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Fri Dec 04, 2020 8:44 am

Does anyone have any recommendations for ski racks? I have a '91 tintop and while I am planning on eventually investing in a yakima cross bar system, I need something that will fit my van to get me through the winter. The van will be perfect for drinks and lunch this season seeing as lodges are likely to be closed for social distancing...

Cheers!

Fri Dec 04, 2020 9:56 am

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7084332

Unfortunately many of the picture links are broken.

Fri Dec 04, 2020 11:08 am

Paulchen are still making rear racks that mount on the tailgate and compatible ski and snowboard clips.

Whether it's something you'd be able to get easily where you are is another matter.

Fri Dec 04, 2020 12:03 pm

floodwood wrote: I am planning on eventually investing in a yakima cross bar system, I need something that will fit my van to get me through the winter

Other than just carrying them inside (no $/you already have it) likely nothing as easy and inexpressive as finding a set of A1 Yakima towers to strap the skis to and then build your system from there since that is the direction you will go anyway.

Spending time and money on something else will likely just be wasted.

Fri Dec 04, 2020 1:09 pm

Alternatively, if you have already a hitch bike rack, you can use a

Yakima Hitch Ski (https://yakima.com/products/hitchski)

or a Thule Tram (https://www.thule.com/en-us/winter-and-water-sports-carriers/ski-racks/thule-tram-_-1678763)

to carry your skis on the outside (they attach to the bike rack using the bike straps).

I personally have a Thule Tram (you can find cheap used ones in Craigslist) and it works great (specially for tall vans where it's difficult to retrieve the skis when snowed out).

Fri Dec 04, 2020 2:59 pm

pnwkayaker wrote: Alternatively, if you have already a hitch bike rack, you can use a

Yakima Hitch Ski (https://yakima.com/products/hitchski)

or a Thule Tram (https://www.thule.com/en-us/winter-and-water-sports-carriers/ski-racks/thule-tram-_-1678763)

to carry your skis on the outside (they attach to the bike rack using the bike straps).

I personally have a Thule Tram (you can find cheap used ones in Craigslist) and it works great (specially for tall vans where it's difficult to retrieve the skis when snowed out).

I do have one of the older Thule bike racks for my hitch so this might be worth looking into... thank you

Fri Dec 04, 2020 6:23 pm

If you have ANY crossbars on the roof (or I suppose the hitch rack you have) this will work.

Buy 10 feet of surgical tubing (a yellowish clear stretchy rubber) and cut it into 1 foot lengths. Tie the skis to the crossbar and the stretchy tension and grippy rubber will hold them in place. I've been doing this for decades. I used to make a 1" loop in one end which allowed me to put the other end through it and pull to a nice stretch like a pulley. Used hog rings. However, they're UV susceptible and need replacing every couple years.

There's also a new product that I now use instead of these. Made by Nite Ize, you'll see these brightly colored grippy silicone covered copper core tie downs at sporting goods and hardware stores. I don't know if they have a name, but you can secure anything to anything with them and I've now been using these for a couple years. They're flexy, grippy and work great. If we're parking in a hotel overnight, I use one of those 6 foot long cable locks (The Anaconda?) to tightly wrap the skis such that you'd have to cut the cable to steal anything.

Sun Dec 27, 2020 5:11 pm

Our ski rack system is based on mounting to side rails on the NAHT roof rack but the design could be adapted and used on a rear ladder, swing away, etc in vertical orientation.

I welded small diameter steel rods to a piece of 1/8” flat steel, bolted it to the ski rack and plasti-dipped em. These rods provide a painless method for racking horizontal. I then bought longer bolts matching the Yakima ez attach wing nuts and re-used the round bar attachments. Presto: ski rack for the Vanagon.

Mon Dec 28, 2020 9:44 am

IdahoDoug wrote: If you have ANY crossbars on the roof (or I suppose the hitch rack you have) this will work.

Buy 10 feet of surgical tubing (a yellowish clear stretchy rubber) and cut it into 1 foot lengths. Tie the skis to the...

😳

Wow Doug, I applaud your frugality. I bet I could find a set of used Yakima ski attachments for your crossbars at any of the pawn shops or used sporting equipment stores near me for under $40.

Mon Dec 28, 2020 11:30 am

I have been using our van for ski lodge duty this winter as well. We have been stacking skis on the floor and it is getting pretty tight. If we (family for 4) take a trip with the dog and luggage (even just our ski bags), there is no space for the skis inside.

I too have been exploring various options for ski racks. Some points I considered:

-Did not want to put a rack on top of the van. Opposed drilling holes. Do not want any additional height for garage. Do not want any additional weight that needs to be lifted.

-Already have a hitch.

