Originally Posted by
itsmoot
...That said, my old (1995 or so) Graber hitch rack just took a couple bungees, a few bits of foam rubber and a couple extra minutes loading/unloading to prevent multiple bikes from swaying and hitting one another.
Yea, BTDT for probably 20 years. Same solutions as you. But still, over the years just got sick and tired of the half assed design -both the overall fussiness of getting the bikes on there safely and damage free and the fact that in spite of pretty vigilant care, over the years, the bikes got banged up. My god, with sloping top tube bikes, especially in small sizes, it's a severe PITA, sometimes nearly impossible even with the top tube adapters you can buy (another expense, a thing to keep track of when you need it). They are DESIGNED to allow the bikes to swing and clash into each other and the work arounds you mention are to counteract this DESIGN.
A "few minutes" (realistically 5- 10) are not trivial when you're trying to get your bikes packed up for a quick evening after work/school ride. Compared to literally 1 minute to load bikes on to a tray type.
The tray type are so much quicker and virtually fool proof not only for ol' experienced me, but especially for my wife and kids who don't have the experience with fussing with it and don't take the care that I do. They are just easy and trouble free.
Like someone said above, they fold up when not in use and therefore stick out less than the hanging type.
My awakening was when I traveled with my young family for 5 months by van in Europe with bikes. The Euros very commonly (virtually exclusively) used the tray type and it was so obviously superior that I bought one soon after returning.
It's just a big DUH: a piece of equipment that is designed to easily, quickly and securely carry bikes in a manner that guarantees they won't scratch each other up vs. a piece of equipment that is actually designed to carry bikes in a way that will damage them... if not prevented through time consuming, invented (in other words, not part of the design or normal operation) means which involve doo-dads (bungies, foam bits) that aren't actually part of the design, aren't supplied with the unit, and aren't part of the normal operating instructions.