Best 2012 Toyota Tacoma Bike Racks

Received the rack yesterday and it took all of 10 minutes to install in my '18 Tacoma this morning. Instructions were pretty thorough and should work great for our bikes (road and mountain). Quality mounts & skewers is a plus. Nice to have the option for locator pins in the side rail, too.

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The Swagman 2 bike carrier is fantastic. We installed it in our 2008 Toyota Tacoma which has a bedliner and rails. Installation was very quick and easy. The Swagman fits snuggly and securely into the rails. Also, etrailer.com has plenty of great information regarding the product on their website and shipping was prompt and free!

This seems very well made. My two suggestions are to made the unit lockable. Possibly a way to keep someone from taking from your vehicle. The other is to make the washer and lock washer slightly larger. They are small enough that they dig into the face piece a little. Otherwise very happy with the purchase.

These are excellent quality and fit well into the channel of my truck bed. The only drawback is my 2012 Tacoma TRD Double Cab has the short bed (5 ft) and the rear gripper bike rack is at the very end of the channel. The bikes just fit but this is due to the truck and not the Velo Gripper.

After setting up my new bike rack, I found that the "universal tow hitch adapter" that's used for bigger tow hitches such as my Toyota Tacoma didn't seem to compliment entirely. Attached pictures, you will see that the locking bolt and along with the cotter pin to secure the locking bolt onto the tow hitch doesn't quite reach through all the way across. Therefore, I wasn't able to insert the cotter pin through the locking bolt and couldn't safely secure my bike rack to the tow hitch of my Tacoma. I know the Toyota Tacoma is a very popular vehicle and I recommend all future orders be replaced with a much longer locking bolt (at least 1/2 inch longer) to accommodate truck owners like me. On the contrary, the bike rack does manage to fit onto my Mazda5 Minivan when utilizing the smaller tow hitch (without the universal tow hitch adapter for Class 3 Receiver). The bike rack is very versatile when loading bikes of various sizes and folds up to stow away very conveniently. Overall, great product!!

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Love my bike rack! Easy on easy off! Great product,

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This product was a little tricky to figure out at first, I have a 2018 Tacoma and I had to let the tailgate half way down to get the straps through. After I figured that out, it was easy to use and protected my tailgate. Great product! We've loaded three bikes on it at one time (26.5", 27", 29") and it worked great.

Just installed and fits well. Have not used it but tried putting bike on and fit well

The good: I like the way the bikes are held in and the ability to add the upright adapters to the bike frame holders. The straps are quality too. For a jeep with a spare tire, this is the perfect length to clear it. This rack is 5 stars from the bike holders to the base of it. The bad: the 2"receiver adapter and bolt are insufficient. I wish they made this in a solid 2" hitch. The entire setup is held into the receiver by a very short bolt. It only goes about half way into the receiver tube. So your hitch is only "secured" on one side. A hitch pin or bolt should go through the receiver tube completely imo so it can be secured on the other end with a retaining clip or nut. Because this only goes in the one side, the entire weight of the rack plus bikes are held tight to one side of the receiver by the undersized bolt and washer. A few bumps down the road and that bolt loosens. Now instead of distibuting the weight of the rack and bikes on the receiver and post, it's completely up to the bolt to keep you from losing the rack. The bolt threads get damaged too. I took this down a dirt road and nearly lost everything. I had to buy my own bolt with hd fender washers and lock washers to correct this. Thule should've provided this from the start. The current short bolt design where only one side of the receiver secures the rack is unacceptable. This rack is 1 star at best for the connection to the receiver.

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Hitch pin broke before I got it. Looks like a poor design for the locking pin, they might want to consider a different design. I got a 3/8 shear pin from Home Depot to replace and it works great. Bike rack is great!

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Looks like a good bike rack. I had to get a front receiver hitch and this bike rack so we could take our bikes when we tow our a-frame trailer. The bikes don’t block our view of the road much if the seats are removed.

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We are very excited with our new Swagman Tilt Bicycle rack! We are retired and looking forward in exploring new places with our bicycles. We are capable of doing that now with confidence and ease.

Quite pleased with nearly everything regarding this rack. Setup was super easy right out of the box, loved that I didn't need any tools. Bikes feel very secure and I haven't noticed any shifting or movement while driving around. My only complaint is that it's possible for someone to remove (or steal) the locking skewers when there's no bike attached just by unscrewing the endcap. Even if the handle is locked in place, just unscrew the endcap and you can remove the whole locking mechanism. So...works fantastic when there's a bike to be hauled, but makes me uncomfortable when I just park the truck and walk away. Works great, could just be a bit more secure.

