You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Does anyone have a post 2018 K9 Berlingo/Partner/Rifter/Combo/Combo Life with a towbar?
Was hoping to fit a detachable Brink one like this to be used with a 3 bike carrier for family holidays. Detachable as for most of the year it won’t be used and I found the flange type on an old car annoying when loading the boot with shopping, rubbish, sports bags etc.
Brink states that their detachable towbar will interfere with the opening of the tailgate style boot when the bike carrier is in place. Does anyone have any experience that might help?
Thanks
You'll need a bike rack that swings out a long way.
I put the bikes on the roof of my Berlingo for this reason.
Shame they only do the split rear windows in the top spec model of the new shape. I love that split window opening in mine.
Thanks Trail_rat, have got the opening window on the tailgate which is useful, but being able to open the boot is so much better when that extra bag needs packing or when something needs rescuing once the bikes are on! 🙂
I've got a Thule Euroclassic G6 929 bike carrier which does tilt but given the detachable towbar cannot be used with a trailer I assume the tailgate is going to hit the ball clamp? Even a normal flange style towbar needs to be mounted in a low setting to allow the tailgate to open.
Never considered that fitting a towbar would be so complicated on a vehicle that people buy for its practicality. 🙁
Even more confusing and frustrating when the Thule website shows a tilting bike carrier on the back of a Citroen van with a tailgate opening using what looks like a Brink towbar (Brink being part of the Thule group).
Not got that model but the previous. I didn't go with detachable as the faff of putting on/taking off put me off (yes, the 30 seconds to do either put me off!). So a standard fit and forget towball installed, but I got one with a longer gap between the ball and install point. Means the bike rack is about 20mm further away from bumper.
I still need to tilt the rack to get in the window and no chance of opening the boot, but it seems to work very well.
Doesn't really help with your removable towball question, but it works well.
Thanks for the reply DickBarton, out of interest what stops the boot opening, does it hit the bike carrier/towbar or the bikes when they are tilted?
If I used the bike carrier regularly then fitting it and removing the towbar would be annoying. It is slightly annoying and we only use the bike carrier a few times a year, but it's less annoying than whacking my shins on a fixed towbar the rest of time. 🙂 It's really annoying when someone helpful packs the boot before a holiday and just leaves me to put on the bikes...and have left the towbar under everything in the boot. 😀
I guess if I can't open the boot with any kind of towbar I can fit what ever I like, which makes the choice easier.
I've an Atera rack - not Strada but ebike friendly (M-rack or something) - went for that as it had a higher weight limit.
With the rear part of the rack up, the door won't open. If I fold the rear part of the rack over, then the boot opens up no bother - but that needs no bikes on rack to work.
With bikes on the rack tilts and I can open the boot but only about half way as the bike handlebar is in the way. With rack tilted, window opening opens though.
Thanks again, gives me hope that we might be able to tilt and use the boot as the Thule tilts a long way back from the car.
Haven't tried that @rockthreegozy, hasn't been something I've considered as I rarely need in the boot with the bikes on the rear and when I do, I tend to go in via the rear seats/side door.
Update on the above. After much procrastination I finally had a detachable Brink towbar fitted to the Berlingo and was very relieved that when I attached the Thule bike carrier the boot could still be opened when the tilt was adjusted to it's maximum 70 degree angle.
With the tilt set at 50 degrees the boot didn't quite clear the bike carrier but did allow the rear window to be opened.
The downside of the 70 degree tilt is that the bike bars and pedals can it the floor so need to be careful, also need to rotate the bars for the bike nearest the car as otherwise they hot the rear window.
Sounds like your bars need a trim! 🤣
The bars on my bike are modern and reasonably wide. 😀
However, even the standard bars on an 2010 XC bike were right next to the rear window and would have hit when bouncing along or stopping. 🙁
Just needed to loosen and turn the bars, not annoying when it was for a drive across France, would be annoying if I was something I had to do every time I ride.
I did have this with my really wide 760mm bars (!!! - can't get on with any wider personally). I did get a longer necked towbar and fitted that - it added about 20mm extra distance from the car and I've got a good gap now...probably not quite so easy with a detachable solution - unless you buy a new solution (which I suspect will be more than the £15 Halfords job I bought), but if you can get a longer necked towball then that would help provide a bit more distance between bar and window.
If you are just riding yourself - I'm assuming you've removed the middle seat and just run the bike in the back as a complete unit?