This 5-bike rack is great for carrying bikes for the whole family. Tapered arms have wide spacing near the mast for carrying adult bikes and narrow spacing at the end of the rack for carrying kids' bikes. Tilts with bikes unloaded.
Features:
Specs:
Tapered, Dual Folding Arms with Anti-Sway Cradles
This Curt rack has dual arms that provide excellent support for your bikes. They slope up to provide ground clearance for steep driveways and bumpy roads. The tapered arms are great for carrying bikes for the whole family. The arms are 16" apart near the mast for carrying adult bikes. The spacing between the arms then narrows to 10" at the end of the rack, making it easier to carry kids' bikes.
To fold the arms down, remove the tethered pull pin at the top of the mast. This leaves a smaller footprint, so you can keep the rack on your vehicle to park in your garage. And when stored in this configuration, it doesn't take up as much space in your garage.
Anti-sway cradles with rubber straps hold your bikes firmly in place. Each set of cradles has two straps that secure your bike along the top tube and one that secures the seat post or downtube. This multi-point contact helps keep your bikes from rocking back and forth, reducing bike-to-bike contact. The soft rubber cradles rotate around the rack's arms to accommodate bikes of different styles and shapes. They also have raised ridges that prevent your brake and shifter cables from getting pinched.
Tilts for Cargo Area Access
The rack tilts down without your bikes loaded. This means you won't have to remove the whole rack to access your cargo area for grocery runs and other errands.
To tilt the rack, remove the tethered pull pin at the base of the rack, lift the spring-loaded, T-shaped handle and lower the mast. When you're ready to go, raise the mast back up until the T-shaped handle snaps back into place, and re-insert the pull pin.
A threaded hitch pin is included to help eliminate rattle in the hitch receiver during transport. To tighten the pin in your hitch, use the included 3/4" wrench, or a 3/4" socket wrench (sold separately). A clip is also included to keep the pin in place.
The welded rung on the back of the upright mast provides an anchor point for a cable lock (sold separately) to help deter theft of your bikes.
A hitch lock (sold separately) is also available to secure the rack to your vehicle.
If you have a women's bike, kid's bike, or any other bike without a straight, horizontal top tube, you will need an adapter bar (sold separately) to properly mount your bike. The bar fits between the seat post and handlebar stem post of your bike to create a top tube so your bike hangs level on the rack.
Average Customer Rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars (345 Customer Reviews)
This 5-bike rack is great for carrying bikes for the whole family. Tapered arms have wide spacing near the mast for carrying adult bikes and narrow spacing at the end of the rack for carrying kids' bikes. Tilts with bikes unloaded.It was obvious that we received a product that was returned by someone else when the box was overly taped shut, a support collar was broken, and most of the pieces were out of their ripped plastic bags. However, it was a great price to hold 5, 26" and/or 27" Trek bikes. I used a piece of the broken collar and went ahead and assembled the rack. Due to the weight of the 5 bikes it did not wobble that much when driving, as one of the bike tires was up against my car. I can only imagine that if we received an untampered product that this review would have been 5 stars. The picture is a little hard to see, but there are 5 Trek bikes on the rack on my 2020 Toyota Seinna.
We received a damaged box, damaged items, no instructions, the nuts and bolts are completely stripped and not inside a bag. This was obviously used, returned, not checked for quality and sent out. We are extremely upset.
First trip out I only loaded on 3 bikes to test it out and I’m glad I did! 6 of 9 straps used to secure bikes ripped apart at the attach points completely releasing one of the bikes while driving. The bike that completely came out of cradles bounced around on the rack during the drive, I don’t know how I didn’t lose it. This caused damage to the rack frame, (multiple scratches that were already rusting the following day, as well as 3 damaged frame cradles from the bike bouncing around). This is very unexpected from a seemingly well built rack and a brand name you’d think you could trust. Hopefully etrailer or Curt will see this review and direct me toward some warranty information, or replace the rack or the damaged parts.
Depending on what kind of bike you have and how much space there is in the void between the top tube, down tube and seat tube will determine if this is the bike rake for you. I have an older bike and there is a lot of room but my wife, daughter and son have more modern bikes and there is hardly any room to fit the mounting bars through the bike and if you just mount the bike from the down tube it is not very stable.
Fit perfectly. Install is quick and easy. ettrailer shipped and delivered on time with UPS tracking. No problems at all. I would definitely buy from them again.
We like this rack vs the Thule bike rack, which we purchased before this one, because it fits smaller framed bikes. Getting it upright and/or folded down tends to be a bit of process whereas the Thule was much easier. Overall we have been happy with this product!
This bike rack is for 5 bikes, but have not been able to get 5 bikes on it so far. Most can get on is 4 bikes. from all the reviews of this rack and other brands, it was the longest and also had the highest weight capacity. I think if you have like 2 adult bikes and 3 kids bikes, then 5 is possible. We have bikes, 2 cruisers, and 3 regular all more than 24in size. So we use to carry 4 bikes on it, and need to put 1 in the trunk, in van.
