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I was wondering the same, missus wants to take her bike on our next trip, dont know about the legal bit but you would need to make sure it clears the trailer on a tight turning circle.

Hi,

We towed the chantilly with both a Ford Galaxy & Renault Scenic with 3 bikes on the back of the car with no problems (apart from the rack causing a dint in the back of the Renault; we now have a bike rack on the tow bar!),

Fiona

Hi,

We towed the chantilly with both a Ford Galaxy & Renault Scenic with 3 bikes on the back of the car with no problems (apart from the rack causing a dint in the back of the Renault; we now have a bike rack on the tow bar!),

Fiona

No issues I know of with rear carriers, as long as the bikes don't stick out the sides or hit the trailer when turning.  There IS an issue with tow bar mounted racks whilst towing.  That is the nose weight allowance for your car.  Check your handbook for details of what your car can carry.  Check the noseweight of the trailer with a gauge or bathroom scales & a piece of wood.  Weigh your bikes & the carrier.  Add this lot up & see if you are over the limit.  Police do carry out spot checks & do prosecute if you are overloaded.  Your insurance will be invalid too if you exceed the manufacturers sppec.

Steve.

I would never consider having a bike rack and trailer on the towbar as it would be very difficult to get adequate trailer noseweight without overloading. There are some cars I'd be unhappy with a tailgate mounted rack as well - when my brother had a Ford Escort Estate it was very sensitive to overloading at the back.

If in doubt I'd look for a roof mounted carrier(s) - but remember it's there before you go under a height barrier!

Glen

HI,

I've had both bootlid mounted bike carry frame and a tow bar mounted frame. Neither of which i was happy with. The boot mounted frame meant boot was out of action while bikes & frame were mounted, it took a lot of work to load frame and bikes onto car too and bikes bounced around a lot in transit damaging each other (and the car!). On the tow bar mount i was always paranoid about exceeding nose weight load on tow bar and wheels of bikes catching corners of camper when turning. You can also only carry 2-3 bikes on these  racks as they are'nt big enought to carry 4 bikes  The tow bar rack also blocked access to the boot and i had to hitch up before putting the bikes on otherwise i could'nt reach the ball hitch. I've now gone to roof bar mounted thule bike carriers and am much happier, bikes are more secure the frames are locking type , bikes are easier to load & take away on day trips from camper pitch, dont' bounce around in transit damaging each other or the car and don't block access to the boot. And the roof mount bike carry frames can be transferred from roof bar to roof bar if you change car so are a long term investment.  Wish i'd saved the money on the other two types and just gone straight to the roof mounted set up.

p.s. Don't forget steel frame bikes are a lot heavier than alloy framed bikes too! Also it helps loading if you keep an allen key in the car to slacken off and turn the handle bars parallel to the bike's  frame if you are loading more than 2 bikes.

hi

Towed T/T with tow bar mounted bike rack for many years. All you have to do is pack the T/T with more weight at the back or get a car like i did with self leveling suspension and you do not have any problems then.

Yes you do!  The noseweight on trailers is critical.  If you pack the weight at the back you'll induce a swerve & snake down the road into a crumpled heap!  Your TT of FC  will have a specified noseweight which you can check with bathroom scales or a gauge.  You need to be somewhere near this & within the trailer & cars max allowable weights.  This has nothing to do with the ride height of the car at the back.  Even with cars like Citroen & those with air assisted springs at the back, you still cannot exceed the max load specified for the trailer noseweight.  You invalidate your insurance if you do.  In the event of a crash, the Police will prosecute for breaching construction & use regs at least, could be more.

Steve.

Absolutely right Steve.  You can't artificially lighten teh front of the trailer in this way, just so you can put bikes on there.  It takes care of the loading on the back of the car but dangerously lightens the nose weight on the ball.  This will lead to unpleasant and quirky handling to say the least.

Minimum nose weight is 25kg or 4% of trailer weight.

Jim

No you do not. Just pack the T/T carefully with no more than the max nose weight or the minimum and you will be alright.

Every body that has travelled in europe will have seen the way the french and dutch pack there cars and trailers/caravans with no trouble. As long as you do not drive like michael schumacher you will be alright.

My view - the more noseweight the better full stop.

4% is an absolute minimum - 7% is recommended. That means unless it's a very light trailer tent and a very light bike you'll struggle to use a towbar mounted rack on most cars.

Sorry, Gary but putting weight to the rear of the trailer to lighten the front is the absolute worst thing you can do. If you need to lighten the noseweight move stuff from  the front to the centre if possible, and personally I don't care what they do on the Continent - I don't drive there!

I once towed a small trailer a short distance with inadequate noseweight (due to letting other people pack the tables and chairs in it). I very nearly stopped and repacked it - and I was only going 5 miles or so - it was bouncing around so much.

The advantage of the self-levellers is they do generally have a higher noseweight allowance on the car, (110kg IIRC for many Citroens) but you need to check the towbar is also rated that highly. So yes, they would give you more chance of a senasible match.

Glen

I hope never to be behind, in front of or beside a French or Dutch or any other overloaded or poorly loaded rig if it starts to snake down a bank in the wet.

Steve.

Sounds reasonable Kevin. You can check it with a proper noseweight gauge (or bathroom scales and a bit of wood).

Glen