spare wheels

Post by **syncroandy** » 29 Nov 2007, 20:50

> I had a "Paulchen" bike carrier once which hung from the top of the hatch. After a holiday with two bikes on Irish roads the hinges were knackered.

Jake went to Morocco and back with a fair bit more than that on a Paulchen rack. Seemed to work OK for him.

Post by **Pete Nice** » 29 Nov 2007, 20:52

How about a roof rack & ladder? Stick it up there out of the way!

Post by **peasant** » 29 Nov 2007, 21:05

syncroandy wrote:> I had a "Paulchen" bike carrier once which hung from the top of the hatch. After a holiday with two bikes on Irish roads the hinges were knackered.

Jake went to Morocco and back with a fair bit more than that on a Paulchen rack. Seemed to work OK for him.

Might have been one of those that had the lower support struts ...mine didn't

Post by **syncropete** » 29 Nov 2007, 23:15

I dont think so...... the whole wheel is held on by two welds

The picture of the crane is showing the rigidity of the inner strengthening brackets and hinge points. At last count there was four deeply veed welds on here. The fact I can hang a polystyrene gearbox off of a balsa wood crane surely proves some strength, but just to verify I am having the wedls x-rayed, acid dipped and peel tested and using logged aviation bolts.

Post by **syncropete** » 29 Nov 2007, 23:18

Sorry,
New to all this quote stuff.
Im sure you know what i mean.
Pete.

Post by **syncroand101** » 30 Nov 2007, 09:36

[img:600:800]http://image-storage.net/vw/roof_up.jpg[/img]

As Andy said, made it to the tip of the Sahara and back with the wheel (and sometimes two chairs and a MTBoard) mounted on the Paulchen. The "roads" weren't exactly smooth.

Post by **sonic23** » 07 Dec 2007, 11:19

Just received Pete's wheel carrier this morning and I must say it looks the part. It's extremely well made, and you can tell a lot of thought has gone into it. Quality fittings and nice spanky locking chrome handle.

First impressions tell me that it's been well worth the wait.....Now I'm looking forward to getting it fitted.

Rich

Post by **syncroandy** » 07 Dec 2007, 17:50

Yeah, having seen Petes inner reinforcing piece up close I'd say it's stronger than the VW one, as it secures in three places not just against the outside panel like the VW one. On several vans I've seen with the VW carrier, there's enough flex for it to crease the outer panel over time.

Post by **Russel** » 07 Dec 2007, 20:47

The inner reinforecments that Pete is using are actualy a smaller copy (one is) of the original VW one.The other VW one is a casting welded into place.
I have not come across a carrier that meashures up to the original one yet.

Post by **HarryMann** » 08 Dec 2007, 13:50

As with most things structural - time will tell. But knowing Pete he's put more than 5 minutes of thought into it... and probably more than 5 prototypes too!