Bike carrier for Windsor Rapid 592s

Johnny boy posted:

Hi Captain,
I did not see anything but a fiama link on that post are you sure your van pics are there?

Hi Jodi,
I have a 14.6 Windsor Rapid and have 4 bikes on the front drawbar,I have fabricated a cross memeber that is 75x75x4mm it has 2 feet welded on the bottom so that it can be clamped down on the drawbar with 4 U bolts and plates with washers and nilock nuts ,I then welded an upright piece in the center then gusseted the up right on both sides so now you have an upside down T I then made a cap on the short piece but not before drilling and welding a towball from the inside then I welded the cap on the top with the thread pointing up,then I fitted my folding 4 bike rack on and it folds over the 9kg and 4kg gas bottles,the bikes now will be facing the back of my 4WD this means the cross member is close to the van on the draw bar,this is the only safe way I could think of transporting our bikes as I dont like the idea of the bikes being at the back of the van as it put stress on the rear of the chassis as well as the flimsy joke of a rear bar that they supply ,it is only held on by 4 tack welded u bolts on mine so I removed the entire bar and built a much stronger one and if you intend to go on corragations I would advise you run a chain or cable around the spare wheel ,they have been known to brake off ,well back to the bike rack I can watch mine from my mirror and the bikes dont budge,there is only 2 things about your post and that is buying a 5 bike rack ?? and there is no real fast way to disconnect when you have fold down beds ,you might want to think about a roof rack mounting setup for your tug if that is an option,I hope I have not gone on for too long and this helps you.

regards John.

Member - Captain (WA) posted:

Hi John,

Hmm... it shows up in my browser so not sure whats going on. Well, have reposted below in case its something to do with the thread being archived.

...I had the same issue when i had a Rapid. I ended up building a rack myself and it worked fine. You did have to take the bikes off to use the front bed, but I felt this was an acceptable compromise - I could see the bikes via my rear view mirror. And while these shots show small kids bikes, it worked well for full-size adult bikes.

Front on view of bike carrier

Side on view of bike carrier

Close up of coupling

You could easily make the arms a bit longer to take more bikes, these arms are 450mm and take 3 adult bikes easily. On my Camprite the carrier arms are 500mm long and it just takes 4 adult bikes.

Cheers

Captain