Can our bike rack handle it?

[KatrinK]

We’ve got a rear wall bike rack installed on our Itineo SB740 and want to get a couple of electric bikes.

The carrier states a maximum weight of 60kg, but I have in my head that when we bought the motorhome that the seller said not to put more than 35kg on it (the memory of that day is a little bit hazy as a lot of info was passed on, so I might be wrong).

Below are pictures of the set up (there is four bolts by the top bunk and four by the low bunk).

The bikes we are looking at are 24kg (with batteries, probably around 21kg without), giving us a total of ~42kg.

Has anyone got experience with a similar sort of set up? Is it too much?

 

[Phill D]

The 35 kg figure you were given will have been a personal opinion.
It's a 4bbike rack, there won't be may bike that 4 of them would be less than 35kgs.

The bike rack won't be the real risk for 40kgs it will depend on the wall fittings.

21 kgs without batteries are really heavy bikes.

 

[Kannon Fodda]

E-bikes are often heavy, compared to some others. Mine mountain style bike is also around 24Kg. If you consider so much is uprated to handle the extra torque and loads imposed by the motor, then there is the motor, battery and suchlike it's not surprising. For transport I always take the battery and a couple of other valuable accessories off the bike, and then it is securely locked and alarmed.

Being practical with that type of high rack mounting, have you thought of the reality of lifting over 20Kg up over chest level to get it on the rack? Probably a two person job. I think I'd be wary of any heavier load on the back of the vehicle if I wasn't sure of the reinforcement in the panelling. I didn't even want that weight on the back doors of my PVC and ended up with a towbar carrier option.

 

[Vic]

I would go with a towbar mounted rack. Much lower, therefore easier and no risk to the rear wall.

 

[bridgedino]

From the Fiamma web site

Rails for E-Bikes​

For electric bikes Fiamma created the Rail Premium E-Bike. In accordance with the capacity of the Carry-Bike, a maximum of 2 E-bike rails can be used. We suggest you place the Rails Premium E-Bike near the wall of the vehicle and you remove the batteries of electric bikes to limit the weight on the wall. For transporting electric bikes Fiamma suggests using the models
Pro E-Bike, Pro C E-Bike and Lift E-Bike for Motorhome, the models Caravan XL A Pro 200 E-Bike and Caravan Active for Caravan. Please contact your local dealer to see if your Electric Bikes are suitable, and that they do not exceed the maximum permitted weight. We also suggest that the installation is carried out by a dealer.

If i remember rightly, using their 4-cycle carrier they recommended different weight limits per rail, more on the one nearer the wall, less on the outer rail

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[Ridgeway]

It’s all down to the way the the rack has been installed and the construction of your rear wall. Those support plates could easily be replaced with much larger ones, just some simple spreader plates.

 

[Landy Andy]

The rack will handle the weight without a problem, but can the back wall of your van?

That to me is the concern. And it’s not just the static weight of the bikes, but the vibration, and then the occasional sudden load, such as speed bumps, or railway crossings. For me it was a NO so removed my rack. You could increase the internal wall plates to spread the load. Can you get to the top ones easily? Can you hide bigger spreader plates?

 

[Podney]

The rack will handle the weight without a problem, but can the back wall of your van?

That to me is the concern. And it’s not just the static weight of the bikes, but the vibration, and then the occasional sudden load, such as speed bumps, or railway crossings. For me it was a NO so removed my rack. You could increase the internal wall plates to spread the load. Can you get to the top ones easily? Can you hide bigger spreader plates?

Wot he said.

I know someone who wrecked the rear wall of their motorhome by putting too much weight on the rack. The rack was fine but the fixings pulled through the wall. If you can change the fixing plates that should work,otherwise fit one of the racks designed for the job.

 

[Mikeco]

I don’t believe that you have a problem, I had a similar rack fixed to the back of a caravan a few years ago and it carried 2 ebikes weighing 45 kg without any problem. That rack was only fixed with coach bolts into the wood supports built into the caravan rear wall.

 

[Gaston aires]

The rack will handle it but lifting the bikes up high on to it ? Heavy man.
We use a tow bar rack for ours..
Phil

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[Folkranger]

Tow bar rack is OK but adds extra weight. Here's what we used on last van. It's an electric lift rack.

 

[PP Bear]

Spreader plates as suggested above.

