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L663

Member Since: 31 Jan 2023
Location: Aus
Posts: 5

Distance from 2" square hitch pin to the rear of spare

Hi,

I am still waiting on my Defender to arrive and I needed to buy bike carrier, but given their is a rear mounted spare wheel, the options are limited. I found a couple of options, a vertical and a platform mounted bike carrier but wanted to make sure there was enough clearance from the rear spare tyre. Can anyone in Australia with a factory mounted tow ball tell me what the distance is from the hitch pin to the backside of the rear tyre is (with or without a wheel cover should be ok)?

See images.

Thanks

Click image to enlarge

6th Mar 2023 4:30am

Moo

Member Since: 01 Oct 2021
Location: UK
Posts: 1331

MaxxRaxx does a rack for cars with rear tyres.

https://defenderupgrades.co.uk/product/lan...e-carrier/

6th Mar 2023 12:11pm

LR Nuts

Member Since: 10 Aug 2022
Location: UK
Posts: 1087

you may wish to read this thread ....

https://www.defender2.net/forum/topic81478...cycle+rack

6th Mar 2023 2:08pm

L663

Member Since: 31 Jan 2023
Location: Aus
Posts: 5

Thanks for the responses. I think the style of hitch for the tow ball is different in Australia compared the the UK. I have found manufactures that do sell extender bars to accomodate for the spare wheel but the caveat is that the further out you go the less weight you can put on the the back. So some manufactures only recommend 2 bikes on the rack when using an extender. I will be carrying up to 3 ebikes and so far the strongest racks are the vertical styles as all the weight is closer to the chassis. See the examples of the vertical racks. When I have contacted the manufactures they were asking for the distance from the pin in the hitch to the back of the rear wheel to compare to their bike rack specs.

Click image to enlarge

7th Mar 2023 10:19am

stevemfr

Member Since: 18 Sep 2022
Location: Strasbpurg
Posts: 137

If Egyptian civil engineers had been the guys who designed European/UK hitch accessories, the pyramids would have been built upside down - balancing on their little points.

I have no idea why American/Australian square hitch receivers never caught on in Europe. It just makes so much more sense.

I had the same problem of a heavy load after we bought eMTBs (30KG/each) and did some searching online. Luckily for me, in the early 2000's, Land Rover (rightfully!) decided the convoluted, messy designs for removable hitches were silly and overpriced compared to a simple square hitch receiver - and my TD6 L322 has this style hitch. And till the end of last summer the TD6 was our travel/off-road/camping vehicle. Unfortunately for me, I would have had to order a bike rack from the US or Oz to fit the hitch for $$$$. So originally I even used a stupid, European bike rack balanced precariously on top of the tow hook ball mounted in our wonderful hitch receiver

. I attached the bikes to the roof rack on both sides with straps as the swaying and wobbling of 60KG and close to €10k of eMTBs I was seeing in my mirror gave my heart palpitations. Especially off-road. But even that did not make the problem go away completely + the time to attach/unattach the bikes/rack every time we wanted to get at the back of the car was mind boggling

Not to mention the departure angle...
(ok, I'll climb down from my soapbox now, sorry. But actually I could go on and on...)

I ended up welding up my own rack which mounts the bicycles on a tube that angles up out of the receiver. Rock solid and the bikes are at almost hip-height so I don't have to be afraid of smacking them on the ground off-road. For the Defender I've purchased a swing away attachment to allow access to the back of the car.

But I was very impressed with this company. https://www.isi-carriers.com/index.html
If you check their modular carrier range, they seem to have a selection that should accommodate everything you need. And while I can't tell you exactly what the distance from the receiver to the back of the spare is yet (as I still have the utterly ridiculous, over-engineered, convoluted electrically deployable hitch), they might be able to help. Or give New Defender Mods a shout.

This video really says it all. A European balancing carrier would be dragging on the ground or gone altogether. &t=18s

RRC 2Dr, RRC 4Dr,
P38, and 2 L322s,
2 FL1s and a L663 on the way

7th Mar 2023 12:55pm

stevemfr

Member Since: 18 Sep 2022
Location: Strasbpurg
Posts: 137

Oh, and I will have an electrically deployable hitch for sale in the coming months, complete with all electrics...

RRC 2Dr, RRC 4Dr,
P38, and 2 L322s,
2 FL1s and a L663 on the way

7th Mar 2023 12:59pm

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