Cycle carrier advice

[sawman]

My new (to me) forester has a detachable tow ball. I could do with a cycle carrier for 3 or 4 bikes and so am looking for any recommendations re options. Do tow ball fitted racks work with detachable hitches? or is there a specific type for these, I have had a bit of a gander on rrofbox.xo.uk or whatever its called, but havent seen anything that spells it out

cheers

a

[chrisispringles]

There don't appear to be any towball mounted racks that will take 4 bikes, they wouldn't be secure enough to carry the load. Your only real option is to put them on the roof. I'd recommend putting them on the roof anyway because they're out of harm's way and there's no messing about with plates and lights.

[murray]

One of the Thule tow bar carries will take four bikes. Takes three as standard and you can add an additional rack. Cost is about £350, not cheap but I'm impressed with mine.

[timbo48]

Have a look at Pendle racks. They have a 4 bike ball mounted rack for approx £250. We've had a couple of Pendle tow bar mounted racks in the past and would again but no bar on present vehicle so bikes go inside. Only problem with roof mounts is extra fuel consumption and forgetting the bikes are there when going under barriers!!!

[a11y_m]

This Thule one takes 4 bikes:
http://www.roofrackshop.co.uk/bike/thule-9708-hang...

But I prefer the type where the wheels are supported, with an additional arm clamping onto the bikes somwhere (bascially because they allow funny full-suss bies with strange frames to be carried more easily than the above one):
http://www.roofrackshop.co.uk/bike/thule-903-euroc...

On my previous car, I used one of these to carry up to 3 bikes hanging via a detachable towbar:
http://www.roofrackshop.co.uk/bike/thule-947-eurow...

All of the above work with detachable towbars.

Pics of my previous car plus towbar plus rack if it helps:

[sawman]

a11y_m said:

All of the above work with detachable towbars.

Brill Ally, that's exactly what I wanted to clarify, Ive never had a detachable tow hitch before.

I was just having a fiddle in Halfords with a carrier similar to yours, it seems quite a substantial piece of kit

[sawman]

timbo48 said:

Have a look at Pendle racks. They have a 4 bike ball mounted rack for approx £250. We've had a couple of Pendle tow bar mounted racks in the past and would again but no bar on present vehicle so bikes go inside. Only problem with roof mounts is extra fuel consumption and forgetting the bikes are there when going under barriers!!!

Cheers.

I'll check out pendle. Id prefer to chuck the bikes on the back, I've had roof carriers before and got really hacked off trying to get into car parks etc' with 'em up top.

One of the bikes is my little lads, so it can probably go inside at a push, or lashed on to one of the other bikes

[snotrag]

Aiston cycle racks ( google it can't remember exact name ) do very sturdy stuff and can customise them for you - it's either them or Thule as far as I'm concerned.