See post #5 from the thread below, they fitted spreader plates…

Electric bikes weight on Fiamma carrier

Hi am I worrying too much? We have a Fiamma 2 bike carrier on the rear of our coachbuilt Eton 2007. We've just purchased two ebikes that weigh 27kg each, I can take the battery packs off (3.5kg ea) reducing the total weight of two bikes to 47kg on the carrier. The Fiamma spec says max weight...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

 

[Two on Tour]

We have a bathroom across the back of our van, and I noticed that with our E-bikes on our bike rack the back wall of our van move away from the washbasin by a couple of mm, and of course this gap would be greater as we hit bumps and potholes in the road.
I fitted Fiamma mounting bars which spread the weight over a bigger area across the back of our van top and bottom rather than just the original 4 small points, and now we have no deflection in our back wall at all.
I also swapped over to the E-bike version of the Fiamma Carry-Bike Lift 77 which saves me lifting our bikes on at height.

Our E-bikes weigh 24kg each without the batteries.

 

[dazandandrea]

As already stated the biggest issue is not the rack its what its mounted to and how.
I would personally be cautious about loading any rack mounted to a van with a panel back unles i knew it had been mounted to alow it to take the load.
Going from your pictures i would want to use much bigger spreader plates on the inside of the van. Im no structural engineer but they look a bit small.

 

[Chris]

As already stated the biggest issue is not the rack its what its mounted to and how.
I would personally be cautious about loading any rack mounted to a van with a panel back unles i knew it had been mounted to alow it to take the load.

I agree.

About 10 years ago we were driving across Spain with our rack loaded with 2 adult bikes and 2 kids bikes and the rack started to come away from the rear wall. It was lucky that I noticed it. It was caused by an inadequate fixing by the dealer.

We had to continue the journey with the 4 bikes wedged inside the van which wasn’t great.

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[KatrinK]

Tow bar rack is OK but adds extra weight. Here's what we used on last van. It's an electric lift rack.View attachment 631705View attachment 631706

Oooh, we are looking at Juicy bikes as an option, as they are also lighter. How are you finding them?

 

[KatrinK]

Thank you everyone, we are off to SAP in a couple of weeks and I will have a chat with them to see if we can improve the spreader plates

 

[RandallC]

We’ve got a rear wall bike rack installed on our Itineo SB740 and want to get a couple of electric bikes.

The carrier states a maximum weight of 60kg, but I have in my head that when we bought the motorhome that the seller said not to put more than 35kg on it (the memory of that day is a little bit hazy as a lot of info was passed on, so I might be wrong).

Below are pictures of the set up (there is four bolts by the top bunk and four by the low bunk).

The bikes we are looking at are 24kg (with batteries, probably around 21kg without), giving us a total of ~42kg.

Has anyone got experience with a similar sort of set up? Is it too much?

We have cube Ebikes and can confirm there is no way we can lift them on to a wall mounted carrier (batteries in or not). Also consider been a few issues with loaded wall mounted carriere causing damaged to rear wall/side wall joints.

Our old Trek bikes are on sale and can't believe how light they are in comparison. But tis a choice.

 

[Tonks]

We have cube Ebikes and can confirm there is no way we can lift them on to a wall mounted carrier (batteries in or not). Also consider been a few issues with loaded wall mounted carriere causing damaged to rear wall/side wall joints.

Our old Trek bikes are on sale and can't believe how light they are in comparison. But tis a choice.

Yep, likewise. I find it heavy enough to lift my ebike into my van, never mind up onto a high mounted bike rack. There's no way I could do that, even with the battery off - especially as I now have tennis elbow. If I had a non-folding e-bike I'd have to have towbar mounted rack.
My non-e Dahon folder is FAR lighter, and so is my Trek hybrid. I can't bring myself to sell either the Dahon or the Trek, despite the fact that I've not ridden either of them for more than five minutes since the e-bike arrived. The Trek is still the most comfortable bike I've ever had in terms of riding. But I keep looking at Trek and Wisper e-bikes...

 

[RandallC]

Yep, likewise. I find it heavy enough to lift my ebike into my van, never mind up onto a high mounted bike rack. There's no way I could do that, even with the battery off - especially as I now have tennis elbow. If I had a non-folding e-bike I'd have to have towbar mounted rack.
My non-e Dahon folder is FAR lighter, and so is my Trek hybrid. I can't bring myself to sell either the Dahon or the Trek, despite the fact that I've not ridden either of them for more than five minutes since the e-bike arrived. The Trek is still the most comfortable bike I've ever had in terms of riding. But I keep looking at Trek and Wisper e-bikes...

Yep fitted a tow bar mounted rack to our 8096df (heavy Chassis) to avoid serius issues with lifting.
Have 2 Trek (non e) bikes for sale, make me an offer!

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[Folkranger]

Oooh, we are looking at Juicy bikes as an option, as they are also lighter. How are you finding them?

Our Juicy bikes were top notch bikes but heavy at about 23kg without the battery, although they now do some smaller and a bit lighter bikes. We changed to FuroX carbon fibre folding e-bikes which are only 15kg fully equiped including the battery because my wife was having difficulty due to the weight of the Juicy bike.