We have just purchased our first trailer tent (Trigano Olympe GL). Fancied a bit more luxury but could not bear the thought of a caravan.
Anyway, I know it has been covered here already but bikes! I need to carry 4 and although I have a Maxxrack there is not much turning space left with the bikes and the locker. So I'm thinking of buying a luggage rack.
Does anyone have one of these I cannot find any decent pictures or info on how it fits/packs away on sites etc.
Thanks. What I wanted is some pics of how it is folded away or packed down when on site. From what I can see it looks like that the rack might end up being a tedious construction / deconstruction exersize.
We once did a trip to France carrying bikes on the luggage rack. On the overnight stops I didn't want to be taking the bikes off each time, but obviously I had to take the luggage rack off to get the trailer tent opened up.
So I made some simple wooden stilts for the rack. I attached these to it using the same points and bolts which attach it to the trailer. Once on stilts I could drag the trailer from beneath it, leaving the rack upright and loaded. If I was concerned about it collapsing, I collapsed it; it was easy enough to get up off the ground again the next morning.
It worked well and saved lots of time. Only reason we did't continue to do it the same way is because we changed the outfit to a FC.
If you're emptying the rack of luggage each time you pitch, then it is a fairly easy task to remove it and fold it up. I used to put a picnic rug under it whilst fitting or removing it to help protect the tarp.
Thanks for the link there are some good shots there and I can see how it all goes together which is what I wanted.
I'm also thinking of making my own rack and the idea of being able to pull the trailer from under it is a good one!
I'm considering that the rack will be made up in a few sections. The lower sides which could be left on the trailer all the time. With the upper sides and crossbars which could be lifted off and folded up some how. May be it would workout just a cheap to buy one, usually the way
We have a 2010 Olympe and have the luggage rack which we use to carry 3 bikes, body boards etc. It is virtually identical to the one shown in the piccies above. I haven't got any pics of ours but will take some soon and post them for you.
On site, we leave ours under the trailer so its well out of the way and lock the bikes to the 'A' frame. I put it all together myself and it takes about 20 minutes to put the rack onto the trailer and lock the bikes etc onto the rack.
I much prefer this to putting the bikes on the car as I drive a Discovery and its far too high even for me at 6'2".
We have a Galaxy and I have tried the MaxxRaxx with the extension. I can just get the 4 bikes on there but it does not leave mush room for error when reversing especially as I have the locker box on the front as well. I have not actually towed with this configuration though.
I like the idea of the bikes on the trailer as it looks neater and helps spead the load. My concern is the amount of time it takes to fit and remove the rack plus the packing away. Especially as we have just got the TT to reduce all of this.
20mins does not sound to bad. I assume when stowing on site you have to remove the bike carriers from the cross bars?
Do you happen to know what the dia of the tubular sides are?
Just been out to the garage to measure them. The side tubes are 26mm in diameter while the cross bars are 30mm square.
I leave the bike racks on the cross members and remove all the cross members as one unit from the side bars. You could just loosen the bolts holding side bars to the cross bars and then fold the side bars over thus leaving it as one unit. However, as I tend to do this part of the job on my own, I find it easier to remove the cross bars as one unit.