Did a little searching and there's nothing coming up - I was wondering if anyone had considered adding a custom hitch to their car, and (preferably) made it removable for looks. Similar to this sort of thing.

Wasn't planning on doing any heavy duty trailering - just want a way to mount my platform style bike rack with two bikes.

 

Might work if you had a real bumper to connect it to, such as you might find on a pickup.

Maybe other series bumpers are more 'beefy' than Series 2, but I would drag that off my car at the first gutter/diveway with attendant damage to the bumper.
(';')

 

My S3 has a towbar fitted. It is by a very reputable brand in this country. Probably over kill for your purposes , but can post pics if you want.

 

Sure - let's see! If nothing else it may give me some ideas.

 

Basic set up




Bumper attachment




Body attachment under boot




Been debating with my self if I should take the whole thing off, but I have dreams that I may need a car trailer one day so I keep it. Took the opportunity while I was down there (!) to remove the tongue, just for my shins sake.

 

Thanks for the pics. Looks heavy duty! Way more than I'd need just to carry two bikes!

 

That would be the design, I would envisage. Is there a verical bar up to the "real bumper". or body member. .


If this picture were shown to a welder's shop I am sure they could make up a lighter version.


Carl

 

Found this. Looks like the assumption there is that the aluminum bumper beam is strong enough. Should be for a bike rack I'm thinking. Now how to make it removable...

 

Took me a while to get around to it but I finally got that hitch put together. The bumper on the Series III is beefy enough for my purposes (bike rack) - so all I needed was a way to securely mount a receiver out of the way and here's how I did it:

Started with a notch in the back of the bumper so I could recess the receiver a little:



Added some thick steel plate to mount the receiver.



The square tubing and channel have nuts welded in them so that there's something there to back up the mounting bolts:



Here's the bumper back together with everything bolted up:




View from under the bumper once it's on the car:



Now you see it:



Now you don't!

 

That is so cool. You need to have someone manufacture a kit for the rest of us that don't have your skills.

 

Not sure about the skills - I can grind when I mess up!