Detached T6 Bike Rack

[Boris GC]

Unfortunately we just had somebody reverse into the back of our Cali Ocean resulting in our bike rack (closed, no bikes on) going through their rear window and pretty much ending up in their boot!

Anyone ever heard of them detaching? I am worried it will no longer be secure and amazed it doesn’t itself seem to be damaged. The van sadly has lots of dents & scratches .

Thanks all.

 

[andyinluton]

Unfortunately we just had somebody reverse into the back of our Cali Ocean resulting in our bike rack (closed, no bikes on) going through their rear window and pretty much ending up in their boot!

Anyone ever heard of them detaching? I am worried it will no longer be secure and amazed it doesn’t itself seem to be damaged. The van sadly has lots of dents & scratches .

Thanks all.

If you are at all worried, put a ratchet strap, or failing that some string round it to tie it to the boot lid. At least if it were to come loose it won't actually fall off.
By choice I would remove it as a precaution if at all possible.

 

[Boris GC]

If you are at all worried, put a ratchet strap, or failing that some string round it to tie it to the boot lid. At least if it were to come loose it won't actually fall off.
By choice I would remove it as a precaution if at all possible.

Cheers Andy. At the moment it is completely off! Just can’t work out how/why that would happen from a reverse impact, when has always seemed so secure and knowing how the 4 ‘anchor’ points attach to the van???

 

[andyinluton]

Cheers Andy. At the moment it is completely off! Just can’t work out how/why that would happen from a reverse impact, when has always seemed so secure and knowing how the 4 ‘anchor’ points attach to the van???

If you imagine a C shape from the top mount down to the bottom mount, any impact could flatten the C enough for the bottom mounts to come free & then spring back into shape. Check your rear lights with the boot open, chances are the top of them have been damaged by the bike rack fixings.

 

[Boris GC]

If you imagine a C shape from the top mount down to the bottom mount, any impact could flatten the C enough for the bottom mounts to come free & then spring back into shape. Check your rear lights with the boot open, chances are the top of them have been damaged by the bike rack fixings.

Will do that, cheers

 

[Amarillo]

The aluminium of the bike rack can bend and distort the whole rack. It’s close to impossible to bend back into shape. You might need to claim for a new bike rack.

 

[Boris GC]

The aluminium of the bike rack can bend and distort the whole rack. It’s close to impossible to bend back into shape. You might need to claim for a new bike rack.

Thanks. This was our fear and would at least explain how it was able to become detached. I am going to look into this because I'm sure you'll agree you need to have complete confidence in the rack once you're cruising along with 4 bikes on the back! Thanks again.

 

[Amarillo]

We bent our rack by reversing into some wooden barn doors within the first two months of ownership. I managed to get it bent back into shape at a specialist engineering firm somewhere near Dagenham/Barking, but they warned me first that there was only a 50% chance of success. Payment was cash for a round of beers.

If you want to try a DIY repair, drill the rivets, separate the tubes, fill the bent tube(s) with sand, heat the metal and bend back into shape holding it with oven gloves.

An insurance claim would be easier.


Since the repair, our van has done ~65,000 miles over 4 years, over half that with four bikes, and has performed flawlessly.