Hi Pippa
We have been using 2 Witter towbar carriers over a number of years. There is a Witter version with a bend in the vertical bar to allow it to fit on cars with rear-mounted spare wheels. We used one of these on our Vauxhall Monterey (Isuzu Trooper) and carried 4 bikes. Since we got our Kia Sorento a couple of years ago we reverted to our previous Witter carrier with a straight bar.
Regarding clearance between the 'van and car this is not a problem during normal driving but one has to be careful when reversing or other tight maneouvres on difficult pitches. After 2 seperate incidents when the jockey wheel handle buckled a bike wheel we now remove the bikes when doing tight maneouvres.
We have found the Witter carriers to be very convenient to use. The bikes can easily be lifted on we did use roof bike racks on previous estate cars but even at that height it was a big effort getting the bikes up there. There is little chance of damaging the car paintwork as there is with some rear-mounted carriers - we use foam pipe insulation as additional padding between the bikes and between the car and bikes. The Witter carrier comes with a fixed loop on its bottom bracket, that is bolted to the towbar, and we secure the bikes with our D locks when they're on the car.
We have towed thousands of mile around the UK and the Continet using these carriers with no problems apart from the 2 incidents previously mentioned. I would not put the bikes in the 'van. Apart from possible damage we often stop-off enroute and try to keep the caravan clear so that we can quickly settle down for the night.
I hope this helps - Witter do have a website if you want to check them out more.
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Tim and Cary
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Topic: Bike Racks
