Fischer 18092 Dachlift Bicycle Carrier for 2 Bicycles

I was a little concerned about this product but it works well. I had thule aero bars on the car won't fit, square bars only. When you set the rack up do it on the floor as you have to position the retaining arms for the bikes individually and I found that very difficult on the car. Position the first bike then introduce the second and position the arms for that one, a lot easier on the floor away from your car. Have travelled a couple of hundred miles all good, fair bit of wind noise but I was expecting that.

In principle a bike carrier of this type is an excellent idea. After a few hours assembly I came to the view it has a number of shortcomings:I believe the bike rack is not suitable for all common roof racks, contrary to what is advertised. For example, if your roof bars are elliptical you are likely to have problem and may need to purchase new roof bars for your car.The bike carrier guide rail “clamps”, that secure to your roof bars, bow under tension with minimal torque applied. I cannot see this clamping system to be long lasting.The frame holders that secure your cycle to the carrier are not sufficiently versatile (for different types of cycle frames).When assembling the left and right guide rails, observe the max and mini width as described in the instructions. This width, also impacts the roof bars positioning on the car.Disappointingly, the paintwork only has a thin layer of paint and the carrier will rust.Frankly, I expected more from German engineering. Overall I doubt the durability of this product.

Very detailed assembly but works well. Managed to take 2 electric bikes on a weeks vacation but removed batteries and locks to reduce weight . Travelled Over 2000km in the car with multiple up and downs of the bikes. Saw some wear on one of the plastic grips over the bolts but think this was from over tightening on my behalf . Be advised this product will not work on anything wider than square roof bars in my experience i.e. about 40 mm.

We had searched for some way of taking our two bikes, when we also had caravan-not wanting to put on rear of caravan almost maximum permitted length, previously had put on ordinary roof bars but new car to high for us. We have now used it on outward and return trips and it met our requirements and was stable.We had printed off the instructions from the manufacturer prior to ordering to ensure that it would fit our Nissan X Trail.It took time and was fiddly to get the fixing correct, but with two of us not difficult.

There are no competitors at this price point, but be prepared for a lot of adjustment to get it working. When set up and aligned, it is great, safe and secure but you still have to lift the bikes a fair way in the air to reach the lowered carrier. The key thing to remember is that these come with no way to fix the distance between the carrier rails or the angle of the carrier rails when you take it off the car as these rails are separate from the carrier and need millimeter accuracy to work properly when in place. This means that every time you put them on the car, you will need huge amounts of alignment and testing unless you do what I did and add additional (cheap) parts yo maintain their distance and alignment with each other. You can adjust the width of the carrier itself, but as the fit between the carrier and the rails is , and needs to be , accurate so it will operate effectively and slide smoothly until locked, it is a massive headache making it work otherwise. Key points. First you need your roof rack or rails to be FLAT and in line. Most new cars have a sloping curved roof from front to back which also changes angle and width, but this means that if you fit square section bars, the top surfaces will not be in line or level and the roof bars clamp width will vary. I used small stripes of plastic to adjust the angle correctly. Secondly these bars do not work with many curved roof bars as they are too wide for the clamps to fit round and rounded bars lack the consistently flat tops needed for alignment. Third, as mentioned earlier, though the carrier is in one piece and the width is adjustable, the rails it slides into, and that bolts to your roof rack and is an essential part of it, do not. After many hours of fruitless adjustments I bought two cheap aluminum 1 meter metal rulers and carefully drilled holes so the carrier rail clamps that attach to your roof bars go through these first. These additional parts fix the distance of the carriers rails from each other and keep them in alignment. Why the manufacturer didn't just weld a couple of adjustable bars across these rails to fix the width in place seems to be down to making shipping cheaper. This means I now have something that can be put on the roof in minutes as effectively it makes the carrier and its rails, and my roofbars one fixed (and heavy) unit but takes up a lot of space to store. Without the addition of the drilled meter rulers, this would have gone back. The rails the wheels sit in really need to be thicker / sturdier and setting up the bike clamps the first time takes a lot of adjustment as well. The paint is some non stoved sprayed on stuff that is pinpointing with rust after three weeks so wipe it over regularly with light oil. We have two electric bikes on it which we take the batteries off first to reduce the weight. In use you don't notice the bikes are there and the two of us can load and unload the bikes working together in about ten minutes. Other points. The bolts for the bike clamps fit into a little plastic cylinder which falls off easily. Superglue the bolt head in! Wide or strange shaped saddles can catch, especially with my metre rulers added so I usually remove the lower bikes saddle. You also have to turn the handlebars sideways so they dont dent your roof! and we found having the bikes facing different directions really helped. It comes with a locking handle which is of moderate security. In the end I use a high quality lock to join the bikes to the carrier and roof rails as it stops it being slid open and would need very determined people to carry this very heavy assembly away. Also if you put the batteries for electric bikes in you car out of sight, the bikes become mostly unsellable second hand. If you buy extra little straps, you can use these to pull on your brakes and then lift the bikes far easier by the wheels themselves with the wheels now locked. If you remember all these points the carrier is worth it, but with a little extra thought , quality and design changes it could be an amazing product. If I had tried to put this on the car , from the box, on the day of our holiday, i would have given up quickly so make sure yo have plenty of time to learn how to set up and use it well before you actually need to use it!

Plastic lock handle snapped on first use .Cheap quality parts ( plastic to tighten a metal nut) it snapped & the handle lock no longer works, handle also does not work I can do it up with a spanner and thief's can undo it .Would love to return but amazon have only offered print at home and I don't have a printer so will have to bin it .

Seriously disappointing as there were nuts and washers missing from the supplied packaging so returning for a refund.

Have used this going to and from Wales, 300 miles each trip. We have done this every two weeks since purchase in March this year.It is stable,easy to lift two bikes one being a e bike.Less drag .Could do with a few tweaks but nothing major.and already mentioned the paint is not up to scratchI have it fitted to a Kia Sorento 2012.I would recommend this product.