Well just about to set off for Orkney, another bike and person to collect then both car and bike rack are full ready for 500 miles each way

and we made it

That looks like a seriously long bike rack

Geoff,
I have a 2 bike Thule rear carrier and am needing a 4 bike in the near future. How do you find it drives with 4 on the rear. I am not wanting to put any on the roof but the length worries me for driving, especially with 4 full suspension MTB's on the rear !

Have a nice trip Sir  Is this where I put the car details and a bit about myself ?........

Looking good, have fun in the Orkney Islands

I regularly put 4 on the MaxxRaxx. You wouldn't know they're on the back TBH. Mine doesn't stick out quite that far though, I tend to interlock the bikes a bit and hold it all tight with bungee cords. But still, same weight and towbar mounted.

That's impressive, it looks like (to me) like it's made from 'Unistrut' beams. That's the typical rack building iron lengths used in say commas rooms etc. it's very strong and versatile, and galvanised etc. with easy to use boltable fixings. (If it is) do you have a naked picture? ( of the rack of course). -and yours looks like it will be quite. flattish for off car storage. I've in the garage. Or even out in elements (galvanised)

I fitted a tow bar to my replacement car a couple of days ago and tried the bikes on the rack yesterday

This is the Altera Strada rack for 2 bikes but also available in up to 4 bikes

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Trip completed, it was last week. Rack now being shortened to take just one bike (mine). One of my family works for HILTI and the rack is made from what they call channel. It took 4 bikes with ease and although it stuck out almost 1.5 metres it was perfectly legal with the trailer board and reflectors and so stable I forgot about it even at high speed.
The channel for the main spar is only 41mm square and so it had to be "sleeved" so it fitted straight into the Westfalia 50mm square socket and secured using the standard pin - no towbar required.
The sleeve was a problem because 50mm box comes with wall thicknesses of either 4 or 5mm - so it wouldn't fit in the 5mm stuff (only 40mm square left and radius on internal corners) and there was some flexing with the 4mm wall as there was a spare mm or so all round but I fixed that without any welding (as I don't have any gear for that).
When it stops raining I'll take some photos.  Geoff

Oh and it was pretty much free - that's why I didn't buy the Altera 4 bike rack which would have been an eye wateringly expensive waste of money for one trip but it is the best rack  Geoff

yes, 'channel', or 'unistrut' is easily obtainable, and can be bolted together at angles by the corrsponding hardware. 41mm here, http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/41mm-Plain-Chann...33a7c148b7
and the thinner 21mm here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/21mm-Slotted-Cha...33a7c17730
very strong stuff.

i have used 50mm box in 5 mm, and fixed a swinging bike rack to it. the 50mm box, has rounded edges and slides in perfect to the tow armature. here, (shorter lengths available. just ask. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Steel-box-sectio...58874940b3 if you slide in a 1metre section, and stand on it, you see that it will easily hold 4 bikes, and probably yourself too. wether you bolt an upright for the trailer board, or make straps to hold it to the bikes etc is your design etc.

oh, and 'Altera' branded stuff is sooo expensive for the everyday cyclist.
especially when you think how many years you might not get to use it as the kids grow up etc. -hardly needed now in my case..

Although it is very strong I had a problem with twisting on the uni strut type stuff which made the bikes wobble about alarmingly (hence the straps in the first picture). I just fixed it by a combination of shortening the overall length and fastening some brackets to the exposed 41mm section which reduced/stopped the twisting as it effectively made it box section rather than channel.

I didn't revert to box section with 5mm wall because it is very heavy.

 Geoff

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Found this cmpany this morning. I like their rear rack carriers, not a bad price either.

http://www.ginnellfibreglass.com/car-rackskthwa/index.html


Edited to add though, that I wouldn't put my dog in one of their tow bar mounted dog boxes for all the tea in China............ Regards
Mark

2009 D4; 1993 Classic 3.9 VSE

I bet your dog would put you in one though.

No the reason I made a rack was that i wanted to use the armature socket on the Westfalia rather than a towel which I now have done Geoff