Anyone use a hitch-mount bike rack?

[Andy]

I have used a Thule roof rack for about 5 years, and while I've never had a complaint about it, I need to find a more efficient way of shuttling my bike.

I have a 2002 Olds Alero sedan with 2 fork-mount trays and I also have the fairing for the rack. While I can still fully open my sunroof with the rack on, the noise that the rack generates is too much!

And now to make it worse, I bought a Marzocchi Z1 with the 20mm thru-axle. It came with an adapter to allow it to fit the quickrelease on my roof rack, but you still have to remove these 2 clips on the bottom of the fork. While I love the fork and the stiffness that the 20mm axle provides, it is a tremendous PITA! Plus I am always afraid of loosing one of the tiny bolts. I really don't like the bike trays that keep the front wheel on, plus I would like to get rid of the roof rack all-together.

I Have used the old trunk mount racks in the past, but found them to be a pain to install/remove, plus, they tend to mar the paint after repeated use.

So my question is; does anyone have any experience with the hitch assembly for passenger cars?(not the rack but the actual hitch) How do they attach to the car? bolt-on or welded to the under-carriage? How much should I expect to pay to buy one? can I install it on my car my self? are there any models that conceal themselves better than other?

Also, if I do get a hitch for my car, does anyone have a recommendation for which bike rack works best?

Any advice on this is greatly appreciated

[slowride]

I have experience with this...

I have a hitch on my Honda Civic. In general, they have to be bolted on to the car. You probably could do it, but I'd advise you to have a hitch place do it. I got mine for somewhere under $200 installed, and it only took 15 minutes or so.

Whether or not the hitch is super obvious or not depends on your car. I think all the brands are pretty much the same in this regard, especially with passenger cars... there's a limited amount of ways for them to attach a hitch, so brand variance is pretty small.

One limitation... they will only install a hitch appropriate to the rated towing limit of your car, which in my case was very little, meaning I got a 1.25 inch hitch, which limits you in the number of bikes you can carry. The largest capacity I found for the small receiver is 3 bikes.

However, my sister's 4Runner has a 2 inch receiver, and I recently bought her a 4 bike rack. I've seen up to 5 or 6 bike racks for the larger size receiver.

I would recommend either an Allen rack or a Yakima. I got my sister the SuperRoc, which has these little pully-type things that attach to the downtube while your bike is in the rack and keep them from swaying... very nice idea. The Allen racks are pretty inexpensive, and have decent features... the arms fold down, and the whole rack folds down for trunk access.

Some people on here have also recommended SportWorks or something like that. They make racks that are kinda like what you'd see on a bus... too expensive for me.

Oh yeah, I also bought a Yakima top-tube adapter for my Disco Monkey... it attaches to the seatpost and under the stem... worked great!

[Mike_Farris]

I had a Chevy S-10 pickup for about 6 years, and used a hitch-mount rack for it. Since the truck had a full-frame, the mounting of the hitch on it is different than mounting one on a unibody passenger car, but the procedure is the same.

Essentially, hitches bolt onto bits of the undercarriage. I would recommend that you go to a trailer shop in your area, or to U-Haul. They sell and install hitches, and they will run you about $150 installed (however, it may be more... YMMV).

For bikes, you don't need a beefy 2" hitch. The 2" hitches are mostly designed to pull very large trailers. A 1-1/4" will work for you just fine. I think it's called a Class-2 hitch in the US, but I could be wrong.

As for racks, I used a Performance XPort 3 bike carrier. Nice rack... has Kraton rubber cradles for the top tube of the bike, lockable to the hitch with an optional kit, and plastic separators with bungies to tie everything down.  

The only thing with a hitch rack is that you'll be CONSTANTLY looking in your rear view mirror to make sure that your bikes are still there instead of lying in a pile of debris on the highway... [smiley=laughing.gif]

Good luck!

