What's people's experience with the M3, towbar bike carriers and bikes?

[fyonn]

I've got a MY22 model 3 LR which has the factory towbar fitted. I ordered the towbar because I had a 3 bike Thule towbar fitted bike carrier that I previously used with my old discovery 4 years ago before I sold it. However when I got the M3 I found that the nose weight on the towbar was distinctly less on the M3 (55kg) than on the disco (150kg) and it felt a bit wobbly. To be fair, hasn't actually fallen off yet, so over the years I've used it with our three bikes and while I've had one eye on the rear view mirror, it's been fine.

Now I have an eMTB though which weighs 25 kgs on its own. the carrier must weigh more than 15kgs which makes me feel like I can now only carry 1 bike and be within weight tolerance... the missus wants an eMTB too and now I'm wondering whether I can actually carry both, never mind my daughters normal MTB as well

so what's others experience of all this? I've got a little trailer (an erde 142) but that's not fitted for bikes, and if it was then I would worry that it would be top heavy and risk falling over. I don't think it's big enough anyway. I don't want another trailer just for bikes...

Am I over worrying? What are other people doing? or do you all keep an old van or pickup for these duties?

PS. overall I've the whole Tesla towbar experience very disappointing. it's bloody expensive, doesn't deploy electrically and makes me lie in the dirt to fit it, the socket points down meaning you risk cables dragging or catching, and the nose weight isn't really suitable for the one thing I bought it for...

 

[Burley]

I've carried two standard bikes with a Thule carrier on our M3 without issue. I think the 55kg nose weight is fairly standard on most saloon / hatchbacks, you've been a bit spoilt with the Disco's 150kg.. You tend to only get higher nose weights with bigger / SUV vehicles.

I've towed a trailer with ours too without any concerns. Can you reduce the weight of your bike by removing the battery, or is it integral? I'd be a bit wary of putting much more than 55kg nose weight on it, just from an insurance point of view.

Its a bit of a faff to fit, but only takes a minute or two. I don't think I've ever needed to lie down to fit it though, but I do put something down to kneel on.

 

[Watts_Up]

Beside weight, I am mostly concerned with the bouncing that I noticed.
So I always use additional strapes to keep my bikes tight.

 

[fyonn]

I've carried two standard bikes with a Thule carrier on our M3 without issue. I think the 55kg nose weight is fairly standard on most saloon / hatchbacks, you've been a bit spoilt with the Disco's 150kg.. You tend to only get higher nose weights with bigger / SUV vehicles.

I've towed a trailer with ours too without any concerns. Can you reduce the weight of your bike by removing the battery, or is it integral? I'd be a bit wary of putting much more than 55kg nose weight on it, just from an insurance point of view.

Its a bit of a faff to fit, but only takes a minute or two. I don't think I've ever needed to lie down to fit it though, but I do put something down to kneel on.

perhaps I was spoilt but I'd not realised that the nose weight was going to be an issue.

I can remove the battery on mine (though not remove the key when the battery is out) but the battery on my wife's proposed bike is integral.

how do you remove the plastic panel and insert the tow hook in the back of an m3 without lying down to see it all? I find it a huge pain in the arse, it all feels very much like an afterthought.

If a rivian had been available when I bought the m3 then I would have given that serious consideration

Beside weight, I am mostly concerned with the bouncing that I noticed.
So I always use additional strapes to keep my bikes tight.

View attachment 983628 View attachment 983629 View attachment 983630

yeah, it's the bouncing that concerns me really. makes me feel like it's not terribly secure and that putting extra weight on would be a problem... or maybe all towbar racks do that and I've just never noticed?

 

[MovingSouth]

We have the tow bar on our M3 and use an Atera Strada Sport 2-bike carrier (15kg). We carry a couple of light touring bikes (say 15 kg each with racks) so keep within the 55kg limit. No problems using them and just keep a small mat to kneel on to see what I'm doing.

Besides the weight limit, you also need to check the distance of the centre of gravity of the load from the tow bar head, as per the diagram in the M3 manual, which needs to be less than 225mm. We're within that, but it could be hard for a 3-bike carrier. I assume all of this is to ensure the weight on the front wheels is not reduced too much? Though you could put a bag of sand in the frunk to overcome this. Or is it simply the capability of the rear suspension (although that wouldn't be an issue with nothing in the boot)?

Overall, it works well for us and I've not found any issues with it not being secure or bouncing around. Certainly less of a fiddle that roof mounted racks, and not much impact on range.

 

[Burley]

how do you remove the plastic panel and insert the tow hook in the back of an m3 without lying down to see it all? I find it a huge pain in the arse, it all feels very much like an afterthought.

