Best 1996 Volkswagen Passat Bike Racks

I installed this on a 2008 Volkswagen Passat Sedan. The etrailer reviews, and videos are really what sold me on this rack. This rack is well built and feels solid. It is easy enough to unbolt, fold it up, and toss it in the trunk when not in use. Having a threaded bolt securing the rack to the hitch may sound like a pain, but it really is not. Keep a ratchet in your car, and it unbolts quick enough. The trade off is that the rack does not move while driving. At ALL. The rack is easy to adjust for different bikes, and you can take off the parts if you only bring one bike. On the passat I needed a bungee to secure my pedal when using the inner position so that the pedal did not come in contact with the paint. The rack has plenty of clearance, and curves up. My car is lowered with sport springs, and the rack is nowhere near the road. If I had more cars, I would buy more of these swagman racks.

Installed and worked as advertised. We have two 29" Giant MBs that play well together on the rack. They don't touch or rub at all.

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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Not great. Slightly dented my car on the first use with only two bikes on it :( Was hoping it would be easy and work well

So far so good.

I like the overall design of this rack, but unfortunately after hauling a couple bikes around for a while the point where the crossbar connects has apparently rounded off so the rack swings back and forth. I've used rope to tie the ends of the rack to the car to stop this from getting worse, but it's inconvenient. Note: the hitch connection itself is good and solid, but the point where the crossbar connects to the bar coming from the hitch has gotten loose and there's no way that I can see to tighten it.

It works great! Easy, quick, you know. One needs to screw in the hitch bolt, for some reason, before latching it. Other than that, it makes going bike riding way easier.

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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Works great

Check out my other review on the hidden hitch for a 2015 BMW 4 Series for the majority of the review, but this thing is great. Easy setup and install, does all the things it's supposed to do. Mounting and removing bikes is a snap with the included clips (big difference from some of the cheaper variants with nylon ratchet straps). Fits very snugly in my 2" receiver, and pretty solid on the highway and over bumpy roads.

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All in all pretty good. The arms that grab the front wheel have loosened a little bit and move side to side. They have never failed, just feel a little wobbly. The hitch receptacle is also hard to tighten but might be due to the receptacle it self. Used rack on a long trip and the bikes moved slightly side to side, but nothing serious.

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Car: 2017 Honda CR-V This is a great rack! There's not a lot to the assembly, other than getting the first two long bolts in, those were tricky. Once those were in there, aligned properly, the rest of the assembly was pretty easy. Attaching the rack to the hitch receiver was the easiest part of the whole thing! The rack is really nicely portable, and will easily store in our apartment during the off season. It takes less than a minute to get it loaded into the hitch receiver. The cable lock is a little bit flimsy, but should hopefully deter casual thievery. What I would have loved to have seen were locks in the retaining arms as well, so those couldn't be messed with by strangers. Otherwise, this rack is really great, and I would highly recommend it.

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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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I ordered the Swagman Chinook 2 Bike Platform Rack on line from etrailer and so far have been very satisfied. The bike rack was delivered in less than a week. Unpacking the rack and assembly was fairly straightforward. I have read some reviews that complained the assembly instructions were a bit vague. I didn't have a problem but can see where others without a mechanical background get confused. The rack is very sturdy, but there is some side to side play in the tilt mechanism. I'm not sure this can be avoided with a rack that folds down. Installing the Curt trunk stabilizing strap takes most of the sway out of the rack. Installation is fairly easy and quick. It takes me 6 - 7 minutes to install the back on my hitch, and to install the bike and be ready to drive away. That seems reasonable to me. So far I've only loaded 1 bike. I've included pictures of my installation on a 2014 Mercedes Benz E350 sedan. Clearance between the bikes, the rack and the car are good. With the bike loaded in the inside, most forward position, I have 6" clearance between the pedal and the bumper. With the bike removed, the center support folded flat and the rack folded up in the storage position, I have 4" clearance between the closest part of the bike rack (the fold down hinge assembly) and the back bumper of the car. I am able to open the trunk of the car without removing the bikes or using the tilt feature, but I do have to remove the stabilizing strap first. Overall, I'm very pleased with the bike rack and think it will serve me much better than my old strap on rack. Since the weather has been cool since getting the bike carrier, I haven't taken any long trips to give it a real workout.

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Works great

This two bike rack has been great for the occasional bike ride outside of our home area. I like the sturdy construction, but beware that it is a little heavier than it looks (I’m retired and a bit older so maybe not as strong). Easy to fit into the factory trailer hitch on our 5 passenger SUV and no problem securing the bikes for transport. My only complaint is, the stick on Yakima Graphic started coming apart the day we got it. Sorry, no free advertising for Yakima.

