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Date:         Thu, 17 Jun 1999 21:47:21 -0700
Reply-To:     Brent Christensen <bpchristensen@MINDSPRING.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Brent Christensen <bpchristensen@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject:      New Paulchen Rack (long!)

Well,just wanted to post my impressions of the Paulchen rack I just got from Eurocampers.com. I figure that if there's anyone out there considering spending close to $600, they'd be interested in a long description...

First of all, Steve at Eurocampers really took great care of me, letting me know exactly when it would arrive from Germany, what the price would be, etc. I have nothing but good things to say about the service I received from him. If you are considering buying one of his products, in my opinion, you are in good hands.

Now, to the impressions of the new rack:

I ordered the Paulchen rack system with the "First Class" 2-bike carrier. $530 with shipping to California. (ouch) It came in one gigantic box Inside the big box was the rack (which Steve had carefully opened and re-wrapped with bubble wrap), a box with the bike carrier, and another box with all the hardware bits. Along with this were two sets of instruction sheets *all in German*.

After poring over the pictures and using the Alta Vista babel fish translator, I decided to jump in and install the thing. It is actually easier than it looks. There are four clamps that fit to the rear hatch of the Vanagon. There are sheets of thin rubber that fit under these clamps, and are held in by some rubber buttons that push through holes in the clamps. (This was not documented). I trimmed the rubber sheets a bit, the set the top ones over the rear hatch. The rack then "hangs" from these clamps, and is secured to the lower clamps with some carriage bolts and nifty solid brass thumbscrews. The thumbscrews are kept from turning out (and loose) by some pretty cheesy cotter pins that fit into holes in the tops of the thumb screws. One of these thumbscrews can be replaced with a locking mechanism (on order).

All in all, the rack itself took about 1/2 hour to dial in and get fitted properly. It is very lightweight, and has a nifty folding luggage rack (onto which the bike carrier mounts). The bike carrier was quite a bit trickier to get mounted correctly. There are a lot of adjustments, and I found myself tightening and loosening bolts while struggling to hold a bike in place in order to get the right fit. It probably took me about an hour or hour and a half to get it installed correctly. The "First Class" carrier is the one that has the U-shaped wheel holders that "trombone" out to fit the bike. The cheaper ones are more of a U-channel (like a Yakima). The bike sits in these trombone sections, and then is held in place by a pair of clamping arms that are mounted to two aluminum channels that are in turn mounted horizontally across the back of the rack. There is a short arm for the nearest bike, and a longer retractable arm for the outside bike. These were the trickiest part of the install. Once they are installed, you have to remember which bike goes on first, and which way it sits, 'cause if you don't have it on just right, the clamps won't mate up to the bike frame where you intended.

These clamps are probably the only disappointing thing about the racks. I have two mountain bikes - one has a normal sized CroMoly steel frame, and the other uses over-sized aluminum tubing for the frame. Finding a good place to clamp the steel bike was easy - the aluminum bike was a bit trickier, but still possible. If you have an exotic full-suspension bike, or weird monocoque-type frame design, you could be out of luck with this rack - it is definitely meant for more "standard" types of frames. Though it is infinitely adjustable in terms of position, the clamps themselves will only clamp up to a certain diameter.

Now, why was I disappointed with these clamps? Well, they don't actually "clamp" down on the frame very well. In fact, the hold is kind of loose and lazy. There is a retractable "piston" portion of the clamp, which looks like it was designed to push against the frame, but since it is not spring-loaded (it relies on an inadequate little plastic bit), it doesn't keep the bike from rattling. Since I travel over a lot of BUMPY dirt roads (what are Syncros for!) I will probably have to secure the bikes with bungee cords anyway. Now for the *additional* $250 I paid for this carrier, I would expect to not have to use bungee cords, but hey - it sure looks cools on the back of the Vanagon... :-)

If anyone that has stayed with me this far has any questions about the racks, let me know. I will probably post a follow-up to this one after my upcoming 2,500 mile trip to let everyone know how I feel about the rack after really using it.

Brent Christensen '89 Syncro Westy "Klaus" '95 Cherokee Sport


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