For the rack it self, it is straight forward to assemble and hook up to van hitch. Also got a Curt 2in hitch installed on van from uhaul. The little pin to tighten the vertical portion of the bike rack lost its threading after like 4 - 5 uses and so it is not useful. They need to redesign so that is it firm and there is no play in it. I called etrailer and they said nothing they can do from their side. I will try local hardware for another screw to see if that will help.
The overall order and service from etrailer, was good, i placed order on a Saturday and they also matched another online price and i received my order on Wednesday the following week.
To fold down need to unpin, as compared to some other brands that have a 1 pull handle to perform same operation.
It was going to cost $50 to rent bikes for the week in Florida, per bike, that's $150 for the week, which i was going to spend so we could ride bikes for the week. After doing some research, i decided to just buy a rack, and take our own bikes. I got this rack for like $$$. I couldn't be happier. Now i have this rack to take our bikes anywhere we want to go!! We had such a great trip and got to take our own bikes and didn't have to worry about renting some. This rack is very solid and was great for the 15 hour drive each way from Illinois to Florida and back. I only took 3 bikes on this 5 bike rack, but I believe could have easily put on 2 more. I do have 2 more small children that didn't take this trip with us, but will be traveling with me in the future, which is why i got the 5 bike rack. It is really convenient how the kids bikes fit on the narrower part. I purchased the SR0901 locking pin to go with this after researching and finding the review that said it would work. [link]
it worked perfectly and gave me piece of mind my rack was secured.
i also purchased this cable, RKY3850 and just used a lock i had at home to secure the bikes to the rack.
I would say this rack would be better if it had the lock and cable already in it, like some of the more expensive racks. It would also be better if the tilting points were simple handles like some of the more expensive racks. The pin and clips can be a bit of a pain and take some getting used to, but they aren't that hard to work. It would just be more convenient to have handles to tilt the rack to get into the trunk, etc. The convenience of having the handles and built in cable and lock is definitely not worth an extra $150-$200 more in price in my opinion.
There is also a screw handle that you have to tighten up to get the rack solid and not wiggle, you will see on the video reviews. I found that after a few hours of travel, this screw began to wiggle loose, and needed tightened. I simply checked this, and re-tightened every time we stopped for gas. not a huge issue, but i definitely think this is a design flaw. it didn't need re-tightened every time we stopped, but it usually did, about 75% of the time.
Lastly, the kids bikes did not fit on very good, so i had to purchase 2 of these bike adapter bars. I bought them on [site]
All in all, i think i made a very solid and affordable purchase. instead of just throwing away $150 to a rental place, now i have this rack to use anytime we want to go out of town. It is certainly not the most expensive rack and doesn't have all the fancy features that the more expensive ones do, but for me and my family, it is perfect. We are not avid bike riders and won't use it every single weekend. If you are looking for one to use every weekend, you may want a more expensive fancier Thule or such. If you are looking for one that you may use a few times per summer, etc, this is a great choice. The rack is also very solid and feels very nice. It is not flimsy. It certainly doesn't feel cheap. Curt has really made a nice product here. It looks really nice as well. It looks pretty fancy and expensive. If would definitely recommend this Curt bike rack and make this purchase again.
The rack is sturdy for 3-5 bikes and only for 3-5 uses. The purpose of the screwed in pin (pic attached) is to eliminate rack swing but it got stripped after few bumps on the road and caused the rack to swing front and back. There’s no way I can avoid bumps on the road unless you drive 10 mph on highway. There’s no way a tiny pin can hold 5 bikes weights load including the rack! I’m not the only one that has this issue so this must be a flaw on the rack. So I called Curt manufacturer because it’s still under only ONE year warranty. They did send me a new shank but If your bike rack swings after 3-5 uses, will you use it? I won’t. You might get away to fix the swing by getting a U clamp but …
Overall the 6 place bike rack is very easy to set up and really sturdy. I would buy it again. However few things to keep in mind when buying. The separation of space between bikes is really tight for 6 bikes. You have to be very creative to fit 6 bikes on it. 4 bikes or less is ideal. The other draw back is the rubber straps are not very durable, have gone through several already.
Good rack. Holds all the bikes without trouble, though some smaller framed bikes take a little more effort to get over the triangular cradles. Those cradles do spin for adjusting the length of the support on the bikes, and slide forward and back to adjust how close bikes are, but they are tough to move. Probably good they are, since you wouldn't want them moving around without your express desire for them to migrate.
4 of 5 because it is a heavy rack, and it has to be to be strong enough to support 5 steel bikes. Be aware. I have found it is good to have a second person involved in mounting in the hitch. I hold it up while a child guides the post into the hole.
More importantly, it wobbles a bit. Just a bit, though. I don't know if some rubber pads could be engineered in the pivot joints, or if that would make it too hard to move and the pads would fall apart anyway.
Would definitely recomend this if you need a strong bike rack, and can lift the weight.
I am lining up with other reviewers on this site who say how remarkable the customer service is. etrailer.com provided exceptional service and assistance to me as I wound my way through researching the options for a bike rack that could accommodate 5 bicycles. Delivery was great, too - within several days, the bike rack was on my doorstep.
There are a couple of more sophisticated options, and I am the person who dislikes purchasing anything twice - I typically run toward the most expensive. However, this rack is not only functional but also well-built, handsome and incredibly well-priced.