This is a very solid product! I have used it for over a year now and love it! I have had up to 3 bikes on this without a problem and have traveled over 8 hours in the car one way with absolutely no issues. Many other bike racks like this one that I see on other cars look unstable this is not unstable in anyway. I did have to file some of the paint off of the rack to get it to fit in my 1 and 1/4" hitch but once that was done it has been perfect. I also bought the locking hitch bolt which is awesome too.

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Quick and reliable shipping and was able to take to my mechanic to get it installed and it works perfectly with my bike rack!

I have to get a trailer hitch extension in order for the bike rack to fold up when not in use. Definitely will go through etrailer for this item.

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Great product. We just got a new convertible and I could not use the roof mount or trunk mount. Using the bikes was important. Taking care of the bikes is important too. This bike rack is really the best I have ever had. It is extremely easy to use. I like that it has built in locks. I can use the hard top convertible on the VW Eos if I only have one bike positioned outward. It also works with no bikes installed. I could not be happier with this product and the incredible price, fast shipping and overall value from etrailer.com.

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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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We have used the Swagman Roof Rack a number of times when we have needed the additional bike carrying capacity. It took a couple attempts to get the initial spacing of the bike rack properly balanced on the van’s roof rack as recommended by the instructions. But it was easy to do and once set was very easy and quick to put on and take off. The rack works great, the bike is easy to put into place and secure. The bike and rack are very stable and quiet and haven’t required any mid-trip adjustments. We always put the cheapest bike on the roof (lol) but do use a bit of duct tape to protect the finish just Incase. We are very satisfied with the rack and consider it quite a deal for the money.

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Everything about the hitch itself is as-advertised. Installation was straightforward, and the end result looks great on the back of the car (2015 Passat). It is tucked in and not intrusive. The 4-bike rack, based on our bikes, does not really hold 4 bikes at a time. It has straps for 4 bikes, and they adjust, but with adult size bikes, it unfortunately is not enough room. I could imagine them working if a couple of the bikes were small child size, but our youngest is now over 5 feet tall, so we are all on adult size bikes. Also the bike rack when installed drags the pavement backing out of our driveway, which is not steep, even when not loaded with the bikes. The bottom of the bike rack should angle up from where it inserts into the hitch more steeply, instead of coming out square from the hitch as far as it needs to to clear the bumper. The rack does seem to hold 3 bikes securely, though, and it tips out of the way while installed on the car to allow for trunk access, so while not perfect, is reasonably useable.

Nice bike rack ! Saddles are well made and none of the ears that hold the straps in place have broken like they have with other brands I've owned. It came with 1 strap for each saddle and the straps seem just a tad stretchy. I looked on line and found that Home Depot has a good price for the straps so I now have 2 straps on each saddle. I've got it on a 1&1/4 hitch, but it came with an adapter for a 2 inch. It holds 3 road bikes. I used it all the time.

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One of the few racks that will clear my Jeep's large rear mounted spare tire without using an extender. The other is the Allen which doesn't have the nice features the Swagman Titan has. Tips enough to allow partial opening of Jeep rear door, but enough to open the soft top rear window. The vertical portion of rack tips slightly toward vehicle (at least it does on mine). Would be better if the horizontal "S" shaped piece could be turned around to dip down, moving it further from the spare tire, but there are only holes drilled to mount it as shown. Can't attest to the durability yet, but it doesn't wobble even a tiny bit. Have to compliment everyone I spoke with at etrailer. very nice and extremely helpful.

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eTrailer.com had my new Swagman Titan bike rack delivered super fast. I received the right amout of email communication informing me of the status of my order, plus I could track my delivery directly from the eTrailer website. Awesome! As for the hitch, I am so happy with it. I was tired of taking the front wheel off my bike and cramming it into the back of my small Corolla, it never really fit right, was always a struggle, and then I had no room for anything else in my car. Now, I just hang my bike onto the rack and strap it in, takes less than 60 seconds and I have all the extra room in my car and don't have to fold down the back seats. The other feature I really like is that this bike rack has an integrated locking cable, once your bike is on the rack, you attach the locking cable so now your bike is locked onto the rack. Someone can't take your bike off the rack and walk away with it when you aren't looking. I also got the Swagman bike rack locking pin, that attaches the bike rack to the car hitch. I've used the bike rack twice so far and it makes my life so much easier. Solidly built bike rack that is well worth it. Thank you eTrailer, you rock!

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