Hitch mount racks: trays vs vertical carry.

[muted]

If you get a vertical carry, and plan to shuttle with more than a few bikes, i would suggest getting some kind of metal strap or cord to connect the top of the rack to the top of the car. I have seen a few vertical carry racks shear off because of the longish moment arm and ability to load them with more weight than a tray style rack. My $0.02

With a North Shore rack? the pin sheared?

[californiagrown]

With a North Shore rack? the pin sheared?

I saw apin shear, and one of the welds down there fail. I have also heard of people having problems with that area, but these are people running full shuttles 20 weekends/year so the racks see some wear for sure. I mean 240lbs of bikes bouncing up and down on logging roads is a lot of repetitive stress.

[muted]

Interesting. The 6 pack version I presume?

[mtngirl79]

Pretty sure thats why the recon racks are so over built

[XXX-er]

Who travels somewhere to ride a road bike?

bike touring the Pyrennes in France lots of people would ride their road bikes up the major cols of the TDF, it was a thing

at the top they put the bikes on the car racks instead of riding down ... now I thot that was a little strange

[californiagrown]

Interesting. The 6 pack version I presume?

Yeah, 6packs. Not likely to be a problem for the people driving paved roads to the trailhead with only a couple bikes on it- the large majority of users i would assume. Also, if you are gonna have a designated shuttle rig it should be damn truck so you can haul more people, animals and bikes to the top haha.

FWIW, i am pretty happy with my 3-pack Kuat tray rack, though it is getting awfully loose despite tightening it up repeatedly. I would trust a NSR or recon rack over it any day for a rough shuttle road, but i rarely shuttle with my 4runner.

[californiagrown]

Rough roads and Thule trays suck. They will get looser and looser, and the sheathes that wear out that create the play are not available to anyone to buy (supposedly not even at bike shops) and are not even on the rack diagram as existing. It's made to be thrown away.

Kuat sells parts for my rack. Probably gonna grab another adapter mount ofr $20 because my current one is rounding a bit. http://www.kuatonline.com/parts/hitc.../transfer-rack

[babybear]

I remember one of the SLC mags that welded/built his own version of the N Shore rack too. blanking on his name but dont think I've seen him post in a couple yrs
wish I would have taken a pic but it was a pretty dope bike rack

We never got pulled over for blocking the lic plate - and we were pretty profiled with a VW eurovan- but then again most of the time if we were traveling out of town we were usually only hanging 2 bikes and keeping the center clear

[XXX-er]

anybody with some welding and fab skills could make a northshore knockoff ^^

A local soccermom in her passat wagon flew under the radar for almost 5 years with the license plate covered, they didn't get her for the license plate until she got pulled over for no seat belt

[californiagrown]

I've almost positive my tray rack blocks my rear plate when up, and definitely does when down and loaded. I've never even thought about cops, and have never even heard of that being an issue. Am I just naive, or is this an issue in WA?

[TahoeBC]

I got pulled over once for my rack blocking the plate. If I remember right I had a taillight out also and was the primary reason for the pullover. Think it was really an excuse to do a sobriety check. just got warnings. Still running the same rack for 5 more years without issue

[toast2266]

I've had border patrol give me shit about my plate being blocked, but never been pulled over by the cops for it.

I had a slide in camper on my truck that made the plate pretty difficult to see. Border patrol told me I had to get an additional plate mounted on the camper. Went to the DMV and asked about it. DMV said they don't do that and border patrol can fuck off (I'm paraphrasing, but that was the gist of it).

[Name Redacted]

I got the Kuat swing out pivot extension this year and that thing is the shit! $300 but well worth it. So nice to be able to access the back of the truck more easily. Only complaint is that the $300 doesn't get you a mechanism like they have in the rack that tensions to prevent it moving around in the hitch.

There is a Rocky Mounts with the pivot built in which is pretty sweet. I already had a Kuat rack though.

PS I think 1up makes license plate mount for their racks for those worried about getting pulled over for blocking plates.

[ticketchecker]

^^I just got one of those yesterday, gonna be a game changer with my 1up on it.

[rod9301]

bike touring the Pyrennes in France lots of people would ride their road bikes up the major cols of the TDF, it was a thing

at the top they put the bikes on the car racks instead of riding down ... now I thot that was a little strange

A lot of people (not me!!!!) Think that as soon as you get to the top, the ride is over.

