Hi all, does anyone have any experience of these?

I would ideally like to be able to open the tailgate with it on. Some towbar racks allow this by sliding or folding but I’m unsure if it will work with the van as it has such a large tailgate.

Alternatively Fiama do ones which fit directly to the tailgate. I’m guessing these allow the tailgate to open but can it be opened with bikes on?

Cheers

I know it’s on a Yaris but a MaxxRaxx drops down quite well…. picked mine up £40 off of Gumtree.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/J3aGnP]IMG_20160614_122124-01[/url] by Stephen Williams, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/HJ8E5o]IMG_20160614_122018-01[/url] by Stephen Williams, on Flickr

Though thinking about a vans rear end I’m not too sure….. worth a look though.

Cheers, Steve

Yeah the radius on a van tailgate will mean that it swings out quite far. Would be interested to know if any of this style of racks work..

Tested this on my Trafic yesterday. My BuzzRack which has had ample clearance when tilted on the Focus estate doesn’t work on the Trafic. In fact it is nowhere near. I can’t see that it would be possible with any rack. The tailgate opening comes down so low that any towbar mounted rack is going to block it opening, would love to be proved wrong! The only one I can think of is one that slides away from the tailgate first and then tilts. I saw it somewhere possible on roofbox.co.uk – might be worth giving them a call, what they don’t know about bike racks isn’t worth knowing imho

Thanks for the info spacey, I was afraid this might be the case. I suppose my other option is roof bars but kind of difficult to use on a van.

Fitted a fiamma rack to the back of my Bongo tailgate and upgraded the gas struts so could open with bikes attached. Is that an option?

Seems like a good option….

http://www.rainbow-conversions.co.uk/fiamma-carry-bike-campervan/fiamma-carry-bike-cycle-rack-for-opel-vivaro-renault-trafic.html

or this is the slidey one, looks slick!

http://www.roofbox.co.uk/scripts/rbvehsel4_tab.php?AR2603

I’ve emailed roofbox.co.uk about that one now.. was looking at the Fiamma one too and it is possibly the best bet. Couldn’t find any info on if it can open with the bikes on. Guess I need to look in to gas strut upgrade then?

Seen quite a lot of Americans run swing hitch racks for vans and the like. Here is Yakimas.

Not sure about UK availability (or legality?)

wow interesting never seen one of them!

just found this encouraging photo too: http://www.vwt4forum.co.uk/picture.php?albumid=12699&pictureid=79342

so a chance it could work on the tailgate version…

edit: just got this very quick response from Roofbox.co.uk:

The bike carrier we tend to recommend for customers who drive vans is the Atera Strada DL 3. This is due to the fact that this carrier also slides away from the vehicle as well as tilting so offers by far the best access to the tailgate of any of the tow ball mounted bike carriers on the market. Unfortunately, I can’t say for definite whether this would enable you to open the tailgate on a Vauxhall Vivaro or Renault Trafic, but it does on a VW T5 which has a very vertical tailgate. If you wish do some measuring, the upright on the Strada DL 3 will slide approximately 45cm away from the back of the tow ball so using this measurement you should be able to gauge whether you will have the clearance required. You may also be able to find this information on an online forum or the like.

ichabod – Member
just found this encouraging photo too: http://www.vwt4forum.co.uk/picture.php?albumid=12699&pictureid=79342

so a chance it could work on the tailgate version…

The MaxxRaxx fits on a Transporter with double doors also.

http://www.vwt4forum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=371396

Cheers, Steve

Interesting. I’ll measure that 45cm against my current rack later on.

I run a Atera Strada on a t5.1 fine , with wide bars you have to ease the tailgate past and stick some clear plastic to stop it marking. Can get 3 bikes on it no worries