I have never had an issue lowering and raising a tilt down rack while it has bikes on it- just need to be aware of how much weight you are moving, and be careful. The advantage of the tilt down is the additional weight and complexity of a swing away (especially on our 2 smaller cars). But YMMV. I have a 4-bike Yakima on my Scion xB and my wife has a 2-bike Yakima lightweight (the mast is aluminum instead of steel) on her FIAT 500. I also have my old Thule roof rack on most of the time, and the Yak is for extra carrying capacity- I had 7 bikes on the car recently for a Boy Scout biking/camping trip to Nantucket.