New owner - what's up with the blooming bike rack...?

Had a 2018 Beach for a couple of weeks now and more than happy with the van. Had to use the bike rack on the 2nd day just for moving one bike and it was fine. Today tried 2 and was left wondering what I was doing wrong.
Coming from a car with a tow bar rack, I didn't expect it to be as easy, and I know my bike is quite large and my wife's is small, but I struggled getting them on. Is the adaptor for the 4th bike really supposed to be that small?
In the instructions in the Resources section, it says that it's 290mm? Measuring it similar to the other arms, I'd say that it was more like 150mm.

Is there a knack? I put the largest bike on first and the shortest 2 arms were pretty much useless. I think they'd be too short for my wife's too as her frame'll be lower.

Maelstrom said:

Had a 2018 Beach for a couple of weeks now and more than happy with the van. Had to use the bike rack on the 2nd day just for moving one bike and it was fine. Today tried 2 and was left wondering what I was doing wrong.
Coming from a car with a tow bar rack, I didn't expect it to be as easy, and I know my bike is quite large and my wife's is small, but I struggled getting them on. Is the adaptor for the 4th bike really supposed to be that small?
In the instructions in the Resources section, it says that it's 290mm? Measuring it similar to the other arms, I'd say that it was more like 150mm.

Is there a knack? I put the largest bike on first and the shortest 2 arms were pretty much useless. I think they'd be too short for my wife's too as her frame'll be lower.

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I don’t have this bike rack, but I think the 4th bike rack arm goes from bike 2 to bike 4!

I found the bike rack a bit of a pain at first, having to put them on and off and move the arms around to fit all 4 on. Once you find a way that works it gets much easier as the arms will be in the right place to start with. You then just have to remember which bike goes where and which way round.

A schematic plan view of our set up. Sometimes we use just the first and third clamp arms when carrying two bikes. Always with heaviest bike being bike 1. You could use clamp arm 2 with clamp arm 3 or even clamp arm 2 with clamp arm 4 as alternative solutions for a 2 bike set up. Hope this helps.
Edit: I should have said this is a T6 (T5 rack).

WelshGas said:

I don’t have this bike rack, but I think the 4th bike rack arm goes from bike 2 to bike 4!

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That might be for the Kylie bike rack. On the Quasimodo rack the forth arm clamps onto bikes 3 and 4.

After a few practices, and after getting the arms properly positioned loading and unloading bikes becomes a cinch.

Amarillo said:

That might be for the Kylie bike rack. On the Quasimodo rack the forth arm clamps onto bikes 3 and 4.

After a few practices, and after getting the arms properly positioned loading and unloading bikes becomes a cinch.

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For the avoidance of doubt my diagram represents the Kylie bike rack. The instructions state, "The fourth bicycle is secured to the second bicycle with the separate bicycle holder 3a."
That is "clamp arm 4" in my diagram.

Probably explains the OPs assertion that the 4th arm is 150mm vs the 290mm they quote from the instructions. The OP has a T6 ‘quaisimodo’ rack assuming it is the one shown in their first post. No way my 4th arm for that rack goes from bike 2 to bike 4. Compare apples with apples and all that....Of course a few phots would help. Not sure I understand the problem without them, 4 bikes on the the quasi rack go no problem, great bit of kit.

I had a similar issue with the older T5 style rack (and clamp was too small for the frame on our 4th bike); we got a longer spare arm in the end similar to below which made it far easier for our different bike types:

Thanks for all your replies. It definitely helped lubricating the arms before trying it again. Like a few things on our 3 year old Beach, I'm not sure the previous owners had used the rack much.

Playing around using the first two arms, and moving them horizontally a bit, I could get both bikes on in a couple of different ways, but both with parts of one bike rubbing on the other, and with one being a carbon frame I'll have to pad it out. I think in general I'll have to use arms 1 and 3 if it's just the 2 bikes and experiment again if I need to take my daughter's bike too. I know that I need to go to a triathlon with 3 bikes later in the year, but that won't include mine, so hopefully they'll be more similar sizes.

My best option so far (with both bikes facing the same way as I've got a single front fork and the height difference means the other handlebars fit under it) seemed to be...

I have the Quasimodo T6 rack. I find it easier to put the smaller bike on first, remembering to lift the arms up so that the arm for bike 2 is above the crossbar of bike 1. If carrying just 2 bikes, I put them in positions 1 and 3. If using positions 1 and 2, you can get clashes between the handle bars and saddle, depending on the bike. Using positions 1 and 3 avoids this clash.

The original owner had probably just used the rack for its intended purpose.... Drying towels.

I rotate the handle bars parallel to the bike frame when carrying more than two, takes no time and saves a world of grief.

Ch1pbutty said:

I had a similar issue with the older T5 style rack (and clamp was too small for the frame on our 4th bike); we got a longer spare arm in the end similar to below which made it far easier for our different bike types:

Thule 9382 BackSpace bike arm for 2 - bike VeloSpace XT

Thule 9382 BackSpace bike arm for 2 - bike VeloSpace XT

www.freewheel.co.uk

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Why not use the arm on the seat posts of the bikes. I did this and never had any issues. This was the older T5 rack.