Date:         Thu, 9 Jul 1998 14:59:20 -0600
Reply-To:     Fred Porter <fporter@EYRING.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Fred Porter <fporter@EYRING.COM>
Organization: EYRING, Corp.
Subject:      vertical bike mounts on rear hatch???
Comments: To: vanagon@vanagon.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hi,
has anyone set up a bike carrying system on the rear hatch such that the
front wheels are taken off, the forks clamped to an upper rail and the
rear wheels tied down to a lower rail?  My goal is to get the bikes back
in the slipstream of the van. Plus its way easier to put the bikes on a
hatch mounted rack than putting them on top of the van.  It'd be
possible to carry 4 bikes plus front wheels back there.

I had a setup somewhat like this where the fork clamps were on a rail
that mounted to the very back portion of the rain gutters.  I fiddle
farted around and configured a gutterless Yakima Q mount to attach
another rail with the rear wheel trays to the middle of the hatch by
having the clips hook over the edges of the hatch.  Problem is, this
setup had the forks, handle bars and portions of the maintubes still up
in the freestream air causing drag.

Has anyone used Yakima's 'plus' nuts?  Plus nuts are expansion nuts that
allow one to blindly bolt a yak tower to sheet metal only accessed from
one side--can't imagine the load capacity is that high.

thanks,
fred porter