Hi,

Planning a camping trip at the end of next month. We have two small kids, one who still needs a push chair and as a result have decided we probably need a roof box to lug all the clutter (push chair, clothes, food, tent, cool box and faff items all making the boot small).

The roof box will mean it is unlikely we can fit more than one, or two bike carriers max on the bars (I have an xc60 with narrow flush mount whisper bars). I want to take the bikes as we are looking to go to a Brecon and want to do this next summer holidays as well, as cycling is part of the fun for me.

Any clever ideas? Wider bars are one option, although that seems extravegent. Tow bar and a rear rack looks very expensive, but the best and cheapest solution for me (rear mounted rack like I used to have on a Golf) is limited as the car has a spoiler which gets in the way of straps and does not like weight placed on it.

Any suggestions for those suffering 1st world problems appreciated.

Ignore me. Thought you still had the good too.

wider bars are probably your cheapest solution and then two bikes and a roof box assuming you have the narrow roof box.

Tow bar all the way for me.

We fill our SMax and a roof box and then put 4 bikes on the tow bar rack. Works a treat.

I am planning on buying a van next year though….

Tow bar is the best but not cheapest solution :(. After faffing with the two bikes on the roof plus roof box for many years we are now on a boot rack and it’s great

By far the best and cheapest option is to take less stuff. Put the bikes on the roof and strap the pushchair to the roof rails. Leave at home or sell on anything else you can’t fit in the boot.

worth bearing in mind that your maximum roof load is 100Kg. It’s easy to reach that with a couple of bikes on racks and a full box.
There’s probably some conservativeness in the 100Kg figure and you’re not doing autobahn speeds, but do you want to risk it?

I bought a Thule Ranger roofbag (£110 on ebay).

Folds away in the loft when not in use and we can still carry two bikes on the roof.

(standard Thule roof bars on a Honda Jazz)

Thanks for all the suggestions. My preference would absolutely be to take less stuff, but the wife packs as if we are making an expedition to Africa, via every microclimate known to man.

We have not got a tow bar so if anyone knows a cheap place to do that, it would be a big help. Long term I can see they make sense and we plan to keep the car for ages, as it is only 2 years old.

Only setups I have seen (have been looking at cars on the road as I can see this in my future !) have been a narrow roof box and a single bike holder. @stirling’s setup I haven’t seen, a Jazz is pretty small/narrow roof too so that bodes well for the xc60. Clearly a towbar & carrier plus full size roof box max’s out your capacity but thats £1,000+ all in ? (Clearly all but vehcile towbar you can sell on)

OP the larger the car you have the more stuff you’ll take, see Jazz above gets the job done 😉

Ahh, the roof is not very big on the XC60. I’d say once the box is on top you’ve had it, obviously there are different styles and shapes of boxes but it’ll be a struggle to fit a box and a bike on as well. I can get two bikes on mine, and that’s pretty much it (small gap between the Thule carriers, and wouldn’t entertain getting a third on top) Rear bike carrier off a tow bar is the best option for you IMO, but the tow bar option is expensive (indespension asked £250 to retro fit one on mine, Volvo wanted £400 for a swinging fold away unit)
Think you’ll struggle to fit a hanging rack on too, the rear boot spoiler does come out about 200mm and having straps in the shut line running over the spoiler will put a lot of pressure on the lip of the spoiler.. can be done, if you choose this option make sure you put something like a,towel under the straps over the spoiler to avoid the straps digging into the spoiler itself.
Not a fat lot of room in the 60, it’s quite a small vehicle inside despite its outside shape.

Pack light, travel far.

Xc60 owner too, who is getting rid of it because it’s just too impractical 😆

I still use a strap on rear carrier if we’ve got camping stuff inside and windsurfing stuff on the roof.
With a spoiler I hoik everything up high on the rear window to avoid crushing said spoiler. My 3 series estate hasn’t got anywhere to hold the top hooks so I connect the straps to the roof rails.

I am not sure how far you are travelling but since it is a one off would taking both cars be an option?

Towbar a wise investment as you say you’re keeping car longterm.

Do you have space to store a trailer? If you plan to have many of these trips then trailer with bike racks on top of trailer itself might be an option.