[fevans]

Andy,

I have been using a hitch rack on my Grand Cherokee for a few years now.  Before that, I had a Yakima roof rack on a Mazda Navajo and aToyota MR2.  There are several disadvantages to a roof rack: noise, rack contacts your car, looks (can be good), fear of ripping your bike in half on overhangs, gas mileage, harder to remove, and probably more that I can't think of.  On the other hand there are very few for a hitch rack.  The only one that I can think of is fear of getting rear-ended with the bikes on the back or just the rack itself.   But believe me, my awareness of cars approaching from behind is much greater with my bikes on back.  So I don't really see this as a problem.



For getting the hitch mount installed, I would recommend going to either a U-Haul or a local RV service place.  You should be able to get one installed for $150-200.  A word of caution, I do believe that there are differences in brands concerning visibility of the mount.  I have a Draw-tite and the only thing you see on the back of my Jeep is basically the mount receptacle.  Everything else is hidden.  I've seen some of the other brands that are more visible and they don't look good, especially on a car where you don't want to see that stuff.  Also, you can get some interesting covers for the receptacle itself such as propellers and school symbols.  I have a basic black cover, but even that looks 100x better than an empty hole.



I have been using a Swagman fork mount rack for the last 3 years.  It is pretty good, but there are a few things that I don't like.  It doesn't fold up when not in use and I do have to take my front wheel off.  If I had a 20mm axle like you, it wouldn't work without some kind of adapter.  I am actually planning to sell my rack on ebay here very soon.  I found a new rack that I like that folds up and holds the bike by the wheels, so I don't have to remove the front wheel.  Also, it angles upward from the hitch so there is more clearance.  This isn't really a problem for me, but it might be for you with a lower vehicle.  I actually had a problem with this once when trying to back straight down an extremely steep driveway.  The rack that I'm going to get is from a company called 1upusa for $249.  Their website is at:

http://www.1upusa.com



They have a lifetime warranty. Also, you can expand for up to 4 bikes.  It also will fit on either a 1.25" or a 2" hitch with the right mounting kit.  I don't know of another hitch rack that will do this.  Another cool feature is the fact that you can offset the trays any amount that you want.  With my rack, they are offset but in some cases it's still not enough and I end up letting air out of a rear tire.  This probably wouldn't be a problem with any non-fork mount rack since the h-bars are higher with the wheel on.  I recently bought one of their trainers and it's very nice.



There are some other good brands out there:  Hollywood (Team Rider), Sportworks, Saris, Draftmaster.  But, I don't believe that they compare in features to the 1upusa.  Another thing to consider is cost of adding extra bike trays.  Most of the other brands charge as much as the cost of the original rack for the additional trays.  If you go to the 1upusa site, scroll to the bottom of the rack page and check out the info/comparisons.



http://www.1upusa.com/1upusarackhome.htm



Good luck!

Forrest

[jimbo]

Go to any U-Haul service center.  They should be able to hook you up with a hitch.  I bought mine for $100 from U-haul and bolted it on myself.  Some cars might have to be drilled though.



A couple friends of mine bought the Sportworks rack.  The kind you see on the bus.  It only takes a few seconds to load the bike.  If you intend to use really big tires, make sure you order the wide slotted one.  I'm going to get one of these too.





www.sportworks.com

[Phillip]

I've been using a Hollywood rack like the one below for several years. I prefer a fork mount because the bike remains very secure and no chance of rubbing the paint. This particular rack folds up when not in use which is also convenient.

http://www.hollywoodracks.com/2&3.htm#prorider2

[Matno]

Here's another vote for U-haul and Sportworks. Best racks on the planet, and the hitch mount is probably the most economical option out there. (Maybe not, but the cheapest I know of). My roommate had one installed on his Honda Accord about 4 years ago for $70 and they threw in a 2 bike rack for another $70 (which also converted to hold 4 pairs of skis. Wish I could remember the brand). I've also seen hitch mounts at junk yards for dirt cheap if you're not adverse to installing one yourself...

If you can afford the SportWorks racks, get them. You won't regret it. On other thing to think about is how much ground clearance your hitch AND rack will have. I've seen racks that were low enough (and stuck out the back far enough) that they scraped the ground on even minor things like speed bumps. NOT good...

