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Quote: Originally posted by James Watt on 11/8/2010

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What model will suit your Picasso I'm not sure, but obviously a tow-bar one is out of the question.
Kind regards James

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It's very unlikely you will have enough weight allowance for 4 bikes and a trailer tent.  If the noseweight doesn't get you, the rear axle loading will.

Jim

What's wrong with roof mounted racks ? We have 2 of these.

Roof Box Co

We have a TT, roof mounted bike racks (on a Mondeo Estate) and also a towball mounted rack that can theoretically take four bikes. However we don't use this for four bikes when towing the trailer tent....even with the drawbar at full extension the bikes would clip the TT when turning and also there is of course the towball weight limit to consider. We have used it with two of our most lightweight adult bikes while towing though, if we've wanted to take more than four bikes. If you take pedals off and trun the handlebars flat to the frame then you can snug bikes up quite closely to the car.

A roof rack is a better option and means you don't need to offload the bikes before you can set up. They don't bend the wheels, no. We've been using Thule roof mounted bike racks for many years and never had any damage to the bikes.

You can get bike/luggage racks that fit on the top of a Conway TT. Look on Ebay for second hand ones. Remember though that any load on a top rack has to be included in the payload weight of your TT which in the case of a standard conway is around 100Kg. Given that an adult bike can weigh up to 15KG, this doesn't leave much weight allowance over for other stuff to be packed in the TT. You've also got to add in the weight of the actual rack.

You can strap bikes directly onto the trailer using lots of padding and lots of rope. It's not an ideal solution though not least because it can wear holes in the top cover. Once again, a roof rack is a better long term option.

As an example of some of the problems above, this summer I left booking the ferry so late that we couldn't get an overheight vehicle slot. The booking advisor suggested we strap our roofrack carried bikes onto the top of the trailer just for the crossing so we decided to go with this. We were carrying four solos and a tandem so we drove to the ferry with two bikes on the back rack and two bikes and the tandem on the roof. At the ferryport we put all four bikes (pedals removed and handlebars turned) on the back rack and strapped the tandem to the  top of the trailer. I repeat...this was only for driving a few hundred yards onto the ferry and a few hundred yards off, when we reversed the process. We still managed to put a big scratch in the back of the car boot on a very shallow turn where the TT pushed a bike pannier rack along the paintwork, and the towball grounded on the ferry ramp at the bottom due to the weight on the back axle of the car. Argh.  Put it this way, I'm not going to repeat this particular system of carrying bikes!

I tow a caravan so can't put bikes on back of the car due to noseweight so I have 4 bikes on the roof, very stable, quick and easy to use but had to get a small step ladder when I changed my car as I couldn't reach the middle racks!

It also spreads the weight evenly across the car. Need to check weight limit of roof bars for your car, as 4 bikes plus racks weigh about 88kgs but my limit is 100kgs so all ok. Have done this now for many trips no issues, it will reduce you mpg but you can still open you boot whenever.

I got my off the internet from a company called faster online in a pack of 4 and it was about half the price of Halfords. All in with roof bars and footplates it will cost couple hundred max probably.

Quote: Originally posted by u400jb9 on 12/8/2010

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What towbar rack do you use Val?

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It's a discontinued Witter one. We've had it for some years now...two arms slot into a block mounted behind the towball and they sort of curve up and out like bulls horns. The bikes hook on the two arms and you secure them with straps and a bit of rope. I can't find a picture when a google, sorry.