I have several old Yakima and Thule clamp racks as well as an old hitch mounted cradle type bike carrier. Considered fabricating something like a Yak Hitch Ski. But at my current project load and speed, it would be spring by the time I got around to finishing the project.

Browsing around on craigslist I find this used Bauer bike rack with ski attachment with swing out for $150. Drive 1.5 hours each way to purchase.

Mon Dec 28, 2020 10:27 pm

I mentioned earlier the Thule Tram ski rack as another option - like MrPulldown, I used to carry skis inside and was facing the same storage problems until I decided to find an external solution to use with the bike rack.

This first picture shows how we load the Thule Tram when going to the mountain (I believe you can have 3 pair of skis per side, we have 4 total plus the poles) - for perspective, we have RMW bumpers, the earlier version of the RMW tire carrier, and a Thule bike rack that clears the tire (rack doesn't swing, just folds up and down).

Second picture shows the rack from the back (the skis are positioned higher than the bumper, so there's no danger of them hitting the ground).

The last picture is the main reason I sing high praises to this rack (and my Syncro in general): you can see that I'm securing the skis very easily from the ground (don't have to climb to the roof with the ski boots plus nothing gets wet inside), my two boys can easily remove their ski boots sitting by the door (we have a plastic tote-box in the rear to hold the ski boots) and there's plenty of space in the van floor to have a couple of duffel bags with dry cloths and store the wet clothes too (not shown here is the hot chocolate and croissants/bagels cozily eaten afterwards inside the van)

What I truly don't like about this last picture is all the salt in my van - Washington State is now using salt on the roads during the winter to prevent the formation of ice, and that kills vans like ours (requiring me to thoroughly wash the van every day after skiing).

Tue Dec 29, 2020 8:30 am

I can't imagine carrying my skis open on a rack, all the salt and road grime in the bindings and edges… gives me nightmares.

We have a giant Thule box, it's awesome year round. Holds three pairs of wider skis (my wife has 108 under foot Icelantics) with AT bindings easily in the winter and holds our stinky wading boots and wet wading gear in the summer. It's a drag not being able to use parking garages easily but it's worth it, especially on longer road trips.

The only issue we've had was when we went skiing on our anniversary in Oregon. It was a ~2 week road trip and it rained the second half of the trip after we went skiing so we never got a change to dry things properly. I had some minor pitting on my edges at the end of the trip that mostly cleaned up with a gumistick.

Paul

Tue Dec 29, 2020 2:06 pm

pnwkayaker wrote: I mentioned earlier the Thule Tram ski rack as another option - like MrPulldown, I used to carry skis inside and was facing the same storage problems until I decided to find an external solution to use with the bike rack.

This first picture shows how we load the Thule Tram when going to the mountain (I believe you can have 3 pair of skis per side, we have 4 total plus the poles) - for perspective, we have RMW bumpers, the earlier version of the RMW tire carrier, and a Thule bike rack that clears the tire (rack doesn't swing, just folds up and down).

Second picture shows the rack from the back (the skis are positioned higher than the bumper, so there's no danger of them hitting the ground).

The last picture is the main reason I sing high praises to this rack (and my Syncro in general): you can see that I'm securing the skis very easily from the ground (don't have to climb to the roof with the ski boots plus nothing gets wet inside), my two boys can easily remove their ski boots sitting by the door (we have a plastic tote-box in the rear to hold the ski boots) and there's plenty of space in the van floor to have a couple of duffel bags with dry cloths and store the wet clothes too (not shown here is the hot chocolate and croissants/bagels cozily eaten afterwards inside the van)

What I truly don't like about this last picture is all the salt in my van - Washington State is now using salt on the roads during the winter to prevent the formation of ice, and that kills vans like ours (requiring me to thoroughly wash the van every day after skiing).

So nice of your kids to unboot outside. My 2 boys just jump right in tracking snow everywhere.

Washington state has probably always used salt. In fact DOTs all use salt everywhere it snows. People are surprised when I tell them that Caltrans (California DOT) uses salt on the roads. "NOOO". It is a false hood that CA doesn't use salt. It is just the fact that 99% of the population lives where it doesn't snow so most Ca cars are salt free. Come up here to the mountains and I'll show you some rusted out local rigs.

Sat Jan 02, 2021 5:42 am

How does that Thule Tram rack work - when you want to open the rear hatch?

Sat Jan 02, 2021 9:36 am

kguarnotta wrote: How does that Thule Tram rack work - when you want to open the rear hatch?

It doesn't depend so much on the Thule Tram rack but on the type of hitch bike rack that you have (fold-down or swing-away), plus if the skis are mounted on the rack or not.

