Yeah, that was the final solution for us too. We did manage 3 bikes on a tow bar carrier, & one on the roof. The issue we had with the Peugeot was the torsion bar suspension. It is really soft & bottomed out under load. You could hear the rear mud flaps scrape the road. We originally had a tow bar rack that could also allow the trailer to hitch up too. Alas it was over the tow bar nose weight so we ended up with the conclusion it was either camper or bikes.
Oh dear, its not looking good. we've only just bought this car! I am going to ask our local peogot garage for a bit of advice and check the wieght of our bikes. We were starting to get reallyinto the idea of the max rack too.
Hi Katglasgow, sounds like a good plan, your Peugeot garage may have some suggestions. If nothing else at least you have found out now before you spent anything. I was certainly surprised about the weight issue.
I saw a Ford Focus yesterday with a Trials Motorbike on the back on a rack, now that must have been over the nose weight limits.
Better to be safe though and know you are not damaging your new car.
i have a zafira 06 model have 4 bike carriers on roof ,need small steps to get up there though, went all the way to middle of france ,no problem the are attatched by wheels and the arm stay ,and you can open the boot any time ,but am now getting moor and more camping gear and might get a folding camper,so am getting a towbar fitted might do it myself ,you can buy them for £100 with single electrics takes about hour and a half ,will get a bolt on type ball so you can fit a bike carrier on the back to though,
The tow bar noseweight for a Zafira is 75Kg. Most campers are around 50Kg. Adding a tow bar carrier with bikes on would almost certainly put you over the limit. In addition, there is limited space between the camper & the bikes, so damage is possible when cornering. Roof is best option if towing.
Hi just to update anyonme interested, the nose weight rating for the peugeot 207 sw is 46 which is quite poor! After discussions with out local garage man here we have decided to get a tow bar fitted and are going to buy a thule 9708 hangon. This is built to take 4 bikes, but we will only be using it for 4 this year as my daughter is still in a childseat. The thule carrier is 10kilos, the combined weight of 2 x adult and 1 x child is 38 kilos. If we were doing a very short journey to park with kiddies, I would put 4 bikes on the back, but not for longer journeys, mechanic has advised us not to go over 50 kilos. The oong term plan is to get roof bars next year and put one of the kids bikes on the roof. I really like the idea of the towbar system as you can lock bikes into it so very secure if making a long distance trip with stop overs and it will be easier for me to get bikes on and off if hubby not there (if these case, we would only need 3 bikes as well). Thanks to all for your advice.
Oh yes and my brand new icarus 600 arrived yesterday so hoping for a break in the clouds on sat so we can put it up!
Glad you got something sorted in the end Karyn. I am itching to get out there camping now too. Now that we have bought a bigger car I can buy more camping stuff to put in it!! Just dont tell hubby that.
Have you thought about a trailer bike for your daughter when she is a bit older? We had one for our son and it folded in half so would go in the boot. My son took ages to be confident on his own bike so we used the trailer bike until he was about 6.