Thule 9403 fitting issue?

[sibot]

Hi,

Rcently bought a Thule 9403 for the purpose of carrying two bikes about on the towbar. Once assembled and fitted I noticed that it seems to sit with the rear higher than the front (so it's angled towards the back of the van). Is there a particular knack to fitting it to avoid this, is it normal, or do I have a defective clamp?

From trying things out without it fully clamped so that it sits horizontally it looks like i'd be able to fit a bike in the tray closest to the door without hitting the handlebar off the window, and as an added bonus i should be able to open the door with the rack fitted, so I'm hoping one of you helpful people already has an answer to this...

[Northern Bongolow]

did you make sure the tow ball was really cleaned and degreased, and the clamp.
if yes is the gap under the nearside light cluster and the bumper larger then on the driverside. the nearside towbar mounting is a fairly weak affair.

[sibot]

Yep, cleaned throughly with white spirit. Towbar itself is in a horizontal plane both left-right and fore-aft. Mounting appears totally sound on inspection, towbar has never been used since fitted when we bought the Bongo.

Looks to me like it's the clamp causing it to rise at the aft end, but not sure why or what to do about it (I'm fairly certain shimming the towball to make the combination horizontal is a bad idea ).

[dom_e]

We've got the 9503, which looks pretty similar. We find that it tilts a bit upwards, but not enough to cause a problem. We usually run two MTBs and a sprog bike. With wide bars, the MTBs just about fit on the outer two runners, but I usually wrap cloth around the bars (if carrying wide bar bikes) to stop them shattering the window when whooping over bumpy roads.

We also modified the rack to remove the tilt mechanism. This allows the boot to open with the rack on.

One option could be to fit a spacer between the ball and tow bar.

Dom

[sibot]

Thanks Dom. Yeah, it's not a huge problem, just that if it was flat it would be a bonus .

Removing the tilt mechanism, or just replacing the plastic winder-nuts with a normal nut, looks like it would work - tilted it fouls the door even more anyway. Spacer idea I thought of as well. I'm considering a towbar step, so that might push it out enough without any mods.

[The_Gordons]

We've been using a 9403 for two years now and it sits pretty much level. I find that the tailgate clears the plastic nuts for the tilt mechanism but only just. If you put a bike in the carrier next to the tailgate you may need to put something between the end of the handlebar and the window depending on the handlebar. I use on old rubber grip slin onto the end of the bar. If you are putting two bikes in adjacent carriers watch for frame rub. Some foam pipe insulation in areas that are rubbing will prevent paint damage.

Paul

[dom_e]

You can of course rotate the bars 90deg, but it's a bit more faff and I'm fussy over getting it correctly aligned again.

When modifying ours, we used strip alu under to brace under the two black round sections (one of which moves in relation to the other) and bolted it using the holes where the tilt mechanism fitted.

[sibot]

Thanks for the advice guys. Tried it out last weekend, with the bikes in the two furthest away positions, heaviest one closest to the van, and it worked fine. Found out I can actually get the door open far enough to turn the gas on and off without any modifications, as long as I don't need to see what i'm doing, so that was a bonus - probably just going to leave it unmodified for a while and see how we get on.

[tezzer22]

hi i had the same problem so i removed the flap that clamps onto the tow ball and ground a bit off of the lower edge of it so that the rack now sits flat . i also had to replace the plastic knobs with ordinary nuts so that i could open the tailgate

[briwy]

Are you sure it's fitting properly?
Had a similar problem when we got ours but on ours there is a big adjusting bolt going into the bit that fits over the ball.
Screwing this in and out alters the angle that it sits on the ball and ensures it is 100% secure.

[dom_e]

Re-visiting an old thread....Our 9503 rack is now starting to lift at the rear quite badly, so the bars are more prone to bashing the rear window. I can't see any method of adjusting the angle of lift.

Were the problems originally posted solved by anybody else?

There seems to be little reported in the way of issues with these racks online.

Cheers

[The_Gordons]

Can't say that I've noticed any lift on the 9403 and i've been using it for 5 years now.

Paul

[dom_e]

An update....

Not wanting to risk having a set of bars smashing the rear window, I was faced with two options: replace the rack (since replacing any of the clamp components would not have made a difference) or get radical. I chose the latter.

The rack was angled up at the back, so I filed and rubbed down areas of the two main tubes that support the bikes back to bare metal, then cut through the undersides, not quite all of the way through. I then cut out a notch representing the desired angle to modify the tilt, bent the rack to the corrected angle (horizontal to the floor) and took it to a friend at a garage to re-weld.

I'm now in the process of painting the modified area and hopefully, job's a good un. Total cost was £10 + the paint, which is a lot cheaper than a new rack. Now I just hope the welds hold!

I think the problem was caused by over tightening, which started to stretch the clamp mechanism metal work.

[Gixermark]

Just starting this thread up again :

Purchased the Thule 9503 ( 3 bike towbar rack ) for the Bongo, fitted it yesterday and guess what ..... the rear of the rack ( nearest to the lighting / numberplate ) lifts up making the angle 30-40 degrees instead of flat! Now can't fit a third bike, the position nearest to the Bongo rear door as the bike keeps hitting the window due to the angle! Tried everything re the connecting to the towball and tightening the screw etc but no matter what angle I place the carrier, when you screw the bit in to tighten on the tow ball, the rack lifts up to this stupid angle!

Not impressed with Thule! I have fired an email off to them but doubt I will hear owt back so can anyone help please?

[dom_e]

Firstly, I think my problem was caused by over tightening (standing on the wrench to tighten the rack, causing the mechanism metal to bow outwards slightly). Make sure the tow ball and clamp area is clean and grease free. If it's still a problem, my solution cost £10 from a friendly garage with a welder and a bit of time on my part. Make sure you don't cut out a wedge that's too large - the solution can't be undone easily!

Also note that I think you'd still struggle to get a wide-barred MTB on closest to the window. A road bike may fit though.