I am looking at carrying a bike on the rear of the van. van is 18.5 ft and at the moment no trouble with the towing, never noticed any swaying, also use a WDH. The bike weights 15kg, is this enough to cause any swaying or any other difference to the towing of the van. How much weight can you add before it will make a difference.
Without knowing your setup and I assume you have two axles and you travel with water tanks full either side of axle and have a 10% tow ball weight ,15 kg would make no difference but make sure the bar has at least three or four bars or is solid or attached to rear of van into vans internal timber supports as there is a lot bouncing down that end of the van.You could possibly put up to 100 kg at rear of van without noticing any difference to the way it travels but without knowing your van and layout I could not recommend doing that.A good quality bike rack such as Thule is recommended not the ones which slip over the spare wheel dont even think about them its asking for trouble.My last van I tried all methods on the back and gave up after breaking welds and constantly cleaning bike as it cops all the dust and mud from behind van while travelling.
The two bikes now are on the front box out of harms way no bouncing and stay much cleaner but its a much more heavier duty van as well .
Cheers
watsea said
10:50 AM Feb 7, 2021
Our second hand van came with a Fiamma bicycle rack fitted to the van's back wall. The bicycle seems to have minimal effect to the stability, though the van is adequately loaded towards the front during travel.
My bike is a cheapy because it does get the weather and as mentioned earlier, lots of dust. Gears and sprockets, in particular, need a regular clean. Bike was acquired from a work colleague for a slab of stubbies.
wombat50 said
01:16 PM Feb 7, 2021
thank you all for the reply's. it is a duel axel. loaded weight is approx. 2.5t and tow ball weight is about 235kg. was looking at mounting a bracket on back bumper to fix a bike rack to. the previous owner has 2 jerry can holders mounted on it but i never use them.
Aus-Kiwi said
02:18 PM Feb 7, 2021
The bike will be lighter than Jerry cans .. Your caption ? By saying weight to rear ? Sounds like your adding a heap of weight . Plenty of vans out there have bike racks on the back . Some have them in covers also ? Honest anti theft device ? Lol
Greg 1 said
05:32 PM Feb 7, 2021
My van has a rack on the rear to secure some aluminium ramps for my wifes wheelchair access into the van and the spare wheel.
Since purchase I have added an additional set of ramps (23kgs) and a 10litre jerry can with no adverse effects on the van's stability.
My van has an ATM of 2980kgs and last weighed a ball weight of 308kgs.
So as I said, if the van is correctly designed and loaded, 15kgs is unlikely to have any affect at all.
Whenarewethere said
05:53 PM Feb 7, 2021
Under normal circumstances one will be ok.
But it is a bit like an aeroplane crash. There are often multiple issues, 3 or 4 & one will be ok, but the 5 issue & itsi too much & there is a problem.
The tow ball weight was a touch under weight to start with.
Add a bit more weight to the rear.
A strong cross wind.
A B-double passes.
The road surface undulates.
Tyre pressure a bit random.
A tyre blowout.
Some kangaroos appear from nowhere.
If too many ducks line up things are more likely to go wrong.
yobarr said
05:55 PM Feb 7, 2021
wombat50 wrote:
thank you all for the reply's. it is a duel axel. loaded weight is approx. 2.5t and tow ball weight is about 235kg. was looking at mounting a bracket on back bumper to fix a bike rack to. the previous owner has 2 jerry can holders mounted on it but i never use them.
Towball weight is a bit low,and 15kg hanging 3 metres behind your rear axis will make that low towball weight even lower.This may not be the straw that breaks the camels back,but every bit of weight at either extremity of the van will contribute to yaw.Again I will ask what your car is,as to safely tow a van with apparent ATM of 2500kg (?),your tow vehicle should have a GVM of at least 2500kg,and be loaded to that figure.Otherwise you will get the tail wagging the dog.There are so many variables that it is difficult to give a definitive answer to your question,but providing your vans ATM and your cars GVM will enable us to offer useful advice.Cheers
travelyounger said
08:15 PM Feb 11, 2021
wombat50 wrote:
I am looking at carrying a bike on the rear of the van. van is 18.5 ft and at the moment no trouble with the towing, never noticed any swaying, also use a WDH. The bike weights 15kg, is this enough to cause any swaying or any other difference to the towing of the van. How much weight can you add before it will make a difference.
If you Carried 2 x jerry cans on rear bar which equals 40 kg a 15 kg bikes would not be a problem
Cheers
Noelpolar said
11:53 PM Feb 12, 2021
Maybe the previous van owner.... who carried 2 jerry cans on the back.... towed with a F350.
yobarr said
04:04 AM Feb 13, 2021
travelyounger wrote:
wombat50 wrote:
I am looking at carrying a bike on the rear of the van. van is 18.5 ft and at the moment no trouble with the towing, never noticed any swaying, also use a WDH. The bike weights 15kg, is this enough to cause any swaying or any other difference to the towing of the van. How much weight can you add before it will make a difference.