Only issue with a trailer is you’re limited to 60mph on motorways and 50 on other roads in the uk. It can make journeys seem to take a lot longer even if it doesn’t add a huge amount to the actual time.

As above, tow bar is the most convenient solution but a big initial investment for tow bar and rack.

In the end it’ll depend how much your other half also wants to take bikes.

Hire a set of wider bars

You could just hire a van/minibus/people carrier for your trip.

Thanks all. I only have the one car, the Golf has long gone. So we just have the XC60. I don’t personally think it is too small, but then we had a BMW 3 series touring before which had very limited space.

Google has helped me find a rack from Hollywood that holds three bikes, hangs off the back but can have the straps over the top of the spoiler. It seems like a good bet, as it is £170 versus the other options at maybe £500 + . I will price up a tow bar and rack at as well.

I will need to measure up the roof bars as I am not sure if I will even be able to get one bike carrier on next to a roofbox.

I’ve got a jaguar xe which isn’t wildly big and have the own brand roof bars (which are almost all you can get to fit) – although they are made by Thule and are basically standard wing bars.

A few months ago I borrowed my dad’s medium size odyssey roof box and it fitted on whilst leaving 1 bike carrier on the bars and still had a bit of space free. If you had one of those long narrow boxes 2 bike carriers would be doable. The problem with my setup is max weight is quoted at 50kg because it has stupid fixings to the car which aren’t in any way confidence inspiring.

You need t track adapters for the box / bike racks to use them with aerobars though so that’s something to bear in mind.

Hire a bike at the destination…

My old mazda 2 which was tiny used to happily take a narrow roof box and two Thule bike carriers on the the roof, although the bars may of been longer I guess

Given the size of the car, would you have room for a seasucker mount to the side of the roof box even? Failing that, what about something like a thule 690 moab to hold your stuff (looks like it can be used with bikes) or rather than a bar mounted roof box, one of those bags that just straps on to the roof rather than uses bars

I had a tow bar fitted on Friday. Expensive as I went for a detachable one with dedicated wiring kit

But I have 2 big dogs so I lose most of the boot to them, I have a roof box for family kit which means if I want to take the bike I’m a little stuck. I used to use a boot lid rack (Saris Bones) but I have an electric tailgate which wouldn’t cope with the weight and it would therefore be a pain to take the dogs in and out

Tow bar bike rack which slides out the way was the way I went. Front to back we’ll be 2 adults, 2 kids, 2 dogs, bikes. Then massive roof box on top

Given your constraints the hanging bike rack seems the only solution…however please do it properly and get a lighting board if bikes obscure your lights. So many cars on the road don’t bother.

But your ultimate solution is one of these:

Pricey if you’ve got to fit a tow bar too, but brilliant. I’ve got one for my T5 so the bikes go above on the VW T5 tailgate rack and this fits snuggly underneath. In your case bikes on the roof and one of these out back.

When the Galaxy dies, I am buying a smaller estate car and something like this:

Thanks all for the advice. Roof box is ordered. Not sure about the bike rack options yet, but likely will have to wait until I get some more cash in.

Like the idea of the hitch attachments, but it all comes at a price so we will have to see.

I am going to try and leave as much stuff home as possible, as that is the inherent problem!

If you’re going to do it a lot invest in the towbar. Otherwise ditch the bikes until all the kids are in to it.

Unless the biking is that important / good it all sounds like too much hassle to me. Been there done that and TBH just leave the bikes at home until the young uns keener. But then I get my fix from running if needed.

I used to run a long thin roofbox with thule freeride bike carriers either side of it on a civic. Standard width bars, not the wide ones and that combo just fits.

But it is probably worth thinking long term fairly soon as it won’t be long before it’s many bikes + camping stuff, so a bigger vehicle + tow bar rack is a good idea.

Or a van.

I’d be surprised if you couldn’t get 2 bikes and a narrow box on an XC60, they’re not wide but I got a bike and a fairly wide box on top of a 3 series and they’re very narrow up top.

Just get the narrowest box you can reasonably, and keep an eye out for some second hand wider bars on ebay. I paid £20odd for my last set of Thule Bars.

We used to take two cars – was only a couple of times a year.