Garbage. You have been warned.

I looked at so many products, but then saw these pull up on a truck beside me one day. I started with two and mounted them to the rails in my Tacoma truck bed. After continuous use hauling our bikes to and from triathlons, I bought a third! I can now fit three road bikes across the bed of my truck and still have rooms for gear below them. Thanks of the great product guys.

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Bike rack in Tacoma

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Works great! It would be nice is it came with the mounting hardware, however. eTrailer.com shipped the product immediately.

Have used the block head bike mounts by Yakima on trips of 800 to 1500 miles with no incident. Easy to mount the bikes and they have not released even on bumpy roads. Great product for my truck box and bikes are always in view. Easiest way I have found to transport our bikes

An extremely secured way of transporting my Cannondale mountain bikes. Well designed and very sturdy. Conveniently folds out of the way when not used and does not obstruct access to the truck bed and campershell on my Toyota Tacoma.

First platform style I've used. It is on a 2016 Toyota Tacoma. I can ALMOST put the tailgate flat, but goes 99% when tilted back to remove items from bed of truck. There is a lot of nice things about this product. The mast lays down and platform fold closer to your vehicle when not in use. It also tilts away from the vehicle to easier load the front bike. The tightening and locking pin is nice and the ratcheting hooks also lock. Was east to assemble. Galvanized hardware is also a nice touch too. Well worth it, I got it on sale anyway. It was a very long time to ship, got held up at the manufacture. Very happy with the Swagman brand!

Truly grooving on my wife's new Swagman Chinook bike rack. She wanted to be able to transport her nice road bike easily without throwing it in the back of her car, and since a roof rack is out of the question, this Swagman model fit the bill perfectly. It arrived quickly on the anticipated date. Kudos to etrailer.com for the email updates to keep me informed of my purchase. Within one hour, it was installed on my wife's 2014 Mazda3 hatchback. The Swagman is heavy and solid, which is reassuring as it makes me feel confident that it will keep the bikes secure. It also makes me feel like I got my money's worth. A ratchet wrench and Phillip's head screwdriver were the only tools required for the easy install. I did my research before purchasing the Chinook model as I was also eyeballing a very similar Thule rack that was slightly more expensive. I spoke with an etrailer.com expert who gave me the lowdown on both models. Ultimately, the Swagman won out because it has a smaller 'footprint' while extended or folded up ... and also can tilt away from the car for easy access to the hatchback area. Very convenient! FYI: Mazda doesn't make a trailer hitch for the Mazda3 as it's a small car with a small engine and has no business towing anything. Thankfully, the Curt company makes an aftermarket frame and trailer hitch that fits the Mazda3 hatchback perfectly with no drilling. Stupidly, I purchased it from another online company thinking I was getting a good deal. Turns out etrailer.com had it for less with FREE shipping. Oh well ... live and learn. Now I know that etrailer.com is one-stop shopping for bike racks AND trailer hitches. (Full disclosure: I had the garage down the street install the frame as it's easier with a lift) Only snafu: the shipment contained an extra set of keys that I assumed was for the hitch bolt lock (there was also a set of keys on the bolt itself). I spent 15 minutes using those keys trying to figure out how to remove the lock from the bolt to install it on the hitch. The keys just wouldn't turn in the lock. I called etrailer.com and Kevin told me to try the other set of keys ... and they worked. So an extra set of keys came with it that did absolutely nothing ... weird! Obviously, I can't speak to the longevity and durability of the Swagman Chinook 2 Bike Platform Rack as I just installed it. What I can speak to is the sturdiness of it, the ease of the installation and my complete satisfaction with the good folks at etrailer.com.

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This thing is built like a tank! It is of the best fit and funtion I have seen in a bike rack! Solid as can be, fits my bikes perfectly and looks awesome! Plus it folds completely out of the way to access the rear liftgate on my 2022 Rav4!

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Great service from etrailer and the rack arrived as expected. Fairly easy assembly. OK video on Kuat’s site, but didn’t cover the foot pedal. Really glad we got the 2” hitch. It tightened up and we’re impressed with the quality and the stability of the rack. We haven’t done a road test yet, but look forward to putting it to the test. We have a Ford F-150 and it works great. The bikes were fairly easy to load with the batteries out and two people. We do need the strap extenders for our RadMini Step Thru’s. The tires are too big for the ones that come with. Only one set of extenders came with the bike and one adapter for a smaller tire. It’s okay, but since it’s a two bike unit, would have been nice to have both extenders. Otherwise, we are really liking the look and stability.

