Replacement locking knobs for T5 style bike rack

[COOMBESY]

Good morning all. I have just purchased my very first van a T6.1. I have fitted a VW T5 style bike rack that I got from Vanstyle. Only one of the arms has a locking knob. I would like the other arms to have these, not so much for the bike security because I will use additional locks but to prevent the arms from being tampered with or even stolen. The genuine VW one's are very expensive but there are other options out there from Perruzo and Thule. Are these things a universal fit (M8?). Many thanks in advance.

 

[Steve1]

Good morning all. I have just purchased my very first van a T6.1. I have fitted a VW T5 style bike rack that I got from Vanstyle. Only one of the arms has a locking knob. I would like the other arms to have these, not so much for the bike security because I will use additional locks but to prevent the arms from being tampered with or even stolen. The genuine VW one's are very expensive but there are other options out there from Perruzo and Thule. Are these things a universal fit (M8?). Many thanks in advance.

I have a T5 so maybe not relevant to your rack, not sure how much they changed. But ... I found 2 problems trying alternative knobs on my one. One is the positioning of the nut in the knob, the VW one is right at the front, others had it deeper down in the neck part, the threads are relatively short so when putting a wide frame into the clamp I couldnt get the nut to reach. The other problem is with the length of the neck part before the knob. The VW ones are quite long so they are accessible past the metal parts (the wheel channels when folded) a shorter one I had made it very difficult to turn the knob it sort of went into the groove in the wheel channel bar and was hard to get your hand to.
If you are looking for alternatives then you want a long thin neck part, fairly small knob part and the nut right at the front of the neck part ! In the end I swapped and bought the genuine set of 3 to make life easier than trying to find that !

 

[COOMBESY]

Thanks for a great reply. I would expect for 95% of the year the rack will not be used and during these times I would like to safeguard the arms. Last night I looked at the possibility of removing the arms, but it is not a 5-minute job. I have seen on a You Tube video the arms on the latest T6 (ugly) rack being removed in seconds once unlocked. I understand from your reply the limitations of using an alternative knob but my thinking is I could screw on the cheaper alternatives when the rack is not used such as winter time but then swap over to the VW one’s when using the rack. Or I could stop being a tight arse and buy the VW one’s.

 

[WelshGas]

Thanks for a great reply. I would expect for 95% of the year the rack will not be used and during these times I would like to safeguard the arms. Last night I looked at the possibility of removing the arms, but it is not a 5-minute job. I have seen on a You Tube video the arms on the latest T6 (ugly) rack being removed in seconds once unlocked. I understand from your reply the limitations of using an alternative knob but my thinking is I could screw on the cheaper alternatives when the rack is not used such as winter time but then swap over to the VW one’s when using the rack. Or I could stop being a tight arse and buy the VW one’s.

You could remove the rack for the 95% of the time it's not going to be used hence avoiding the rusting and jamming of the clamps not in regular use, and also save a few Bob in improved fuel consumption.

 

[Steve1]

Thanks for a great reply. I would expect for 95% of the year the rack will not be used and during these times I would like to safeguard the arms. Last night I looked at the possibility of removing the arms, but it is not a 5-minute job. I have seen on a You Tube video the arms on the latest T6 (ugly) rack being removed in seconds once unlocked. I understand from your reply the limitations of using an alternative knob but my thinking is I could screw on the cheaper alternatives when the rack is not used such as winter time but then swap over to the VW one’s when using the rack. Or I could stop being a tight arse and buy the VW one’s.

I agree they are expensive for the genuine ones. They do come in a pack of 3 with identical keys which makes you feel like you got something for your money. But I think if you try to match the original shape as close as you can with cheaper ones, you should be ok.
Personally I would still (and did eventually) go with genuine, then use them all the time, which protects the bars all the time summer or winter.
And the bikes a bit more when on too.
But I think you can make it work with others if you try hard.