on affair. Took all of an hour, but still had to visit the dealer to get the CPU to recognise the trailer plug.

We use an ancient tongue mounted rack for the kids bikes and man that fucker bounces around.
 
Top