Bicycle Rack

PetePete · May 24, 2015

Hi all! I am considering getting a Beach for travel with our four sled dogs. For training my wife and I will each have a bike with two dosg pulling. Now the question: since the dog boxes open up to the back ( we will be using existing boxes from our previous car ) can I open the hatch while leaving two bikes on the rack? I don't want to have to take the bikes off every time we take the dogs out of the car. Or any other better ideas? Thanks!

jeff · May 24, 2015

You will need a tow bar rack I think altera do one that tilts forward . Try a search on here there was a lot on it a while back.

Harrythecat · May 24, 2015

There are a number of racks that fit on tow bars at varying price points. I'm just looking at some at the minute. Towsure do racks that fit two bikes and tilt away from the tailgate for under £160. Thule do some really posh ones that fold down and pack away but they're heading towards £500. I'm sure some of the big cycle stores like Evans will do them as well but I haven't got round to checking that out yet.

One thing I/we/you also need to check is that they tilt away sufficiently for the tailgate to clear the rack and bikes!

teeboy · May 24, 2015

You do not have to have a tow bar one - Have a search on here for "bike rack heavy" and you will find a few threads.

The consensus appears to be that you can lift the tailgate with one or two bikes on, but you must pay attention to the handlebars fouling on the roof. Especially so when the roof is up.

If you want to go towbar mounted then you need to find one that is T5 compatible. I have an old Thule one which wont even allow the tailgate to open with no bikes on! I think the one to go for is the Atera Strada Evo - but it is quite expensive - especially if you don't have a towbar and have to fit that as well.

teeboy · May 24, 2015

Great review on the Evo here: http://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/atera-strada-evo-3-1.10041/#post-93394

Or the DL3 version here - which appears to tilt a bit more: http://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/atera-strada-dl-3-1.6044/#post-93545

sandalfarm · May 24, 2015

with the vw one my wife struggles to get the bike high enough to get it on the rack and the bikes we have are not heavy and I struggle to get the catches done up without a box to stand on and im not short at 5ft 7 in

PetePete · May 24, 2015

You guys (gals) are the best! Thanks for the great input!

Neilgbj · May 24, 2015

We have the VW rack, quite frankly it is the best bike rack have ever owned ( tried tow bar racks as well...). We normally have two bikes (combined weight approx 22kgs) and we can lift the tailgate with them on. However..... Have now got putting bikes on/taking off to a fine art and it takes about a minute, so tend to do that and only lift the rear door with the bikes on very occasionally.....all personal preference of course .....

rookeryview · May 24, 2015

Would you mind elaborating a little please - which rails do you use, do you have to twist or lower the bars to miss the roof when it's up, will the door stay open or do you have to prop it up?

sandalfarm · May 24, 2015

we don't twist the bars on the bikes and with 3 on the rack the tail gate will open half way with someone holding it. admitidly it is very stable but the handle bars stick above the roofline, the towbar one on the estate car is easier to use but obviously the tailgate cant be opened

SimplyDubs · May 25, 2015

We've the VW rack... Opens easily with 2 mountain bikes on, a little more difficult with 3 and I wouldn't try it with 4. The two bikes are mounted on the two rails closest the van.

Will stay up with 2 on, but only if the weather is reasonably warm - My van's 6 years old and the struts could probably do with a refresh.

Not had a problem with the bars hitting the roof as long as it is closed but have found that turning the handlebars through 90 degrees makes them easier to load and also allows the roof up with no risk of the bars denting the roof.

Hope this helps.

Rgds
Mark

rookeryview · May 25, 2015

Cheers Mark, that is great advice and answers the question perfectly for anyone else in the same boat.

Ron

teeboy · May 29, 2015

This is my setup - however you still can't open the tailgate!

But you do get quite a bit more storage space

Tomcali · May 30, 2015

PetePete said:
Hi all! I am considering getting a Beach for travel with our four sled dogs. For training my wife and I will each have a bike with two dosg pulling. Now the question: since the dog boxes open up to the back ( we will be using existing boxes from our previous car ) can I open the hatch while leaving two bikes on the rack? I don't want to have to take the bikes off every time we take the dogs out of the car. Or any other better ideas? Thanks!

The altera strada DL3 is excellent IMHO the rack doesn't touch any of the paintwork on the vehicle and slides back to open the tailgate without having to unload the bikes. It is relatively light and folds down so it can also be stored in the boot
It does require a tow bar to be installed and I would recommend the detachable type so the tow bar can be removed and stored in the toolkit box at the back of the bench seat when not in use (there is a dedicated 'cut-out' in the tool kit box), to retain the cali aesthetics.

keith · May 30, 2015

I have just fitted a cali rack its not the bests functioning rack. it fits the van the best but function it is nowhere
as good as a fiamma all straight arms mean they foul on others bikes using straps instead of a ratchet system
is not good. not being able to move the rails all things that make the fiamma a much better rack for getting bike on and off and keeping the bikes from rubbing against each other i'm at the moment trying to get fiamma arms to fit if that doesn't work will be getting rid of it going back to fiamma been putting bike on racks for 33 years.

