Auxiliary tail Fitting
A new hardpoint at the rear is the idea of founder , Craig Broadbent.
“At Nissan I worked on many vehicle programmes including, Micra, Qashqai and Juke. I helped to develop the vehicle platforms saving weight and cost, and delivering solutions that have stood the test of time. Probably my biggest project was extending the 1st generation Qashqai to make the Qashqai +2.
“I first noticed the potential for a better solution to rear mounting when I designed a new rear crash beam for Juke . Later I became responsible for the design and development of towbars and their attachments, and this brought me face to face with cycle carriers.”
The current system fixes the cycle rack onto the towball. Effectively you are applying a big lever over a small area at the ball joint, so the forces involved get really high. In fact, it is not recommended to carry more than 60Kg in this way (TUV).
A towbar is really designed for pulling big loads, so it is heavy and costly. Our research shows that many people are buying towbars just to fit cycle carriers to them. This is clearly inefficient and we want to do something about that.
After many prototypes and rigorous testing at Millbrook proving ground, we have a new system. This is optimised to carry the cantilever loads off the back of vehicles. It is faster and safer than a towball mount, and it offers the potential for many new accessories.