I was looking for a Bike and Ski rack for my Jeep that didn't require me to put on a trailer hitch. I wanted something that I could easily mount to my spare tire and take off when not in use. I considered both the Yakima and Thule options but didn't like the way it the ski carriers looked. After some research I came across the Fabbri Gringo Ski & Bici. Being made in Italy with no North American retailers I wasn't able to find many in depth pictures or reviews, so i thought I would write it up here.
The Gringo is a welded aluminum frame that sits on top of the spare tire and uses plastic covered cables to loop around the tire and cinch tight using their quick lever locking assembly. I have my spare tire very tight against my morryde but i was still able to snake the extension cables through. Once it was cinched, the frame sits very tight agains the tire.
Fabbri referred me to https://www.autoricambisanmauro.it and confirmed they would ship to Canada. The ski rack cost me 331.69€, the bike attachment was 137.25€ and shipping and VAT was a whopping 129€. All in this was close to $1000 CAD. The Yakima solution would have cost $710 - and so far the Fabbri looks and feels far better.
I ordered on January 27 and received the packages from DHL on February 1st. That is insanely fast seeing as it was shipped from Italy and went via Germany, Iceland and Cincinnati!
Here is the backside. The square tube extensions sit on top of the spare tire and the cables run down the back side.
Here is the cinching mechanism.
The cables included with the rack were not long enough for my 35" tire so I had to purchase their 40cm extensions and weave them together following their instructions.
The ski rack can hold four pairs of skis. The top door swings open and there are four plastic and rubber tensioners that hold them tight. On the bottom are simple bungee straps. I found once I had the skis in, they didn't move at all.
More to come as I still need to install the bike rack.
The Gringo is a welded aluminum frame that sits on top of the spare tire and uses plastic covered cables to loop around the tire and cinch tight using their quick lever locking assembly. I have my spare tire very tight against my morryde but i was still able to snake the extension cables through. Once it was cinched, the frame sits very tight agains the tire.
Fabbri referred me to https://www.autoricambisanmauro.it and confirmed they would ship to Canada. The ski rack cost me 331.69€, the bike attachment was 137.25€ and shipping and VAT was a whopping 129€. All in this was close to $1000 CAD. The Yakima solution would have cost $710 - and so far the Fabbri looks and feels far better.
I ordered on January 27 and received the packages from DHL on February 1st. That is insanely fast seeing as it was shipped from Italy and went via Germany, Iceland and Cincinnati!
Here is the backside. The square tube extensions sit on top of the spare tire and the cables run down the back side.
Here is the cinching mechanism.
The cables included with the rack were not long enough for my 35" tire so I had to purchase their 40cm extensions and weave them together following their instructions.
The ski rack can hold four pairs of skis. The top door swings open and there are four plastic and rubber tensioners that hold them tight. On the bottom are simple bungee straps. I found once I had the skis in, they didn't move at all.
More to come as I still need to install the bike rack.