ejmoore · May 30, 2015

We have the VW bike rack, which is a nice piece of kit, and carry two lightweight bikes. It's easy enough to lift it with two bikes on. The roof-up bikes-on situation has never occurred - if we put the roof up, we've generally taken the bikes off the back anyway & staying put for the night. If you did need to have the roof up for some other reason, just get what you need out of the boot first.

shudycamps · May 30, 2015

PetePete said:
Hi all! I am considering getting a Beach for travel with our four sled dogs. For training my wife and I will each have a bike with two dosg pulling. Now the question: since the dog boxes open up to the back ( we will be using existing boxes from our previous car ) can I open the hatch while leaving two bikes on the rack? I don't want to have to take the bikes off every time we take the dogs out of the car. Or any other better ideas? Thanks!

We have the California with VW bike rack but have yet to test it with bikes on. We travel with 5 small dogs and 1 med in a Lintran box on the utility shelf. I have a Thule tow bar mount bike rack and we loosen it up on the tow bar mount with my husband supporting it whilst I open the rear door. We are hoping to do the same with the new California paying close attention on the bike's handle Bars. We were quoted by VW £1200 for them to install a tow bar so think we are going to test very carefully the above method. When we do I will post results.

ejmoore · Jun 9, 2015

Right, we've tested out opening the boot with the bikes on the VW bike rack when the roof is up. You can open it a bit without the bikes touching the roof. It's heavy to hold up for long though.

cleve · Jun 9, 2015

We have tried tow bar racks and they're a pain as you have to fit the rack itself and then load the bikes on. We love the VW rack as it's always there for those last minute "shall we take the bikes?" decisions, folds out of the way quickly when the bikes are unloaded too.

We open our tailgate with 2 adult and 2 kids bikes on but have had an incident with denting the roof when we put the bikes on the rack before lowering the roof, so won't be making that mistake again! We had the struts replaced with uprated ones on our caravelle and think we might do the same on our beach when I get round to ordering some as it makes such a difference being able to leave the tailgate open for loading without my husband having to stand with the tailgate on his head whilst I rummage in the boot!

This is our old caravelle with the uprated struts

shudycamps · Jun 10, 2015

ejmoore said:
View attachment 8672 Right, we've tested out opening the boot with the bikes on the VW bike rack when the roof is up. You can open it a bit without the bikes touching the roof. It's heavy to hold up for long though.

Thanks so much for showing this picture - I can now see we will be able to turf the dogs in and out without dismounting the bikes. Well done!

shudycamps · Jun 10, 2015

cleve said:
We have tried tow bar racks and they're a pain as you have to fit the rack itself and then load the bikes on. We love the VW rack as it's always there for those last minute "shall we take the bikes?" decisions, folds out of the way quickly when the bikes are unloaded too.

We open our tailgate with 2 adult and 2 kids bikes on but have had an incident with denting the roof when we put the bikes on the rack before lowering the roof, so won't be making that mistake again! We had the struts replaced with uprated ones on our caravelle and think we might do the same on our beach when I get round to ordering some as it makes such a difference being able to leave the tailgate open for loading without my husband having to stand with the tailgate on his head whilst I rummage in the boot!

This is our old caravelle with the uprated struts

shudycamps · Jun 10, 2015

Hi Cleve, great picture. Could you clue me in regarding the upgraded struts please? We are newbies to this. We just got our VW T5 California and are slowly getting to know ZuluCampi. If these can do what you have photographed - point me in the right direction where to buy and upgrade. X Judith

pastyman · Jun 12, 2015

I would also love to know where you managed to get gas struts that will hold the tailgate open with bikes on the rack, mine struggles to stay open without bikes on a cold day!

I have not been able to find anywhere that can supply uprated struts above the 1250N standard supplied that will have the correct end fixings.

teeboy · Jun 12, 2015

I think the 1250N struts are the ones that are supposed to support the rack (most Cali's appear to have them as standard these days) - we checked a few at Stanford Hall last year.

This post talks about upgrading to 3rd party 1400N struts, but with mixed results: http://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/new-gas-struts-rated-1400n-do-not-support-boot-lid.9765/

cleve · Jun 12, 2015

We had our caravelle ones from a guy on the vwt4forum who was really helpful. He quoted us about £70 for a pair of 1130N struts but not sure if that's what we ended up with as I said we wanted them for 4 bikes on the rack and he just said I'll sort a good pressure out for you to make sure you can still close the tailgate without a struggle when the rack isn't loaded.

Our tailgate on the cali often doesn't even stay open with the chairs in and unloaded rack so not sure what the standard struts we currently have are. Think we'll look at changing them before we go away in the summer as it really did make a difference. We often propped a windbreak or ladder underneath just in case they failed but as you can see from the pic it did stay open on it's own when we really needed it to......as long as it wasn't raining. Didn't work when wet & make sure you stand back when opening the tailgate for the first time if you don't want a broken nose!!

I've just messaged him to see if he's still doing them as we were impressed with the quality and performance. I'll report back with any more info. His username on the t4forum is camperwagen if that helps but there's loads of other threads on there regarding the same topic.