Transporting my bike
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jdricks.
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July 8, 2016 at 11:57 am #1054979
huskerdont
Participant@creadinger 142748 wrote:
Hey guys. Thanks for all info in this thread but I still have a big question.
We just got a brand new Subaru Crosstrek (our first ever new car) and I want to get a hitch installed for a hitch bike rack.
Congrats on the Crosstrek. Love the car mostly. Mine is a 2015, and with Subarus of this engine type you do need to watch the oil even when the car is new. (They have a well-known problem with oil burning because of bad head gaskets. They recently settled a lawsuit, but still good to watch out for. Mine only burned half a quart in the first 3,000 miles, and it has been good since, but they can go down a few quarts easily and damage the engine.)
But I digress. I had my Crosstrek built to order so I could get a stick shift, and I had them do the hitch. It was a bit expensive but just added to the cost of the build it didn’t seem bad at the time. (Another $400 for $20k seems like nothing.) But now everyone here is making me feel bad. I change my own oil and do my own brakes etc. and it just never occurred to me that I could do the hitch myself.
ETA: I was just looking around online and there is some information out there that the Subaru head gasket problem may have been fixed for 2016. Of course, they’ve known about this forever and the dealer told me it had been fixed for 2015. Anyway, may or may not be an issue.
July 8, 2016 at 12:03 pm #1054980huskerdont
ParticipantBTW, here’s the hitch in use. The hitch I didn’t do myself.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]12075[/ATTACH]
On ze plus side, the rack itself cost $10 from a neighbor who was leaving the country.
July 8, 2016 at 12:38 pm #1054981FFX_Hinterlands
ParticipantI’m a fan of the platform-type hitch racks. We have step through bikes in our family and the hanging-by-the-crossbar doesn’t work very well. I got a 4-bike sportrack type on Craigslist for $120 I think. It’s like this one.
I wouldn’t want to lift all of our bikes up on the roof. The big issue is that we are a family of 5 so one bike still has to go in the back if we’re all riding. My folding bike comes in handy in that situation.
July 8, 2016 at 1:07 pm #1054986Crickey7
Participant@FFX_Hinterlands 142768 wrote:
We have step through bikes in our family and the hanging-by-the-crossbar doesn’t work very well.
This product works well for that problem. I have several.
http://www.performancebike.com/bikes/Product_10052_10551_1031464_-1_400019__400019July 8, 2016 at 1:15 pm #1054989mstone
ParticipantWe have Thule’s 5 bike rack. It’s heavy as sin, but there aren’t a lot of options in a four person world.
July 8, 2016 at 1:31 pm #1054991hozn
ParticipantYeah, in terms of racks themselves, I probably mentioned this in previous incarnation of this thread, but I’ve been enjoying the Kuat Sherpa rack (https://www.amazon.com/Kuat-1-25-Inch-2-Inch-Bike-Sherpa-Gunmetal/dp/B003ASV2ZQ/). My Raxter completely rusted through (one of the arms fell off!) after just a couple years (car parked on street pretty much 24/7), so I decided to pay the extra $$ to get a Kuat rack, made of aluminum. It’s doing great going on 2 years now. The only downside was I needed a hitch extension for it to clear my car bumper on the Volvo (but not on the Mazda5). Now I know to pay attention to that measurement/spec on the hitch and rack.
Tray racks have lots of upsides: no frame rub, no removing wheels, super quick to put the bike on/off, fold up neatly. Downsides: Minimum 24″ wheels (with adapter), fat-bike tires may not fit (?).
July 8, 2016 at 4:21 pm #1055012creadinger
Participant@huskerdont 142766 wrote:
ETA: I was just looking around online and there is some information out there that the Subaru head gasket problem may have been fixed for 2016. Of course, they’ve known about this forever and the dealer told me it had been fixed for 2015. Anyway, may or may not be an issue.
Thanks for the tip! I will keep an eye on it. I’ll get an extra quart of oil to carry just in case.
I don’t think you should feel bad about not doing it. I don’t really want to myself. Besides, we’re on a relatively short timeline as we’re heading out for vacation in a couple of weeks. I have to buy/install a hitch and buy/install the hitch rack, and get used to using it. I’m going go with platform rack as that seems what people recommend most.
July 8, 2016 at 4:42 pm #1055017huskerdont
Participant@creadinger 142801 wrote:
Thanks for the tip! I will keep an eye on it. I’ll get an extra quart of oil to carry just in case.
I don’t think you should feel bad about not doing it. I don’t really want to myself. Besides, we’re on a relatively short timeline as we’re heading out for vacation in a couple of weeks. I have to buy/install a hitch and buy/install the hitch rack, and get used to using it. I’m going go with platform rack as that seems what people recommend most.
Back to your original question of who to do it, a friend of mine had his done by a local body shop. I asked him who it was and they’re out of business now, but doubtless another body shop (with appropriate Yelp reviews )could beat the $460 that Subaru charges.
