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Hi All,

I've been looking for a carry rack for our Cardinal and not had much luck, so are thinking about getting one made.

I haven't even managed to find a photograph of a Cardinal with a carry rack, only racks for trailer tents which fit into the corner steadies somehow.

I see a couple of holes in the trailer frame either side of the wheel, which look as though they are designed to be used with a flattened and bent end to a support (like the bed supports) rather than a bolt.

We want to carry a couple of bikes and/or a canoe.

Has anyone built a carry-rack, or have photos of one for reference? Or even better, one for sale to fit a 95 Cardinal.

Thanks,

Pete

hi Pete,

I've been looking around for a way to carry our 3 man canoue & bikes on top of our Pennine Sterling for a few years now without a great deal of success. Pennine made a "body rack" in the 90's for their range but discontinued it a few years ago. I have have seen second hand campers with them fitted and they were either steel box section or two inch diameter tube. Both fairly heavy duty bits of engineering. During my investigations I ended up chatting to owners and Pennine's tech manager about it.(Did you know that Pennine now own Conway?)

Things i learnt were:

It fitted to the body not the chassis and could be awkward to fit because of the inherent flex in the camper's body. (remember the body's basically an open bucket shape with a bite out of it where the door is) the rails that go over the top of the camper are fixed legnth in an exaggerated u- shape, some have crossbars for extra stability so there's no flexibilty in them.

A little rust in the joints could cause the whole thing to lock itself togther - not good after a long drive and you just want to get pitched and settled in. 

They were bolted straight thro the sidewalls of the body which is essentially two thin alloy sheets each side of a foam core. Steel bolts are harder than alloy and the downward pressure on a laden rack tended to make the holes go oval which could lead to water ingress, (a terminal faliure in a folding camper). Owners also got a chemical reaction between the steel and alloy.

The mounting brackets (which were'nt attractive) were permanantly bolted to the camper body added to the overall width by a good few inches and some found that a problem.

Most who had the rack located over the wheels could not use the full width as the camper is wider than they could reach from either side (no trouble with a canoue but a problem for bikes).- before changing to a "towsure" type cycle carrier normally seen mounted onto tow bars Pennine relocated thier later model body rack to the rear of the camper so they could be accessed from 3 sides. I'd not heard bad reports but it 'd be useless for a canoue. Personally i'd also be concerned with the effect on stability adding excess weight at the very back of the outfit.

I'm moving towards either desiging and having my own fabricated that mounts onto the chassis instead of the body or putting the bikes on the car and using one of these new inflatable "handyracks" on top of the camper for the canoue but am concerned about the direct contact and wearing a hole in the transit cover if the load on the transit cover "shuffles" about while towing.

One thing which i got from pennine was if i did that then they'd want a personal liability waiver from me. (but felt they'd probably want my idea if it worked. A body rack on a folding camper to carry the things we are wanting to carry is a big plus over a caravan). Also beware the insurance: with a home made body rack it becomes a "modified vehicle" and as a solicitor pal of mine once commented over a pint "an interesting scenario if it broke and any of the load came off and clobbered another vehicle, or it destabilised the outfit leading to an accident"

I'm now wondering if perhaps a Bedford 3 tonner as a tow car was a better solution for carrying all our family's gear?

Thanks for that...made me think a bit.

I was wondering what the Cardinal hardtop is made of, and whether it would support a canoe directly, supported underneath and strapped to the chassis.

I know the US-built hardtops were made of aluminium, then changed to ABS. The Aluminium ones could take the weight of a 4x4 without buckling. 

The canoe will be 15/16' and weigh 30-40 kg (not yet bought).

Try looking on page 19 of this...

http://www1.webng.com/conwayowners/brochures/1995.pdf

Shows the original carry rack for a 1995 cardinal.

Thanks for the link Paul,

Regards

Pete