My bike rack is a fold-down rack, and without the skis on I'm able to fold-down the rack (with the Thule Tram attached) to open the rear hatch. I haven't tried to fold-down the bike rack with the skis on, I believe it would be too heavy to bring it up again.

For our needs, when we go skiing we store our ski boots on a plastic tote on the rear, and bring the boots in over the bench (we don't open the rear hatch).

If you want to be able to open the rear hatch easily (with the skis on the rack), then a swing-away hitch bike rack is preferable (I believe most swing-away racks will work with the Thule Tram). MrPulldown has some pictures of his very nice setup on a Eurovan earlier on this thread (he uses a different rack/adapter but the concept is the same).

Mon Jan 04, 2021 3:11 pm

kguarnotta wrote: How does that Thule Tram rack work - when you want to open the rear hatch?
pnwkayaker wrote: kguarnotta wrote: How does that Thule Tram rack work - when you want to open the rear hatch?

It doesn't depend so much on the Thule Tram rack but on the type of hitch bike rack that you have (fold-down or swing-away), plus if the skis are mounted on the rack or not.

My bike rack is a fold-down rack, and without the skis on I'm able to fold-down the rack (with the Thule Tram attached) to open the rear hatch. I haven't tried to fold-down the bike rack with the skis on, I believe it would be too heavy to bring it up again.

For our needs, when we go skiing we store our ski boots on a plastic tote on the rear, and bring the boots in over the bench (we don't open the rear hatch).

If you want to be able to open the rear hatch easily (with the skis on the rack), then a swing-away hitch bike rack is preferable (I believe most swing-away racks will work with the Thule Tram). MrPulldown has some pictures of his very nice setup on a Eurovan earlier on this thread (he uses a different rack/adapter but the concept is the same).

You can also get a swing out adaptor that will fit any hitch mounted accessory. Yakima use to make one call the backswing. None of them are cheap though.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0266/3943/3776/p...1595296236

Mon Jan 04, 2021 3:18 pm

MrPulldown wrote: None of them are cheap though.

sadly seems like thats the case with all the hitch mounted gear from thule and yakima

ive been eyeing up one of these for ski duty... but tough to find too many reviews. most of whats on amazong generally seems positive though

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081G7JJB2/?coliid=I2BJCTFV817JAA&colid=1JN5WXO1RP38S

its kind of a one trick pony as it cant haul bikes, but its significantly cheaper than the combination from either of the usual suspects that would allow you to do the same.

Mon Jan 04, 2021 4:50 pm

The more I price this out - and think about it - I like the skis down low for easy access - but I already have a roof rack - maybe getting a box for the roof? Although I don't know how I'd get up there to get my skis down...part of the reason I've been trying to find an alternate way...

Tue Jan 16, 2024 12:14 pm

We, too are looking for a vertical ski rack option for the back of our Vanagon, that will attach to the GoWesty swing-away ladder we have as part of our rear bumper system.

We tried mounting Yakima ski racks to the bars, but find it's really difficult to get the racks to close over the skis, because at this angle, there is just no good leverage to pull or push the rack closed. Plus the skis slip out while you're trying to close it:

This rack by Tips UP looks like a simple, user friendly solution:

https://tipsupracks.com/product/tips-up-3-pack-for-owl-b2-or-ladder-mount/

But kinda pricy at $600. I do see some folks DIYing it, making a similar rack out of PVC pipe for about $175:

https://www.truckcampermagazine.com/camper-mods/contests/ladder-mounted-ski-rack/

I'd love to hear if anyone else out there has any other elegant solutions?

We did find a great system from Owl Vans to mount our 1-UP bike racks vertically on the GoWesty ladder and it works great! Looking for something this good for winter, too!

Jen

1989 Westie Vanagon

Tue Jan 16, 2024 1:14 pm

JenEye wrote:
We tried mounting Yakima ski racks to the bars, but find it's really difficult to get the racks to close over the skis, because at this angle, there is just no good leverage to pull or push the rack closed. Plus the skis slip out while you're trying to close it:

This rack by Tips UP looks like a simple, user friendly solution:

https://tipsupracks.com/product/tips-up-3-pack-for-owl-b2-or-ladder-mount/

I think if you lowered the yakima racks to lower rungs you'd have an easier time closing them.

You could also try putting wire rope loops on the lower rung/rack, that you slip around your heel piece to hold them in place when closing.

I have Thule racks mounted in almost the same way but on a Gary Lee ladder, and have found it to work very well. I ended up using a small section of aluminum angle to tie the two racks together as the lower one would twist when boards or skis were resting on it. This has solved the problem.

I also would think that Tips Up rack would scuff or damage your skis/bindings as they shake around in there going down the road.