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Hitch Mount 4 bike racks

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AlpsSkidad

AlpsSkidad

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^^^ brake light thing is intriguing to me as well.
 

nay

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It’s powder coated and my rack doesn’t have any internals - you just have 3 positions of lean set by a hitch pin from upright for storage on the truck, middle as you see in my pics, and additional lean if your truck for some reason has a clearance issue in the rear.

The rack is very stable with the bit of lean pressure and doesn’t rattle - it’s really a brilliant design because there isn’t anything to break or wear out over time.

I do have a 2 bike Kuat on the back of the 4Runner that I’ve left on that truck outside without issue, but between the 2 I’d be less concerned about the North Shore.
 
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nay

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Thanks for the info. I need it for 4 bikes. Would be hanging off of my Landrover LR4, so it should be plenty of vehicle for any of the discussed scenarios.

Yep, should be no issues. My Cruiser is about the size of a late model 4Runner and it keeps six bikes behind the truck. On the Sequoia it’s even better.

AA8CE77C-E3C7-48F5-8F41-E69C47F6A398.jpeg
 

princo

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That North Shore 4 bike vertical rack is just 50 lbs. That might be one of the lightest 4 bike racks out there. Weight is the main a reason most people leave their 4 bike tray racks on their cars. For example, when setup up for 4 bikes, the 1 Up is almost 100 lbs.
@AlpsSkidad - If you are concerned with the rack moving around, there are some devices called anti-rattle devices that help stabilize hitch mounted racks: https://www.etrailer.com/dept-pg-Hitch_Anti~Rattle.aspx
 

nay

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I have lifted trucks with heavy duty suspensions and I still buy bike racks based on weight - these beast racks that weigh a ton make no sense to me.

The North Shore 6 is only 67 lbs and by keeping the weight as tucked in to the truck as possible it minimizes the leverage arm. 4 bikes will approach 200 lbs, but you don’t really feel it - driving I forget the rack is back there.

My 2 bike Kuat is 37 lbs. Same logic on weight.
 

princo

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I have lifted trucks with heavy duty suspensions and I still buy bike racks based on weight - these beast racks that weigh a ton make no sense to me.

The North Shore 6 is only 67 lbs and by keeping the weight as tucked in to the truck as possible it minimizes the leverage arm. 4 bikes will approach 200 lbs, but you don’t really feel it - driving I forget the rack is back there.

My 2 bike Kuat is 37 lbs. Same logic on weight.

This brings a point that hasn't being brought up and that is the tongue weight limits on 2" inch receivers, usually around 500 lbs (check the car owners manual). So if you have 100 lbs of rack plus 200 lbs of bikes sticking very far out, your effective tongue weight could approach the limits.
 

nay

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The biggest problem I have with the 1Up racks is they are fugly. I wouldn’t leave one of those on my rig because they look like you cut up a ladder and left it on the back of your truck.
 

kimmyt

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The biggest problem I have with the 1Up racks is they are fugly. I wouldn’t leave one of those on my rig because they look like you cut up a ladder and left it on the back of your truck.

Ha I actually like the look of my 1up! (they do come in black though if you arent into the aluminum ladder look).

For that vertical rack, how would it do holding smaller frame bikes? Our family of four is now all on pedals, and while currently we can fit the kids bikes in the back of our outback, in the future we will need to put them behind the car if we go on a biking camping trip. The framers are currently too small to fit in our hitch mount frame rack and we only have a single bike 1up tray rack. Just brainstorming for future trips (I'm also considering some sort of gear hauler situation we can mount bikes on as a trailer for camping trips because our car isn't huge and we're running out of room when we go on multisport camping trips!)
 

nay

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^^^sorry for the unprovoked 1Up attack ogsmile

The bike has to be long enough to make contact with the lower bar, or you just need a way to secure it. Here’s some additional pics of how the North Shore works:

3CAAAB66-489C-4AFD-87C6-8981CD9B828D.jpeg
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6E9F74BB-5D71-4525-B228-7B5DDC5B8219.jpeg


When the lower cord is in place (it’s held securely by a knot you pull up onto the notch on the rack) you can’t move the bike at all. You could hang a smaller mountain bike from a fork perspective and it wouldn’t go anywhere, so you could bungee the back wheel to the rack and it should hold fine.

The key to this design is the rack will hold 4 or 6 bikes (depending on your model) with zero contact between bikes and they cannot move even over rough terrain to create contact. The challenge is you have to be tall enough to get the fork over the top of the rack while holding the lower fork, but once you get it down loading (always right to left) it’s super simple to load and unload.
 
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tball

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@nay looks like you have an extra tall garage door?