[zulu]

  Another option is most auto parts stores carry universal hitchs that are fairly inexpensive and can be installed your self or there if they have the facility. My brother-in-law just put a 2" hitch on himself from Pep Boys it cost him only $75 (us) and he did it in his driveway it just bolted on. Good luck!  

[fevans]

A friend told me about Hidden Hitch.  Supposedly, they are only about $100 and can be installed without drilling in some cases.  Here's the link:

http://www.hiddenhitch.com/Home/

It doesn't look like they sell online, but I did see a hitch for your vehicle.

Forrest

[jimbo]

are there any models that conceal themselves better than other?



Any advice on this is greatly appreciated

My U-haul is barely visible.  However after having some idiots backing in to my bumper and putting some scratches on it, [smiley=furious.gif] I put on a tongue that sticks upwards.  Hopefully, this will serve as a mini bumper keep these guys who use the touch method from putting on any more scratches to my rear bumper.  Even without the tongue, my hitch is visible because I've decorated it with mtb stickers.

[Peter_K2_Bike]

U-Haul is definitely the easy route to go if you have a common car.  They had nothing to fit my GTI VR6.  The only hitches I could find online were all upwards of $350.  Someone tipped me off to Tork-Lift in Kent, WA (www.torklift.com) and my problems were solved.  They custom made a hitch for my car and installed it in under two hours.  If you're in the NW I'd definitely recommend these guys.  If you can get a 2" hitch it's better than 1.25"  just because of the tortional rigidity of the rack once you have it installed.  The amount of bikes you'll be able to carry will not increase, that depends on the tongue weight of the hitch.  For most passenger cars the tongue weight will be 200 lbs., which with the weight of the rack itself and a couple heavy DH or FR bikes will really still limit you to 2 or 3.  I have a couple friends with the same rack as mine in the 1.25" version and their racks are noticeably flexier in hard cornering.  That's another bonus of the hitch rack, you don't need to worry about the bike swaying back and forth around corners on your roof.  I got the 2" hitch and it was just over $200, the 1.25" hitch would have been about $50 less.

As for the rack itself, as Matno said if you can afford a Sportworks (www.sportworks.com) get it.  I have the Transport Series 2-bike rack with the Mad Phat (up to 3") tire hoops.  It's by far the nicest rack I've seen for bikes.  It loads in a few seconds.  The rack is similar in design to what you'd see on a bus, but their consumer models are much nicer overall.  Sportworks also offers many different hitch adapters in case of clearance issues with bumpers, spare tires, ground clearance, etc.

[kiwi]

Here in nz we do things a little more simply!!Most people have a "towbar" fitted and it is a permanent fixture with a tougue of steel sticking out from the back of the car with the ball bolted to it.deters touch parkers and prevents people from squeezing between touch parked card(my shins are cringing at the Thought)...more on topic i vote for a custom fit crowd too.I told the guy that the main use was for carrying mtbs and he made the toungue long enough to be able to open the boot(trunk for you statesiders!) with the rack and bikes on the car.

[Andy]

I remembered there was a site devoted to Olds Aleros, (They have a web site for everything!) there were a few people that recommended Hidden Hitch brand hitches (saw pics, and they really are hidden! ). They also do not require any drilling, since they use existing holes/bolts on the unibody frame. according to most, installation is less than a half hour!

So I look around on the web and found a place that sells 'em for $117 for my car, and offers free shipping! whipped out the card and it's on the way. The only kind that anyone makes for my car is a Class II with a 1.25" receiver. (seems most bike racks are 2") so I figure I need an adapter.

Then, I went to my LBS (where I do their tax work & barter my fee for "at cost" merchandise) and he has a 3 bike Hollywood Road Runner to fit a 1.25" receiver http://www.hollywoodracks.com/2&3.htm#hr300 and he says "they shipped this to me by mistake, so they are paying to have it shipped back, or you can have it for $100"

So I took off my Thule, washed & waxed my car and now I have that "I'm proud of my car again" feeling and I have been driving around with the sunroof wide open!  

I'll be installing the hitch as soon as it gets here (few days) and will let you know how the whole setup works.

Thanks again for everyones help!!! [smiley=beer.gif]