If a rivian had been available when I bought the m3 then I would have given that serious consideration

yeah, it's the bouncing that concerns me really. makes me feel like it's not terribly secure and that putting extra weight on would be a problem... or maybe all towbar racks do that and I've just never noticed?

As @MovingSouth says, just kneel and you can see what you're doing by bending down..

In terms of the bouncing, it does do it but there's no movement between carrier and tow ball. The advantage of the Tesla is that you can see the carrier in the rear camera whilst driving. Not sure the Disco offered that option - it may well have bounced just as much but you just couldn't see it. @Watts_Up solution is interesting, but I use a Thule carrier which drops away using a foot pedal so you can open the boot with the bikes on board; I don't think you could do that with those straps in place.

 

[Adopado]

Besides the weight limit, you also need to check the distance of the centre of gravity of the load from the tow bar head, as per the diagram in the M3 manual, which needs to be less than 225mm. We're within that, but it could be hard for a 3-bike carrier. I assume all of this is to ensure the weight on the front wheels is not reduced too much? Though you could put a bag of sand in the frunk to overcome this. Or is it simply the capability of the rear suspension (although that wouldn't be an issue with nothing in the boot)?

He he .. nothing to do with taking weight off the car's front wheels! It's the huge torque that is applied to the fitting by downward pressure ... pick up 55kg close to your body and then try holding the same weight at arms length (you won't be able to) ... then imagine bouncing that up and down. Aside from the swan neck there is the twisting force transferred to the structural member that is attached to. No doubt the figure does have to be given assuming that the car is fully loaded in other respects so the overall loading will be part of the calculation too.

These tow bar fitments (Wesfalia in this instance) are designed for saloon car styles with the structural member quite far away from the tow bar head (ball). This is no doubt so that you can have an invisible fitting and a normal bumper. Cars that are expected to have towing as a major feature of their design don't make as many compromises and tend to have a shorter distance between the ball and the structural member and don't have such a big curved fitment that avoids compromise to the rear design. They also have longer travel suspension.

Land Rover Discovery:

 

[MrBadger]

However when I got the M3 I found that the nose weight on the towbar was distinctly less on the M3 (55kg) than on the disco (150kg) and it felt a bit wobbly.

I’m pretty sure that nose weight is 100kg or so on model 3. What the 55kg relates to is balanced (non wheeled) accessory carriers such as bike rack which as @Adopado says is quite a different force. I suspect, accounting for a margin of safety, is that if you calculated the turning moment for a 55kg weight at the centre of gravity (225mm?) then it would come in pretty close to the nose weight.

 

[fyonn]

All this is making me feel that I don't have a good solution for how to transport 2 bikes (and maybe a normal bike) with my model 3...

Perhaps I was spoiled by the disco it was too tall for me to get into the work multi-storey carpark however so one way or another, it had to go...

 

[qwickshot]

Grab some roof bars and do one on each of you can get it up there.

Wouldn’t one fit in the boot with the seats down? You will have to take the front wheel off but most have a quick release these days.

 

[expat]

I would just get the roofbars and a sturdy bike carrier from Thule. The roof bars have a load limit of 68 kg, so it should be enough for two ebikes. I regularily carry four bikes on the car this way.
When I travel with two ebikes and two regular bikes, one of the ebikes has to go on the roof to stay within the limits.
With the whole family in the car as well, you need to watch the total weight limit of the car though.

 

[Cardo]

The roof bars can take 75kg, so you could get at least two bikes up there, if you can lift them that far! I have the roof bars for a roof box I carry and they’re quite easy to fit and remove for each trip.

 

[fyonn]

I've never used roof bars before, are they something that you fit once and then leave, or add and remove as need be? sounds like I might need to hit the gym to be able to lift 2 eMTB's onto the roof and get some small stepladders

are the bikes really steady up there? i.e. so I don't need to worry about them?

When I travel with two ebikes and two regular bikes, one of the ebikes has to go on the roof to stay within the limits.
With the whole family in the car as well, you need to watch the total weight limit of the car though.

hmm.. I don't think I've ever worried about the total weight limit of the car ever before in my 20+ year experience of owning cars... I don't even know what the total limit is...

 

[MrBadger]

I've never used roof bars before, are they something that you fit once and then leave, or add and remove as need be? sounds like I might need to hit the gym to be able to lift 2 eMTB's onto the roof and get some small stepladders

I put my 20kg touring ebike on roof rack of our previous estate a few times. When we got the Tesla, first option, 1.5k of tow bar and bike carrier.

I’m a pretty strong bloke and its not something you are even occasionally going to want to do at the end of a long bike ride. And that was with a 12 year old car with metal roof let alone a shiny new Tesla with glass roof. Absolutely non starter for anyone less able, or tired/injured - SWMBO not a chance (which was ok as she preferred to travel inside the car )

Once up there it was pretty secure though.

