New bike rack needed for the Avan… your two cents appreciated.

Lazmo

Lazmo

Old and hopeless
Howdy youse all,

On the way back from the Otways on the weekend, one of the clamps on the bike rack spat the dummy. I haven’t trusted them from day one and have always had a tie down looped around the frame just in case. We go away a lot, and the rack has had a hammering, and I’ve already replaced two rubbish structural bits of aluminium with homemade steel replacements … and I could likely source another clamp and bodgy it up, but I have a feeling there are a few more plastic and aluminium bits about to give way, so, I think it has got to the point of no return and maybe it’s time for a new rack.

So, I’m looking for a new two-bike rack, that I can bolt directly to the angle iron frame I have made. If I need to modify the frame to fit it, then so be it. The rack is mounted with the bikes sideways to the van, and they rock pretty severely fore and aft, so whatever it is, it needs some side-to-side structural strength. The rack can be permanently bolted to the angle iron frame, as I carry a QSpear rack in the car, for when we are camped. If the new rack had integrated locks that would be awesome.

I have been looking at Thule and Yakima but I am totally open to suggestions.

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Similar setup from back in 2011/12, pop top with a very short 'A' frame and needed to get the bikes back so they didn't hit the car on full lock.

ISI now do a caravan mount but if you are handy with a welder, $100 worth of steel and a few hours work can save a lot of cash.

I still have this double ISI rack, 12yrs old and still the most used rack I own.

My design also needed to tilt to let the bed ends come out over the rack.

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Those two options look ace..

... but given the tiny draw bar bar length, I doubt I could fit either option, unless I was to somehow integrate them with the frame I have already made. I had to mount the bikes up very high to avoid them hitting the car on full lock, and there is not much room for error, as they only miss by a gnats whisker.

I do really like the idea of being able to tilt the bikes, as we often travel long distances and free camp on the side of the road overnight on the way, and to do that I have to take the bikes off the rack, put the roof and sides up, and then lock the bikes to the drawbar... tilting would fix that. But, it is not a show stopper, as I've managed till now.

A bolt on rack that doesn't shake itself to bits, would be good enough.
 
Ok, today was the inaugural new AVan bike rack journey up to Cape Conran, hardly a mega test… but it seems very stable, is easy to load and unload… so far so good.

I ended up buying another Cycling Deal rack, but this one with a vertical post that just clamps down on the top tube. I tried the wheel support loops but they came perilously close to the car on full lock. So I ended up, modifying the old aluminium wheel tracks with some timber to locate and stop the bikes rocking side to side.

I cut the hitch part off the vertical post and its base, then welded another section on, then welded it to two square section tubes with some additional angle iron bracing… then bolted all that to my existing angle iron frame.

It’s a bit specific for our bikes, and very early days, but it seems to work a treat.


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