Masterpiece Caravan

The stone guard bike rack question comes up with almost every off road van: the drawbar already carries a mesh guard, so where do the bikes go? On Mark’s Masterpiece caravan the answer is an Extreme Duty Two Bicycle Carrier on an AS Adjustable bolt on drawbar mount with a support post, configured to straddle the stone guard so both keep doing their jobs.

Straddle mounting positions the mount uprights either side of the guard, letting the carrier ride above the mesh without cutting, drilling or removing it. Stones stay off the van, the bikes stay out of the spray, and the drawbar keeps its load split roughly 70% to the tow ball and 30% to the axle. The adjustable mount means the geometry was dialled to this van’s drawbar rather than forced onto it.

Mark installed the system himself in an evening, and his note afterwards said the engineering blew him away and the fitment was perfect. That is what dimensioned-to-the-van hardware feels like out of the box. The 400mm beam Two Bike Carrier is rated to 64kg at up to 32kg per bike, each bike held by the frame in its own cradle.

Every system is manufactured in Mitcham, Victoria, as they have been since 2007, from Australian mild steel and stainless steel, zinc primed and finished in textured Dulux powder coat, and covered by a lifetime warranty. Stone guard, toolbox and gas bottle configurations are everyday work in our caravan bike racks range, with tow vehicle systems in the pre-configured vehicle carriers.