Thule Velospace XT-2

[Blasam]

Good evening all,

I recently picked up a Thule Velospace XT2 however my excitement was immediately squashed when I realised I can’t open my tailgate with the rack tilted. I leant on the rack a little to see if that’d help but no good.

I’m thinking of extending the retaining wire on the tilt mechanism, has anybody done this or would anybody recommend not doing it? I can’t see any issues with it as it doesn’t seem to be doing anything but restricting the tilt angle. I’ll add a couple of pics for reference.

Warranty isn’t an issue either as I picked it up second hand.

Thank you all!

 

[paddy26]

Maybe it's just the pic, but it looks like it needs to tilt a lot more before it clears the tailgate.
Could you remove the bolt from that check strap and see how much much extra it needs to tilt before clearing the tailgate.

 

[Blasam]

You’re right it’s quite a way. But there’s still a ton of clearance on the other side before the racks grounds out whilst tilting

 

[huxwar]

@Blasam take a look at this.

 

[Blasam]

Thank you for the video! I whipped off the retaining wires and the rack tipped until the handlebars touched the ground, leaving plenty of space for the tailgate to open.

Next job, new wire rope!

 

[Burner]

Hi all
I’ll just piggyback on this thread if you don’t mind.

I’m looking at buying a Thule 9383 box , with velospace xt2. Will it work with a tailgate?

Thanks

 

[Blasam]

I imagine you won’t have a problem with clearance in the driving position, as I can get my emtb on the closest slot to the van with my 800mm handlebars without fouling on the rear screen. However the tilt function won’t work without a modification. I’ve concluded I need to extend the wire retaining rope on the tilt to about 30cm eye to eye.

 

[Burner]

Does extending the wire to tilt more make the bike or box hit the floor before the tailgate can open? Or is there still clearance?

It does sound a good solution , if there’s enough space, but I do wonder if by how much the van suspension is set , lower/higher, might make a difference also.

 

[Blasam]

So my bike comes to rest on its bars on the ground with the rack tilted at 90, so I’m going to end the wire rope just before a 90 degree tilt so I don’t have rest my bike on the floor, the rack does have scope to tilt further though.

My van is lowered so that definitely contributes to the rack grounding as early as it does