Assembly was a breeze, particularly for someone who is disinclined to read instructions. In less than 15 minutes, the rack was sitting pretty on the back of my SUV.
I have yet to load the bicycles and take a trip, but it should easily accommodate our eclectic mix of adult and children's bikes.
This bike rack is very heavy duty and has worked well for me.
Very solid product. Well constructed. Doesn't bounce around and rubber bike straps hold bikes in place very well. I'm very confident when using that nothing is going to break or come apart. Comes mostly assembled, so that's nice. Only reason for marking product down comes from the fact that it's a bit overly complicated. Still very manageable, but more complicated than it has to be. Don't expect to keep the rack on your SUV and drive around with it when not bike riding as there are three pins to remove and replace just to tilt it down to open your back hatch. Again, it's easy enough to manage, but just enough of a pain. I showed my wife the three-step procedure and she said "oh heck no!" Plan on packing a pliers with you to more easily pull lynch pins (there are several). Also plan on purchasing a socket wrench with a 3/4" socket to more easily get the main pin screwed on (using a crescent or fixed wrench will take you forever).
Also, there is a really good chance that this bike rack will NOT hold kid bikes 20" and smaller. My middle kids' bike (24") barely fits. Not sure if a smaller bike would fit if you purchased an additional seat stem to handlebar adapter.
We are excited to use our new bike rack. Attached it to our hitch with no problems and was able to get 5 bikes on.
Great customer service from etrailer. We tried ordering this product through three other places and all were on back order and couldn’t get it to us in time for our trip. etrailer guaranteed their product was in stock and even price-matched it for me. I was able to track my product through the entire process from order placement to delivery. Thank you etrailer!
This product has brought us joy in biking as a family of 6. It can take awhile to get all the bikes loaded but the price was much lower than the Thule brand and to me it’s an ok trade off. Plus we can even open the trunk of the car with all the bikes on if we really need to...with two people.
Best part was the customer service of e-trailer.
Box was all busted and when I picked it up parts were falling out when they dropped it off. Need to improve shipping/packaging of this product.
It moves around to much. I’ve lost both my kids bikes on two different trips. The rubber straps break. The last trip I put a another type of strap on with the supplied ones and still lost the bike.
Very nice design overall but it is geared to larger framed bikes. The limitation is the plastic mounts that the bike frame sits on. They are fairly tall and prevent smaller framed bikes from sliding past. We ride 20" bmx style bikes and 26" dirt jumpers. We had one 20" bike that wouldn't fit on the rack at all. A work around we use is to install a girls bike bar that goes from the seat post to handle bar on the 20 inchers. Most 20" frames will fit in the first 3 spots but we use the girls bar to get the 20" inch frames to the back two spots. The 26" DJ's will not slide onto the back 2 spots either. Making the mounts that the frame sits on a different/smaller shape really would have helped the smaller frames. Thankfully we are able to make it work with the girls bar and can get 5 bikes on. Another slight draw back is the hitch pin, it's threaded. It works pretty good as long as you don't mind threading on the pin each time you use the rack. Not too much of a bother to me until the pin got misplaced/lost. No where local had a replacement, rendering the bike rack unusable until another could be shipped out.
About product: comes as advertised and truly holds 5 bikes. solid quality. has a threaded pin when attaching to the hitch and an extra pin by the joint to reduce wobbling. there's still a bit of swaying, but performed very well on the road. the only disappointment is that no locking mechanism was included to secure the bike rack (minus 1 star). there are 2 points where the rack has to be secured to avoid potential theft. at hitch and at the joint. you'd need a threaded locking pin and a normal locking pin, which gets pricey. i used 2 luggage locks that fit through the pin holes instead.
About service: etrailer delivered this fast and without hiccups. great follow-up service to ensure that i am all set.
I received the bike rack and was pleased at how easy it was to set up and install. I drove around for a day with it on the truck before loading it up with 4 bikes and heading out for a weeks vacation. I have not tried the tilting feature yet but am pleased so far with this product. Right after my purchase I received a thank you email from George at etrailer.
ORDER CAME IN GREAT SHAPE AND COMPLETE. THIS IS NOT THE FIRST ITEM I HAVE ORDERED FROM ETRAILER AND IT WILL CERTAINLY NOT BE THE LAST.
Quality product, well built. I would recommend this Curt bike rack to anyone.
Calista provided exceptional service! She was very patient and helpful when assisting me find the right bike rack and accessories, as well as providing excellent follow-up. Thank you!
This trailer was just what our family of 5 needed! Enough space for all our bikes. When the rack is fully loaded and secured I don’t notice it’s on our SUV. The one down side to this rack that caused me to rate it 4/5 is the bike cradles are an odd shape. They are somewhat triangular. This is not an issue for my full size mountain bike however my kids bikes don’t slide on easily because of how difficult it is to maneuver the small bike frames over the cradle. I’m considering swapping out a few of the cradles to make it easier. Outside of the issue with the cradles this bike rack does what it needs to do. Holds 5 bikes so my family and I can bring our bikes with us on any road adventure we take.
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