saris Freedom spare tire mount rack off road capability

[austintaco]

Has anyone tried this rack? I picked one up cheap, but it has not arrived yet to experiment with.

The yakima spare time is cool, but I would not put a carbon road bike on it and expect it to survive a bumpy road, not without 20 minutes of packing with pipe insulation, zip ties and bungee cord.

 

[libarata]

Have never heard of it. Glad to see something else made in Wisconsin, but I will ask folks back home(I am from WI) to see if they have heard of this.

 

[austintaco]

I managed to find a returned but functional one one for $50 plus shipping so I picked it up. I'll use it for the upcoming trip and then give a review of it.

 

[austintaco]

Here it is with a test load on the truck. I flipped the bracket that holds the rack to the truck. That gave me about another 2-3" of clearance in the back. It's made to move left or right for an off center tire, so that lined it up almost to the middle of the truck. You do have to do some test fitting to get the bikes on there correctly. I tried to the two bikes I want to take and after the third for fourth try, I found a way that the down tubes and tires all allowed for a snug fit.



I'm calling Saris tomorrow to get some advice from customer service on how tight I should or could tighten it up to my spare. In addition, if I ratchet strap the rack to the swing arm, I can take out all of the play in it, but I'm not sure if that's advised or not. As it is, they are pretty snug, and high enough off the ground. Full report later.

 

[austintaco]

Here's my quick review. For the money, this rack is worth it. I loaded up my wife's mountain bike and my cross bike and after I cinched down the bikes, they didn't budge. We hit some good pot holes and dips at speed, and the bikes were still tight in their straps. At the campsites and rough roads the bikes were fine, but I did not get to test them over any trails. I had removed the bikes prior to doing Imogene pass, but I left the rack on the tire, and it never hit.
The down side to this rack is that you have to adjust the bikes going on the rack to play nice with each other and make sure that the down tube strap lines up with a spot not being used by a bottle cage. After you get the alignment down, it takes about a minute to load up a bike.

 

[uglybaby]

Hate to dredge up an old thread, but...

Now that you have presumably been using this rack for a while, would you still recommend it? I bought a friend's custom hitch mounted Thule rack for my Rubicon- it swings and pivots out of the way so I can open the tail gate with bikes on it... But it probably weighs 60 pounds or more and I hate removing it and dragging it upstairs to my apartment (or leaving it attached while it rains/snows 5 days per week). This looks like a great - and much lighter - alternative, if it works as advertised.

What are your thoughts?

 

[austintaco]

I would still recommend it. Like my initial report states, to take out all "play" I use one more ratchet strap in addition to just cranking down the unit to the tire. The other issue is that you have to do a few test fits to get the bikes to line up. Once you figure out the best location, loading up is a cinch. We had two mtn bikes on the back on a trip to Big bend Ranch and we went deep into the interior of the park on the 4wd only trails and the bikes were fine. Search ebay and see if you can find a used or returned one if you are looking for a deal.

 

[capturecolorado]

That setup looks good, I've seen lots of Saris racks around town, and they've always appeared well made, I'd be more concerned with the strain the bikes put on the spindle for the carrier, but as long as that's good, I think a setup like yours is perfectly viable.

Most of all, it's really nice to see a company making a tire carrier rack that doesn't support bikes by the frame. It looks like they came out with an updated version now that can accommodate fatbikes with up to a 5" tire. If I end up building another spare tire carrier I'll almost certainly follow your lead with this setup!

 

[austintaco]

I can't remember the rating of the spindle, but its the beefiest one we could find in 2012 from 4x4 labs. I like my setup, but if I did it again, and I might, I would want to incorporate hitch carriers on to the swing arm to accessorize as needed. I think a cargo basket with fork mounts on it, would be very useful, or if I were just carrying bikes, I could use just a hitch mounted carrier of my choice.

 

[uglybaby]

Thanks for the update.

Good to hear that it is still functioning well for you. I am headed to Big Bend myself next month (State & Ntl parks) so it sounds like you have tested it for exactly my plan. Thanks for following up.

 

[Hayes]

Can anyone conclusively tell me if the mounting plate for this rack will fit the wider-spaced 100-series Land Cruiser bolt pattern? The manufacturer's website claims it does, and they'd be the first and only one of these style mounts I've found that fits. I want to be sure before I order one...