PaulRivers

Hi,

I recently got a new car. My old bike rack, a Saris Bones 3, was the strap kind of didn't work well with the new body style.

I though "Finally! I'll get a hitch installed, and a hitch rack, and have a 'real' bike rack".

After some debate, I bought a Saris TRax Pro 4 bike hitch rack. Actually, the first one I ordered was the latest one with the screw-in pin, so I also bought one of the ones that doesn't require tools to take on and off as well.

On both of them, the rack itself is not completely solidly connected to the car - it bounces up and down. This was a huge suprise to me - my rack with straps didn't bounce up and down, why would a hitch rack? But it does.

If I put the rack on my car, put a bike on the outermost bike mount (which fyi is the only way you can actually use the "bike lock" that comes with the rack, with a single bike, so it's not like it wasn't designed to work that way) the bike bounces up and down every time I hit a bump - rather dramatically.

Does anyone know if there's a way to get a hitch-mounted bike rack that connects solidly to the car, and doesn't bounce up and down while you're driving down the road (especially when you got over bumps - at least not more than the car itself bounces).

PhotoJoe 

Assuming the shaking is due to loose tolerances between the bike rack insert and hitch tube, I would take your car to the local hitch shop/welder and have them drill the hitch then weld a nut to it. Then, thread the right size bolt through the nut until it presses against the bike rack inside the hitch tube. This will stop the shaking...and it's a cheap fix.

simonaway427

Go tighter on the pin that screws in.

My Yakima Holdup doesn't move at all.

midgetmaestro 

Correct. Torque that baby until your socket wrench breaks.

runner pat

I use those cargo straps with a ratchet mechanism in the middle. You will need somewhere on your vehicle to secure the hooks.

kudude

ratcheting tie-downs are a good idea

PaulRivers

Hmm...I wonder if I can do this without worrying about reducing the weight the rack can handle (since I would be drilling into it)...

PaulRivers

As I mentioned the second rack I have has a pin that screws in, and it still has some bounce to it. Mostly the pin seems to make the up/down motion slower, but doesn't eliminate it.

It's also a p.i.t.a. to take on and off the car then as I have to get out a wrench. I can try it again, but I tightened it down as far as it would go.

PaulRivers

The problem there is that then I won't be able to get into my trunk and more. Hmm. Maybe I should just return my rack and buy a trunk track that's made to fit my car.

slowandsteady

I have a cheapo Performance hitch rack that doesn't move either as long as everything it tightened. Do you have other parts of the rack that have bolts? Mine does, and they all need to be tightened, not just the ones on the hitch.

pjn0629

My parents car has a 1.25" hitch rack, it bounced but not that much. (THULE about 6 years oldish?) I have a roof rack on my car, fits 2 bikes, solid as a rock. Only downside is, even with no bikes on it, it does make my car feel a little topheavy through the turns, but thats mostly because I'm too cheap to buy sway bars.

Nachoman

I use a hitch mounted rack on two cars. On one of the cars, it's a bit bouncy. So I a shim.

PhotoJoe 

I had a custom hitch built onto a 95 Chevy Crew Cab dually that I used to pull BIG trailers with....ALOT. The shop did this as a standard feature of their hitches. I took so much noise out of the hitch and stopped ALL hitch movement. It worked REALLY well for me. YMMV.

simonaway427

Keep a wrench in your glove box. A big one, not some dinky adjustable wrench. The bigger and stronger it is, the more torque you can apply to the pin - and hence, the less your rack with bounce.

I use an air ratchet on mine - doesn't move an inch.

Scorer75

I've used products similar to these in the past with excellent results, totally eliminates bouncing.

https://www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Access...er/RM-061.html

https://www.hitchrider.com/bike-rack-application.htm

lpolliard

Get a bigger hitch...mine is 9 inches.

PaulRivers

That doesn't make any sense.

PaulRivers

But do you only put 1 or 2 bikes on yours?

PaulRivers

What exactly is that? And is it really wood - not waterproof?

PaulRivers

How would I find a shop like that? I live in Minneapolis MN, and here's it's mostly UHaul and such - I've asked around before, and it's hard to find anywhere that does any sort of custom welding, most place are just generic "bolt the hitch on" kind of places.

PaulRivers

I used a standard...uh...not sure what it's called, it's one of those "clicky"...socket wrenches? It's not tiny, though it's not huge.

I'm not sure it's possible to tighten it anymore than it is - it's already snug in there, as far as I could get it with the wrench. I'll give it a try and see if I can tighten it more, but the pin just screws into the hitch mount part itself, there's no screw on the other side, not sure there's any way to apply more pressure to it than I already have...

topflightpro

I find that on my wife's rack - a Yakima Hold Up - the bouncing isn't where the rack inserts into the 1 1/4 inch hitch mount. Rather, the rack moves at the hinge where the rack is designed to be able to fold up when not in use.

Nachoman

It's wood. And not water proof. I was on vacation at my parents house and the wobbly rack was bothering me so much I dug through my dad's garage looking for potential solutions and found these little wooden wedge shims.

merlinextraligh

Thanks. I just ordered the etrailer one.

merlinextraligh

I also don't think tightening down the bolts is necessarily going to solve your problem. My rack bolts into the reciever. However, due to some play between the size of the rack's tube, and the reciever hitch, the rack will still move up and down, pivoting on the bolts, even if it's cranked down very tightly.

So it's either Kegel exercises for the hitch, or one of those anti rattle deivces listed above.