T5 Bike rack vs. Roof rack for touring

Hey all.

I’m planning a few weeks camping in France with the family, the VW + bikes (3).

Any tips and recommendations for bike racks vs. roof racks? It’s a SWB Tailgate 2007 T32, without a tow hitch.

The VW ‘up high’ bike racks look quite good, but I’ll be in and out of the boot a lot, so I’m wondering whether a full roof rack might be a more utilitarian option, with the bonus of keeping the bikes up high away from thieving fingers.

Any advice is very welcome. Cheers.

We’ve got a roof rack on our T5. It is very high up and would put me off loading bikes onto it. Also I would worry about hitting things, unlikely I know but it does happen. I’m generally only putting ladders on it but you need to stand on the wheel/bumper/step to reach the fittings on the roof bars – I’m about 6 foot 1. I reckon youd want a set of steps for putting bikes on or climb on the roof

I assume you’re planning to take a ferry over to France, it might be worth reviewing their T&Cs, bikes on the roof is probably much pricier…

@kormoran – Yup, I hadn’t ruled out having a little ladder or extending steps. Not sure how much of an issue security is in France – obviously I’d want to lock the bikes to the rack/van. Access to the boot will be necessary.

Good point, cookeaa. We’ve booked the ferry assuming a rack, but that can be changed.

Ducato Hi-Top camper here so only partially relevant. My sea kayak goes on the roof and it was a pain in the arse getting it there and once there securing it. A step ladder was needed and dragging that everywhere was annoying. I now have a thule hullavator and life is much easier even if my pocket is quite a lot lighter! Do they do anything similar for bikes? T5 is a lot lower so the issue might not be quite so bad and a small set of steps might suffice. I think I’d still be inclined towards fitting a towbar and getting a proper towbar bike rack. Another thought – have you looked at ferry prices? Does longer or taller make the most difference to the price you pay. I’ve got to say one of my regrets for such a big van are the car parks I can no longer access with the height barrier and if I had a smaller van I’d be loathed to make it an issue.

edit – look here[/url]. An adaption/alternative use of a karitech kayak rack. I nearly bought the karitech rack but the one for a van my size was too much cash.

Hmmm . . . Thanks Convert. I think standing up bikes would definitely be too high, was more thinking along the lines of a full mesh roof rack that I could lay them on and strap them to. Not too worried about a few more scratches, really.

I’d love to hear opinions about tow hitch mounted vs. boot mounted. ❓

Just found this thread, which seems to cover most of the points. Cheers folks.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/vw-t5-bike-rack-your-real-world-experience

Might be a gap in the market for a roofrack a bit like they use on SKY vans for the ladders.

The main bed of the rack (containing a large roofbox style bike box) would slide back off the van and pivot down at 45 degrees or so. Open roof box, strap bike(s) in with one or both wheels removed, close roof box. Lift/pivot rack back onto the van and push forward until it locks back into place.

But otherwise, I’d get a towbar fitted for the holiday and day to day use. Its easier to lock bikes on a towbar rack as its so much closer to the towbar itself. Just have to do your research to ensure it will tilt enough to clear the rear door.

As an aside these steps now live in the back of our van. Are these steps, are they a seat but whatever very useful. Handy on our van reaching the hullavator handles but on a t5 it might be all you need to reach the roof to strap on a bike.

I’m a couple of weeks into T5 ownership and put a VW 4 bike rack on the tailgate last week. I wanted it for the convenience as its a camper so can’t really put bikes inside easily and certainly don’t want dirty bikes in the van.

I have very mixed feelings about the VW rack. After decades of Thule ownership i guess i’m spoiled with really good, well designed and well made products. The VW rack i’m not 100% impressed with. It’s well made enough and the convenience of it is just what I was after. It looks like you could open the tailgate with bikes installed (not tried but looks possible) so access into the van could be possible with bikes installed – you are supposed to install beefed up tailgate gas struts with the rack, but they’re £50 each and the tailgate opens with the rack installed fine and I personally don’t necessarily want to be able to access the van via the tailgate with bikes installed so have not bothered with the gas strut replacement, but if you do want to open the tailgate with bikes installed on the rack you might need the beefed up gas struts to help you lift the weight and hold the tailgate open.

The cons: The clamps are very small so not good for oversized tubing or on-circular tubing. Only one of the three clamps has a lockable knob on it. There are not enough slots cut into the wheel channels to give you enough option for wheel base variations on bikes, and one thing that is P’ing me off is that when I unscrew the clamp knob it unscrew the rod that runs up the arm undoing the nut at the top – terrible design, the nut should be captive so it doesn’t fall out if uncsrewed for one and it should be a crush nut or nylock nut to prevent it unscrewing at this end rather than the clamp end. Just a poor design – i’ll replace the nuts with nylock nuts and use a dab of threadlock I think.. I’m also looking for some replacement clamps – looking on the Thule spares webside for an frame clamp assembly to see if I can replace the very small clamps. Oh and the biggest con is that they’re chuffing expensive.

Apart from those annoyances its a very good rack.

Having buried my head into various STW & T5 Forum type historic threads I think I’ve made a decision.

Atera DL 3 sliding tow-ball bike rack.

PROS:
-Good reviews
– allows good access to boot
– can fit on my wife’s RAV4 too
– Carries 3 bikes
– Easy to fit
– built in light board / number plate
– doesn’t add to height of vehicle too much

CONS:
-Expensive
– will need to get appropriate lowball & hitch fitted (more £££££’s)
– relatively low level, so will have to be careful off road/on rough tracks
– bikes in easy reach of people who might want a fiddle.

That said, the height of the vehicle didn’t really add to the cost of the ferry – they just put you in with the lorries rather than the cars.

Anyhowdy-hoodle, I’ve not clicked on ‘BUY’ yet, so will quite happily be persuaded otherwise!

Or, then again, maybe this:

Big T5 mesh Roof rack thing

So torn, so many factors to think about!

Thule do sliding bars which you pull out to the side to load then slide the lot back onto the van.
Would still be easier with steps , but you wouldn’t need to be leaning over the van

Nice feedback, wobbliscott, thanks