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Kuat Beta is ideal 2" hitch, 2 bike rack. It is well made, relatively light, very sturdy, and installs in a minute. We recently drove for 2000 miles with our bikes on it. Very stable, no vibration. Minimal vibration only on very rough roads, as you would expect.

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Built extremely well , simple to use and reasonable cost compared to other brands. Very satisfied. Ed T

Overall I am happy with these bike carriers. They mount to the racks over the bed of my Tundra TRD Pro. Installation is simple. I think they could be just a bit sturdier because there is just a bit of wobbling when driving on bumpy roads but I'm not too worried about them coming dislodged. Take note that although they come with a cable lock to attach the bike to the carrier, the key is sold separately.

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Very good product. It holds the bike securely on the roof without contacting the frame. It is easy to adjust from my road bike to my 29er mountain bike. Our drives are all relatively short, so I like that I do not need to remove the front wheel to lock in the bike. It's also nice that the SKS locking system allows me to use the same key for this rack that I use for my Yakima roof box and hitch rack. This is my first roof rack and I chose this route for a couple reasons. Some of the roads we travel to get to our trail heads are a bit rough and with a roof rack I don't have to worry about bottoming out a hitch rack hanging off the back of the vehicle. Also, it takes up less room in the garage. Our vehicle is a 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee with an additional 4 inches of ground clearance. That makes it a bit of a reach for my 5'4" wife, so we take our two-step along to help her. This is my third time purchasing from etrailer, and each experience has been very good. They are a very customer service oriented company. I really appreciate all the additional information they provide on their products, especially all the videos they produce to aid in reviews, assembly, and use.

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Another great product from etrailer.

I was excited to recieve the Insta-Gater, however, when I tried it in my truck bed of my toyota tacoma it didn't fit with my bike frame, the bed of my truck was too small. Other than that I think the rack would have been fine. The only real compliant is I ordered two insta-gater truck bed racks and one box came wrapped nice but the other was completely damaged.

We just installed the bike rack this weekend for a trip down I95S. The assembly was easy, but I recommend you finish the assembly on the vehicle to make sure the crossbars correctly align with the rack. Someone also recommended you install the upright bar to make sure it faces to the outside of the car. This means you will have to switch the orientation for a passenger-side installation. It is a little more difficult to tighten the upright bar if it is located to the center of the car. Finally, though the clamps may seem narrow, you can fully remove the tightener knob to full pull apart the upright bars. We needed to do this to get my husband's bike to fit within the clamps. The installation was simple. It did require two people to put the bikes on top of a Tacoma Pick-up due to the height of the rack. The bikes were stable on the racks, and we noticed no issues while going down the road. Excellent product for the price.

Planning on bringing bikes while camping. I mounted 2 of the Swagman bike racks to my new Sportrack on my pop-up camper. The bikes fit perfectly. The racks seem sturdy enough. Not heavy duty, but for my needs they should be fine. Assembly was relatively fast and easy.

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After one year still love this product! Use it in a 2019 Tacoma Short bed with a leer cover. My bike fits perfectly and is stabilized during travel - so easy to take in and out. Also use the wheel holder which works well. When not using the Sari track its so simple to take out of truck and store.

Excellent product and well made. Looks great

I just received the 2-bike Rhino Rack for use with a 2016 Tacoma, It was easy to assemble and all the accessories for assembly were enclosed. I purchased this rack because it looked like it was very solid and well built. I think this is a very good bike rack. Please note that the Tacoma tail gate will open when the rack is angled down.

I purchased this bike rack a year ago and I use it A LOT. I had to buy and install a stabilizer because without it, the unit would sway back and forth even without a bike on it (very noisy). This makes removal more cumbersome but since I keep the hitch on year round it doesn't matter to me. The tilting function is fabulous allowing easy use of my RAV4 hatchback. I can even tilt it down with a bike on it. I got the 2 bike hitch. Plenty of room for two bikes to fit without rubbing. Lastly, the hitch has a sizable through-hole on the bottom to thread a good sized cable so I can lock my bike up. Sturdy. I highly recommend.