To give you an example, many years ago rode with some friends UP Stanford Rock and DOWN blackwood canyon

Stanford rock is a great downhill lots of steps, not so good going up
Blackwood is a fucking road.
Go figure. On the other hand, the guy that suggested the ride was also a road biker.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using TGR Forums mobile app

[zion zig zag]

I got the Kuat swing out pivot extension this year and that thing is the shit! $300 but well worth it. So nice to be able to access the back of the truck more easily. Only complaint is that the $300 doesn't get you a mechanism like they have in the rack that tensions to prevent it moving around in the hitch.

There is a Rocky Mounts with the pivot built in which is pretty sweet. I already had a Kuat rack though.

PS I think 1up makes license plate mount for their racks for those worried about getting pulled over for blocking plates.

I asked Kuat about the pivot yesterday. They said that they only recommend the original NV/Pivot combo with two bikes, but the new NV 2.0/pivot could be run with 4 bikes. The reasoning didn't quite make sense to me but there you go. So you are saying there is no way to tighten the pivot in the hitch to decrease shakiness? Seems like a deal breaker.

[jackstraw]

Noticing the tray from Thule doesn't hold the new 27.5 fatty bikes. That could be a pia for some.

[Name Redacted]

I asked Kuat about the pivot yesterday. They said that they only recommend the original NV/Pivot combo with two bikes, but the new NV 2.0/pivot could be run with 4 bikes. The reasoning didn't quite make sense to me but there you go. So you are saying there is no way to tighten the pivot in the hitch to decrease shakiness? Seems like a deal breaker.

I have the 2.0 and only carry 2 bikes. If I need to carry more it's over the tailgate, or a fork mount rack I built for the inside of the bed. I bought the extension but then changed my mind and returned it, just not necessary for our needs most of the time.

The bolt can be tightened in the hitch to reduce shifting, but it works its way loose. I could probably put a plastic shim in there or something and solve the problem. Really not that bad and not really much of an issue, even when 4 wheeling, but for the price, you'd think it would have the mechanism that the rack has. I'm assuming they'll come out with an integrated pivot next year.

[skivan]

I plan on getting bits from Loloracks.com and fabbing up a 5 or 6 bike rack on an older Yakima swing away base. Kind of a Homebrew north shore but w/ a swing away instead of a drop down. You can get individual pieces from lolo and they’ve been nice guys when we’ve corresponded. They’re in pdx

[RootSkier]

IWent to the DMV and asked about it. DMV said they don't do that and border patrol can fuck off (I'm paraphrasing, but that was the gist of it).

Make a color copy and laminate it?

[lifelinksplit]

I have a kuat on my truck that was nice till I backed into a tree(first weekend I had it and honeymoon haha) that still works fine for one bike and have a roof mounted rack for wifes 4runner(front runner rack with bike mount) that is solid enough for some semi-serious wheeling down in moab, but doesn't fly on certain tight fs roads here in montana. She also has a swing out rear so I think I'm gonna weld a hitch reciever up higher on swing out with a 1up for good departure angle and multiple bike capabilities.

[teledad]

I have two 1up racks, one tends to loosen up and slide out of the receiver unless really I crank it down (the other is fine). I once was driving down a dirt road and noticed my bike bouncing around more than usual, stopped to check it and it had loosened up enough that I could slide the rack out of the receiver by hand. Since them I'm careful with it and recheck the bolt periodically. Also I replaced the silly velcro strap with a metal cam strap with a breaking force of 2500 pounds or something. Other than that, it's a great rack.

[evasive_MT]

We were doing shuttle runs at Great Divide last fall and my friend’s Recon 5 dropped two bikes on the rough service roads. The bungie attachment is easy, but it stretches. One broke. We always strap both tires down with Titan Straps now. NSRs are more secure IMO.

[toast2266]

I got the Kuat swing out pivot extension this year and that thing is the shit! $300 but well worth it. So nice to be able to access the back of the truck more easily. Only complaint is that the $300 doesn't get you a mechanism like they have in the rack that tensions to prevent it moving around in the hitch.

I've been running a 4 bike nv 2.0 attached to the pivot, and yeah, that setup is awesome, especially for the camper rig.

And I'm planning on shimming mine to make it a little more stable, although it's not too bad without it. With 4 bikes, it gets a bit bouncy, but that's mostly just flex from the whole system.

[Peruvian]

You’re either on the bus...