July 8, 2016 at 4:53 pm #1055019creadinger
ParticipantWell it looks like U-Haul is always an option. There’s a specific trailer place in Waldorf, and I’m waiting on a quote from Midas right now. Interestingly, the shop we usually go to (Curry’s on 4MR) doesn’t do hitch installation.
Yeah the problem with the dealer is they won’t put on a bolt-on hitch. They take off the back part of the frame and put a new one on with a hitch which means taking off the bumper and all that crap. So they won’t do the cheap option even if I told them I wasn’t going to tow any boats or trailers full of gravel or anything.
July 8, 2016 at 10:08 pm #1055048Lt. Dan
ParticipantI have a hitch rack and a roof rack on my Element. If for some reason I need to put a bike on the outside(usually carried inside standing up), my first choice is always the hitch rack. It’s just that much faster and more convenient.
July 9, 2016 at 7:00 pm #1055065mstone
Participant$450 is nothing, I think I was quoted over a thousand for our van. (I was like, “really”? They were like, “really”.) Local place put it on for a couple hundred including the part. How hard it is to do depends on the model. It’s a heck of a lot easier on a lift than trying to crawl under the vehicle in the driveway, and a heck of a lot easier with a helper to hold 40+ pounds of metal under said vehicle. And not all models come with pre-drilled holes… Anyway, if you can find a decent price it’s worth it to have someone do it.
July 9, 2016 at 7:07 pm #1055067mstone
Participant@hozn 142750 wrote:
It’s typically really easy to do. Apparently you don’t even need a drill (assuming this would fit on your car: http://www.etrailer.com/hitch-2015_Subaru_XV+Crosstrek.htm) — *And* that is a 2″ hitch, of which I’m a bit jealous (you could tow 4 bikes on there).
You don’t need a 2 inch inch to mount 4 (or 5) bikes, but you do need a class 2 or higher hitch. Classes 1 and 2 both have a 1.25 inch receiver, but the class 1 is rated to 200 pounds and the class 2 is typically rated to 300. The 2 inch receivers are either class 3 or 4, and are rated somewhere between 600 and 1400 pounds (overkill even for a rack full of cabis!) You want to be really sure of whether you’re class 1 or class 2 for a 4 or 5 bike mount, as 4x plus the weight of the rack itself is teetering on the edge of ripping a class 1 off the back of the vehicle. Some sources will talk about 2 inch hitches either because they meant class 2 or because they don’t want to deal with the distinction and know that a 2 inch is class 3 or 4 and perfectly safe for any bike rack without having to check.
July 9, 2016 at 7:10 pm #1055068hozn
Participant@mstone 142858 wrote:
You don’t need a 2 inch inch to mount 4 (or 5) bikes, but you do need a class 2 or higher hitch. Classes 1 and 2 both have a 1.25 inch receiver, but the class 1 is rated to 200 pounds and the class 2 is rated to 300. The 2 inch receivers are either class 3 or 4, and are rated somewhere between 600 and 1400 pounds (overkill even for a rack full of cabis!) You want to be really sure of whether you’re class 1 or class 2 for a 4 or 5 bike mount, as 4x plus the weight of the rack itself is teetering on the edge of ripping a class 1 off the back of the vehicle. Some sources will talk about 2 inch hitches either because they meant class 2 or because they don’t want to deal with the distinction and know that a 2 inch is class 3 or 4 and perfectly safe for any bike rack without having to check.
Yeah, I guess it is just more of a practical constraint. I didn’t find any 1.25″ tray hitch racks that fit more than 2 bikes when I was last in the market. Maybe I didn’t look hard enough, though.
July 9, 2016 at 8:07 pm #1055070AFHokie
Participant@mstone 142856 wrote:
$450 is nothing, I think I was quoted over a thousand for our van. (I was like, “really”? They were like, “really”.) Local place put it on for a couple hundred including the part. How hard it is to do depends on the model. It’s a heck of a lot easier on a lift than trying to crawl under the vehicle in the driveway, and a heck of a lot easier with a helper to hold 40+ pounds of metal under said vehicle. And not all models come with pre-drilled holes… Anyway, if you can find a decent price it’s worth it to have someone do it.
How old’s the van? Did that $1000+ include electrical wiring? If you have an older vehicle or a vehicle not normally used for towing it may not have had the connections already & they may have needed to tap into the wiring harness to install a towing connector. That still seems rather high. Did the local place that did it for a couple hundred install wiring as well?
July 9, 2016 at 9:14 pm #1055071mstone
Participant@AFHokie 142861 wrote:
How old’s the van? Did that $1000+ include electrical wiring? If you have an older vehicle or a vehicle not normally used for towing it may not have had the connections already & they may have needed to tap into the wiring harness to install a towing connector. That still seems rather high. Did the local place that did it for a couple hundred install wiring as well?
I asked about that, giving them the benefit of the doubt (trying to rationalize crazy?). Nope, just the hitch. I guess the way it works is, you only need to sell one!
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