I wanted to check, as after some quick measurements it's not looking like I'll be able to fit our second-gen Sequoia with bikes on it in our garage at home or in the mountains. Yet another complexity to this messy rack business.

aa8ce77c-e3c7-48f5-8f41-e69c47f6a398-jpeg.105739
 

nay

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@nay looks like you have an extra tall garage door?

I wanted to check, as after some quick measurements it's not looking like I'll be able to fit our second-gen Sequoia with bikes on it in our garage at home or in the mountains. Yet another complexity to this messy rack business.

aa8ce77c-e3c7-48f5-8f41-e69c47f6a398-jpeg.105739

We had a section added to the door when we built the house due to my propensity to lift any truck I own. So it’s about 9’ thankfully.

I can’t close it due to length with bikes on a rack, though. The North Shore itself is below roofline.
 
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AlpsSkidad

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Found out today the North Shore 4 bike is sold out for a while...
 

Tom K.

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The Alta Rack option looks intriguing. Touches nothing on your bike other than the rubber of the tire.

This rack works pretty well, too, although front wheel removal is required!

Well, shoot, something is goofy with the pic of four bikes loaded up in the back of our sprinter, and it will not load into this site, but this one -- of a decidedly different sport, works fine.

IMG_4064.JPG
 
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tball

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Here's a review of my Thule Apex Swing 4:

IMG_20200710_145342.jpg


Good fun loading four bikes. :rolleyes:

The swing works nicely and it's held up fairly well over 8 years. I feel like I'm in the stone ages compared to the convenience of loading bikes on the newer rack designs. Given the other options available, I'm not sure why someone would go with a rack of this design these days.
 

Philpug

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Here's a review of my Thule Apex Swing 4:

View attachment 106013

Good fun loading four bikes. :rolleyes:

The swing works nicely and it's held up fairly well over 8 years. I feel like I'm in the stone ages compared to the convenience of loading bikes on the newer rack designs. Given the other options available, I'm not sure why someone would go with a rack of this design these days.
these for 4 bikes is like the old flat ski racks were for 6 skis, they both were designed for the gear a decade prior. The 4 bike hanging racks were designged for narrower handlebars and traditional triagle frames. With the advent of tray racks and the newer hanging ones like @nay's they are a design that's time has passed. In most cases, I cannot recommend then in good conscience to someone and whie I will let someone buy one, I will not sell them it.
 

Erik Timmerman

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My Kuat 4 bike is about 5 years old. Pretty much lives on the back of the car because it is so heavy. It's just not worth it to take it off and put it back on. It's been good, but I think I'd prefer OneUp. The staggered arrangement of the trays should mean less interference between bars and saddles. With the Kuat you need to put them on just so and sometimes some padding is needed. The Kuat has not weathered exceptionally well. One ratchet arm has stopped ratcheting which has rendered it a 3 bike rack, and all of the lock cores have frozen. The lock cables were always a little bit too short anyway.
 

nay

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My Kuat 4 bike is about 5 years old. Pretty much lives on the back of the car because it is so heavy. It's just not worth it to take it off and put it back on. It's been good, but I think I'd prefer OneUp. The staggered arrangement of the trays should mean less interference between bars and saddles. With the Kuat you need to put them on just so and sometimes some padding is needed. The Kuat has not weathered exceptionally well. One ratchet arm has stopped ratcheting which has rendered it a 3 bike rack, and all of the lock cores have frozen. The lock cables were always a little bit too short anyway.

I think Kuat fixed some of the earlier design issues in their 2.0 racks, although why are cable locks always short? There’s no interference between bikes at all at least on the 2 bike.

My son backed his truck into that rack and ruined a ratcheting arm - was $29 for a replacement and it took a hit from the side pretty well. This is at 2 years old.

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That’s under 100 lbs with the bikes.

Here’s the North Shore with 5 bikes after the enduro race this weekend.

57CB01E3-E5D5-4446-8650-18BB7DA695B0.jpeg
 

tball

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If anyone is thinking of an SUV to go with their hitch mount bike rack, think about a 4runner or Sequoia for the roll-down rear window.

It's such a nice little quality of life improvement being able to so easily access the cargo area without moving the rack/bikes. I believe those are the only two vehicles with rear glass that rolls down.

I'll also add that driving our Sequoia fully loaded for a weekend trip with four bikes on back is night and day better than my wife's MDX we used to use. The MDX didn't handle well with all that weight back there. I didn't even notice the weight with the Sequoia. We got away with the MDX for a long time, but a truck-based SUV makes a ton more sense with bikes on a hitch mount rack.

I saw a Tesla Model Y with a three bike Kuat and three passengers heading up I-70 over the weekend. It was riding low and clearly getting wagged by the tail around the corners.
 

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