Carriers for the spare wheel, jerry cans and sand ladders

To make the most of the limited space inside the bus, I mounted various bits of kit on the outside. The tools I don't need very often went into the spare wheel well, packed watertight. That meant the spare wheel had to go somewhere else – and since a 15-inch wheel wouldn't have fitted in there anyway, I built a mount for it onto an original "Paulchen" bike rack.

For this I used the rack's original wheel clamps and fixed them at three points. The wheel mount itself is made of three square tubes and a metal plate, welded together. That way the wheel also rests on the rack at the bottom.

I also attached two diesel jerry cans (5 l and 20 l) to the rack, each held with home-made clamps.

On the side I mounted two sand ladders on airline rails. The rails are fixed above and below the window with rivet nuts and sealed with Sikaflex. The brackets holding the two sand boards are made from 3 mm flat steel. The plan was to also attach a shovel or a jack to this bracket (vwrack.com).

At first I wanted to build a rear carrier myself, like the one in the picture. Using the bike rack turned out to be easier, though, and it was definitely safe and strong enough.

The downside of this carrier is that the tailgate can only be held open with props. However, when I removed the hinges and the tailgate, they showed no damage – which is what many people in forums worry about. The system has worked for several tens of thousands of kilometres.