Bike carrier, Jayco Swan Touring 2008

Miss007 · Member

Bike carrier, Jayco Swan Touring 2008

Bicyclecamper · Guru

You will need to set up a 50mm tow hitch on the back of your van, it will need a professional to do it, but it will need to be solid and somehow attached back somehow to the van body itself to stop the inevitable swing that it the bike and rack will get. I have similar that attaches to the tow ball itself, screws straight onto the ball, but can't take my camper with it, and I wouldn't try. Would be better for you to have the bikes on a rack on top of the van itself. Have seen that many times before.

Eaglemax · Guru

The Jayco Swan 2008 has- ATM Weight: 1,485 KG total weight cannot be exceeded Ball Weight: 115 KG maximum down weight of hitch on towball Tare Weight: 1,185 KG empty weight Your Sante fe has only 100kg max allowed on its towball. Unless you get the 150kg towpack. Your bike rack weighs 18kg plus 2 bikes say 30kg means 50kg total. If loaded somewhere on your Swan that 50kg comes off your load allowance of 300kg. 250kg is not much for load, water? Food, clothing, gas... To get a professional to engineer a towball to mount it on the back will lower your towball weight. Not a bad thing as you won't be legal over 100kg anyway. This leads me to say that your towball weight needs to be under 101kg no matter what so balancing your internal items is crucial to achieve that but doable and you'll get used to that. Due to the finicky balancing carriage of the bikes on the A frame isn't feasible. A different rack on top of the lowered roof, located to suit your towball is another idea but you are still lowering your load weight allowance. My suggestion after all this is to add a roof type bike rack to the car. And weigh your camper before each trip to remain under 100kg ball weight that Hyundai stipulate. Tony

Miss007 · Member

Thanks guys! I will get a quote to have a tow bar and hitch added to the back of the swan. Damn I was hoping there was maybe a cheaper fix

Miss007 · Member

Thanks, Ill find out how much to add roof racks to the van. Do you think that would still work with bike carrier that I have? How do people get the bikes up there?

-- Edited by Miss007 on Wednesday 22nd of November 2023 07:30:38 PM

Miss007 · Member

Checked on my car and it says 150kg! Does that make a difference? Can I use the dual hitch idea now?

Eaglemax · Guru

Well that's a bonus. 159kg on your towbar will give you 18kg for the rack, say 32kg for two bikes and 100kg towball down weight of your camper. You'll need to hitch up your camper and go to a empty car park and do a u-turn. Keep the car turned and alight and check if any mounted bikes will hit your camper body or drawbar items. If not then the towball above towball type mount will be successful, legal and you'll still have maximum load in your camper Tony

Are We Lost · Guru

Miss007 wrote:
Thanks guys! I will get a quote to have a tow bar and hitch added to the back of the swan. Damn I was hoping there was maybe a cheaper fix

Towbar, hitch, bike rack and bikes on the back of the van? How much will that weight? For a small van that is going to have a substantial effect on the towball weight. And weight at the back is never a good idea ... although with quite a short van not so bad as with a long one.

Fortunately it seems from a later post you may have a solution at the front.

Miss007 · Member

We will load it all up and test it! Fingers crossed we can still do u turns!!! Really appreciate all the advice.

Eaglemax · Guru

It's a pleasure to supply ideas here to those not experienced. Adding weight to the rear of any camper or caravan is similar to a pendulum effect adding risk to sway, yaw. 50+ kg it too much to add. I hope it works out OK. Tony