We are off our to the Alps. We are going on our Berlingo, towing an Erde 122 trailer.

I had planned to carry the 2 adult bikes on a towbar mounted carrier that leaves the towball free for towing. Upon offering up the carrier to the towbar and the trailer, this isn’t going to work. The body of the trailer is too close.

Complicating factors are:
1 The trailer has a plywood extension of 30cm to add height, hence capacity. This is more or less an interference fit, with the trailer cover covering it, and bungeeing down to the original bungee points.

2 I have committed to carry a 16 foot open canoe from Scotland to Yorkshire on the first leg of the journey.

I have assessed my options as follows:

A Bikes on roofrack. Tricky with the canoe, but probably do able. Need to pay for extra height on ferry. Difficult to load/unload bikes.

B Extend trailer drawbar to give more room. Hinges on getting hold of a suitable bar. Need to pay for extra length on ferry.

C Make solid top for trailer. Mount roofrack carriers on it. Would make loading/unloading the trailer difficult.

D Somehow mount roofrack carriers on fabricated mounts, one on each side of trailer, above metal mudguards. This sounds odd, but would keep the CoG low. Not sure if legal as something would protrude beyond the mudguard. I would turn the bars, obvs, and the trailer is much narrower than the car anyway.

E Sling bikes in bike bags on top of trailer and strap down.

Any ideas? Am I over thinking it and missing the obvious solution?

Any ideas? Am I over thinking it and missing the obvious solution?

Get a VeeDub Transporter T4; best thing I ever did. It’s the ideal Enduro riders van. It handles better than my old car; does 47mpg; fits everything in the back; sleeps four in comfort.

If you’re thinking of getting one, I’d suggest an engine remap. Had mine done; it’s now got 165bhp and it’s improved it’s fuel economy to boot.

Worth shopping around; i managed to find a minter with 211K on the clock for only thirteen and a half grand.

Would never go back to a car.

Strangely I was going to suggest above the mudguards too, pedals and front wheel off shouldn’t be too wide.

But easiest would be bike bags/boxes ratcheted down over the trailer top.

The most cost effective and easiest turns out to be lengthening the drawbar. The current one is 1150mm long. I’m going to replace it with a 1500mm 50mm box section which should cost less than £30, and will require 4 holes drilled to fit it. Whole thing will still be sub 3m.

lol at Mr Taylforth. 😀

I wonder who trip trapped over his bridge 😛

13.5k with 211k on the clock? 😯

Yeah, sounds a ‘minter’ 😕

Why not hire bikes locally?

Local hire not really an option. Have ordered 1500mm of 50mm x 50mm x 4mm box mild steel to lengthen the drawbar. The overall length from the axle to the coupling will increase from 1230mm to 1570mm. I am increasing the wall thickness from 2mm to 4mm, and this should increase the adequacy of the strength from 135% to 151%.

I’m not sure about how/if EU type approval regs. apply to trailers, and whether date of manufacture comes into play. This trailer was manufactured in 2005, and I don’t think type approval is retrospective.