If you Carried 2 x jerry cans on rear bar which equals 40 kg a 15 kg bikes would not be a problem
Cheers
Hi John....you seem to have looked at Ross's post,but not actually read it.When discussing the back bumper of his van,Ross wrote "....the previous owner has 2 jerry can holders mounted on it,but I never use them." Because these jerry can holders are never used,they are unlikely to have any effect on weights and dynamics. Cheers
montie said
07:50 AM Feb 13, 2021
Quite frankly if 15kg is "The straw that broke the camel's back" this combination is already in trouble.(-:
travelyounger said
08:08 AM Feb 13, 2021
yobarr wrote:
travelyounger wrote:
wombat50 wrote:
I am looking at carrying a bike on the rear of the van. van is 18.5 ft and at the moment no trouble with the towing, never noticed any swaying, also use a WDH. The bike weights 15kg, is this enough to cause any swaying or any other difference to the towing of the van. How much weight can you add before it will make a difference.
If you Carried 2 x jerry cans on rear bar which equals 40 kg a 15 kg bikes would not be a problem
Cheers
Hi John....you seem to have looked at Ross's post,but not actually read it.When discussing the back bumper of his van,Ross wrote "....the previous owner has 2 jerry can holders mounted on it,but I never use them." Because these jerry can holders are never used,they are unlikely to have any effect on weights and dynamics. Cheers
Hi Chris
I did read his post but i will make it a bit more simple for you to understand what I meant.Ross has two 20 litre jerry cans on rear bumper and when filled they would weigh 40 kg .
Now assuming that the van has travelled with them full at some stage it should be hunky dory.Ross now empties his jerry cans and reduced his weight 40 kg and then adds the weight of his bike which is 15 kg plus bike rack or brackets say 5 kg to be generous he is now 20 kg less in weight and should not effect the the vans handling at all .
I did mention in my first post about putting a good quality bike rack on if safety is of any concernas you know there is a lot of bouncing at the rear and you only find out when it too late by passing traffic.
Exactly
Without knowing your setup and I assume you have two axles and you travel with water tanks full either side of axle and have a 10% tow ball weight ,15 kg would make no difference but make sure the bar has at least three or four bars or is solid or attached to rear of van into vans internal timber supports as there is a lot bouncing down that end of the van.You could possibly put up to 100 kg at rear of van without noticing any difference to the way it travels but without knowing your van and layout I could not recommend doing that.A good quality bike rack such as Thule is recommended not the ones which slip over the spare wheel dont even think about them its asking for trouble.My last van I tried all methods on the back and gave up after breaking welds and constantly cleaning bike as it cops all the dust and mud from behind van while travelling.
The two bikes now are on the front box out of harms way no bouncing and stay much cleaner but its a much more heavier duty van as well .
Cheers
My bike is a cheapy because it does get the weather and as mentioned earlier, lots of dust. Gears and sprockets, in particular, need a regular clean. Bike was acquired from a work colleague for a slab of stubbies.
Under normal circumstances one will be ok.
But it is a bit like an aeroplane crash. There are often multiple issues, 3 or 4 & one will be ok, but the 5 issue & itsi too much & there is a problem.
The tow ball weight was a touch under weight to start with.
Add a bit more weight to the rear.
A strong cross wind.
A B-double passes.
The road surface undulates.
Tyre pressure a bit random.
A tyre blowout.
Some kangaroos appear from nowhere.
If too many ducks line up things are more likely to go wrong.
Towball weight is a bit low,and 15kg hanging 3 metres behind your rear axis will make that low towball weight even lower.This may not be the straw that breaks the camels back,but every bit of weight at either extremity of the van will contribute to yaw.Again I will ask what your car is,as to safely tow a van with apparent ATM of 2500kg (?),your tow vehicle should have a GVM of at least 2500kg,and be loaded to that figure.Otherwise you will get the tail wagging the dog.There are so many variables that it is difficult to give a definitive answer to your question,but providing your vans ATM and your cars GVM will enable us to offer useful advice.Cheers
If you Carried 2 x jerry cans on rear bar which equals 40 kg a 15 kg bikes would not be a problem
Cheers
Hi John....you seem to have looked at Ross's post,but not actually read it.When discussing the back bumper of his van,Ross wrote "....the previous owner has 2 jerry can holders mounted on it,but I never use them." Because these jerry can holders are never used,they are unlikely to have any effect on weights and dynamics. Cheers
Hi Chris
I did read his post but i will make it a bit more simple for you to understand what I meant.Ross has two 20 litre jerry cans on rear bumper and when filled they would weigh 40 kg .
Now assuming that the van has travelled with them full at some stage it should be hunky dory.Ross now empties his jerry cans and reduced his weight 40 kg and then adds the weight of his bike which is 15 kg plus bike rack or brackets say 5 kg to be generous he is now 20 kg less in weight and should not effect the the vans handling at all .
I did mention in my first post about putting a good quality bike rack on if safety is of any concernas you know there is a lot of bouncing at the rear and you only find out when it too late by passing traffic.
Cheers