Carry battery inside the car, irrespective of roof rack or bike carrier option.

 

[fyonn]

I put my 20kg touring ebike on roof rack of our previous estate a few times. When we got the Tesla, first option, 1.5k of tow bar and bike carrier.

I’m a pretty strong bloke and its not something you are even occasionally going to want to do at the end of a long bike ride. And that was with a 12 year old car with metal roof let alone a shiny new Tesla with glass roof. Absolutely non starter for anyone less able, or tired/injured - SWMBO not a chance (which was ok as she preferred to travel inside the car )

Once up there it was pretty secure though.

Carry battery inside the car, irrespective of roof rack or bike carrier option.

well, if I want to move three bikes then I'm not going to have much choice I suppose. I think my existing rack with my wife's Ebike and my daughter's normal bike, and then my bike on the roof and I'll just have to have some little steps. Taking the battery out will help a bit, but with my bike, if I take out the battery then the key is stuck in there which is a shame. and my wife's Ebike, the battery isn't removable anyway...

Are the official Tesla roof bars the only choice or are there other, cheaper, better options? any recommendations on a roof bar bike rack that would suit an eMTB?

what's it like driving with a bike on the roof? I'm probably overly careful when the rack is on the back, what about something on the roof? can I drive it fairly normally (racing Tesla starts aside) or would I be driving Miss Daisy?

 

[fyonn]

actually, let me ask that question more formally, what roof bike mount would people recommend? I've been doing some looking and almost all of the bike racks I can see are rated for 18 or 20kgs. my Ebike is 26kgs.. even taking the battery out and it's still overweight...

I mean I supposed it's not too much over but I'd rather get something and be within spec if I can...

 

[expat]

I've never used roof bars before, are they something that you fit once and then leave, or add and remove as need be? sounds like I might need to hit the gym to be able to lift 2 eMTB's onto the roof and get some small stepladders

are the bikes really steady up there? i.e. so I don't need to worry about them?

I remove them when I'm not going to use them for a while, as there's a little bit of extra noise when driving fast. There's also a slight range penalty if you're going fast on the motorway.

With a proper high quality thule carrier of some sorts the bikes are steady and secure. Take off the batteries to lower the weight and consider using a carrier that requires you to remove the front wheel. A mountainbike wheel is probably nearly 2 kgs. The manual says to limit your speed to 120 km/h. That makes sense, as consumption is a lot higher with those racks. From the top of my head: 4 bikes on TM3LR with cruise controll @ 120 km/h is 290-320 wh/km. Just the rear rack with two bikes is around 230 wh/km compared to som 200 wh/km without anything stuck to the outside.

Roof racks on a Model 3 makes a lot of sense because the roof is so low. Normal bikes are easy to get on and off. But I do need help from my strong wife to lift a heavy e-bike up there.

hmm.. I don't think I've ever worried about the total weight limit of the car ever before in my 20+ year experience of owning cars... I don't even know what the total limit is...

The total weight limits on many electric cars are surprisingly low. On newer model 3's and early model y's you're not even going to be legally able to carry five adults and their luggage for instance. I don't know how the UK does this, but I suppose you risk fines and having to unload stuff until you're above the limit. Also, insurance is probably a bit tricky on an overloaded car. Here's a guy who got stopped by the police in his overloaded Ioniq 5, a car you would expect to have a decent loading capacity (in Norwegian): Calle kan bare ha barna som passasjerer

The limit on my Model3 seems artificially low, though. It handles just fine even when overloaded.. I wonder if it has something to do with how the WLTP range is calculated? Anyway, it can take some 300 kgs of passengers and luggage, which is just about enough for our family of four. But as the kids are growing older this limit will be a problem.

 

[Pandinium]

I have MY LR and I never actually checked - but it seems to be 72kg weight limit (the US owners manual has a tongue weight, not sure if this is different or not but that depends on size of tyre etc so suspect it’s not the same).

Is this 72kg of static weight or for example when the car bounces and weight of the bouncing has to be included ?

 

[fyonn]

The total weight limits on many electric cars are surprisingly low. On newer model 3's and early model y's you're not even going to be legally able to carry five adults and their luggage for instance.

that's insane.. if I'm reading the figures correctly, 2 average weight UK men (85kgs) and 3 average weight UK women (72kgs) would blow the weight limit alone, never mind luggage!

really starting to wish I'd been able to buy a Rivian when I bought this!

 

[Adopado]

The limit on my Model3 seems artificially low, though. It handles just fine even when overloaded.. I wonder if it has something to do with how the WLTP range is calculated? Anyway, it can take some 300 kgs of passengers and luggage, which is just about enough for our family of four. But as the kids are growing older this limit will be a problem.

433kg according to: