Originally Posted by
Thigh Master
{This is not intended to bash REI nor Thule. Just heads up}
It was time to replace our ancient, Yakima roof rack, so I went to REI who sold me on the Thule Apex 4 after the bike sales associate looked at my Forester OEM receiver and gave it her blessing. Using the quick install page the Thule was built and attached. We had many uneventful hauls with two to four road bikes… until I hit a hump in the road at 45 mph and the rack with our beloved road bikes tumbled behind us into pieces (luckily nobody behind us and we weren’t hauling friend’s bikes). Bikes and rack totaled.
I took the rack back to REI who said it was a rack failure so Thule was on the hook. Subsequently Thule said if I had bothered to Read The Manual I would have seen the warning regarding minimum hitch pin receiver depth for the safety locking pin to work properly (the pin engaged but the rack minimally inserts into the receiver). Thule would NOT cover our loss. They also said this is “well known” regarding the OEM Subaru receiver, and they Thule has been lobbying Subaru to redesign but they refuse. I replied that I followed the first page of the manual “quick assembly instructions” (I sent a screen shot) where there was no caveat of any kind. The warning they mentioned was present - deeper in the manual - in fine print.
They then agreed to cover the used value of our bikes ($5,000) once we shipped the broken bikes to them. They paid $400 to ship and included bike boxes so well made a small person could live in one. BUT they would not replace the rack because it wasn’t the rack that failed! Wow. Back to REI, who agreed to replace the rack purchase fully, and provide a rack of my choice with a big discount.
An REI bike technician overheard the discussion and said he was very familiar with this issue and that doing a little research I would have learned that the Subaru OEM receiver is lousy, and “everybody gets an aftermarket one.” Really? So thousands of Subarus in Colorado with bike racks and everyone but me was aware of this, while the Boulder REI manager and other staff were not? Nor could they recommend what would work with my “well known” receiver? So I called Kuat who said they were well aware of this problem, and that their hitch based racks worked well with the Subaru OEM receiver.
So the staff and I looked it over and it was true, and the Kuat has been excellent. Moral of my story, do more research and as always, RTFM!
So, did the pin come out or did the hitch or receiver fail? The pin is not structural - it's there to properly locate the hitch in the receiver and to ensure that the hitch doesn't subsequently slip out. It's the extent of hitch insertion into the receiver that governs tongue weight. You're going on about how little the hitch inserted into the receiver, but it sounds like the pin came out, so the failure wasn't a result of the extent of hitch insertion, but the pin coming out. Is that right?
FTR I've had an OEM receiver on my Outback for ~20 years - mainly for pulling trailers. It's a perfectly good receiver - the key is that (i) the hitch inserts almost a foot into the receiver, and (ii) the pin goes right through the receiver and locks on the other side. And there are safety chains in the (very unlikely) event that either the hitch or pin fails. It's our responsibility to ensure that things don't detach from our cars. I'm sure other road users are glad that you've learned a lesson (although you've managed to make everyone but you responsible) - RTFM and maybe go the extra to ensure security - a proper locking pin etc