Thule Bike Rack for bakkie

[GroenHoender]

Out of curiousity, what would anyone recommend as ideal bike rack position when you drive a bakkie?

 

I already have a Thule bike-rack sitting on the spare wheel of my Toyota RAV4 (sparewheel on 5th door).

It is awesome and very convenient since it is part of the 5th door which means I can load the SUV with the bike hanging on the rack, out of my way.

 

The problem is that with the latest bike design, especially rear-shock under the top tube, and the narrower front end of triangle (near front fork / stem) means it is harder to load a MTB on the rack designed for hanging off the top end of bike frame.

 

My other vehicle is a Ford Ranger 2.2 bakkie, with standard towbar included. But I am not keen in putting a Thule rack on the towbar, even for the benefits of having bike(s) rest on their wheels on the bike rack because it is lower to the ground, easier to get dirty on gravel road, or get damaged by other vehicles rear-ending me (rare possibility), plus making the bakkie even longer in length (harder to park).

 

The other option is to have Thule racks sideways in the loading bay of bakkie. Same method of loading bikes in (rest/stand on wheels) but what if one wants to use the load bay of bakkie?

So, which do you use the most: towbar or loadbay rack?

[Long Wheel Base]

I have a navara and got thule roof racks and secured them to the top of my load bin(I have a armadillo fitted so had to drill through the armadillo and load bin) then the thule proride connected to the roof racks. bikes stand just a little bit higher than my roof so it's still high and need to be careful about low hanging things(but not as high as a normal car) but I have my whole load bin available and can take 4 bikes on top.

[Spoke101]

I have a G2 platform rack and love it. Can't do hanging bikes.

 

One option you can try is placing the front strap (closest to the front wheel of the bike) under the down tube right by the headset instead of trying to wedge it under the top tube.