Umm. think you might have a problem there as trailers with a short drawbar won't give enough clearance for turning if you have four bikes on the back. I have a pendle bike rack that holds four bikes but can only carry two bikes when towing the camping trailer. Seems to me the options are a bike carrier for top of car or trailer (if it's long enough).
This is the one we are going to get sometime. Hubby thinks it will be ok, as we saw someone on a site using it with their trailer!!!
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I was told there was a "high" version of the Pendle that would give the bikes clearance over the drawbar - has anyone heard of this one as I can't seem to find anything about it on the web? If so, wouldn't it still be compromised by the trailer turning?
Otherwise, does anyone own the Thule 9705 as we may just take the kids bikes for the next couple of years whilst they are still young and leave ours at home. We could look at a roof mounted rack in the future. Is the Thule rack decent quality, or is the Witter better?
How heavy are the four bikes? Although you don't need a lot of noseweight for a small trailer* remember it's the total of that plus all the bikes plus the rack. Some cars (e.g. Ford Focus) only have a 50kg noseweight limit - check your towbar plate and car handbook to check what yours is.
Aim for 7% of the laden weight of the trailer as noseweight, so even if it's only 200kg loaded that's 14kg. If the rack weighs (for example) 4kg you could be limited to as little as 8kg per bike - unless a couple of them are small child's bikes that's going to mean very lightweight models!
Personally I thinkt he best place for bikes when towing is on the roof of the car!
Glen
*Due to letting someone else load and hitch up for me I once towed a Daxara with no/negative noseweight. I was only going about 5 miles and nearly stopped to redistribute the weight it was so bad!
It's not the height of the drawbar that I find restrictive, it's the space (depth) that four bikes together on the rack will take up, I wouldn't be able to turn a corner without the trailer crushing all the bikes!
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Topic: Towbar Mounted Cycle Carrier 4 bikes?
