Best 2017 Toyota RAV4 Bike Racks

I bought this to replace the exact same rack I've had for about 7 years. The first Surco OSI Spare Tire Bike Rack became corroded after a time. I live in the northeast and left it on the car all year, so it's life expectancy could have been longer, but it was a "task" to remove it. It's definitely a hardy rack, but in reality it's a pain in the butt to use. It's the nature of the design. Also, it is designed to hold 3 bikes, but not without some cosmetic damage (at the very least) to the bikes. The only reason I bought it again is because it's the only feasible and reasonably priced bike rack for my 2003 Toyota RAV, which I've had for 13 years. I'm not going to replace the car right now, so I didn't have much of a choice. I only gave it 3 stars because I really don't like it, but it is a solid bike rack.

Works great on my old 2003 RAV4. Easy to install. Great service

This bike rack works great. Took my bike on a cross country road trip from Tampa, Florida to Whistler, British Columbia and back with no issues. There was no slipping or excessive shaking with highway speeds up to 80ish mph. Encountered 105 degree heat, rain squalls and snow storms with no issues. No problems with the set up and the fact that the rear spare tire on my 2011 Toyota Rav4 is off center was not an issue as the rack can accommodate for this. It's a well made product from a reputable company. Make sure to read the directions as they advise against opening the rear hatch with the bike on the rack due to weight concerns. Shipping was quick as were replies to questions to customer service. Follow up correspondence from etrailer was also appreciated. Overall great experience, would highly recommend the product as well as etrailer. Thanks!

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I wanted to respond to you to let you know that I had a really good experience ordering from etrailer. I was informed every step of the way, from the moment I ordered it online, all the way up until it was delivered to my doorstep. I was very impressed!! The bike rack itself was easy to install on my car - I have a RAV4 so it was important to me to be able to still be able to open my trunk with the rack on. Haven't gotten to actually use it yet (I've been temporarily deployed with the military), but I can't wait to! I've attached a picture as well - it looks so spiffy, and makes me seem more athletic than I actually am. Again, great experience, and I would definitely recommend etrailer to others in a second. Have a great day!

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I was excited to get this and eager to just pop it onto my spare tire like it shows in the video. 45 minutes later and I'm resigned to drilling an extra hole where the buttons are in order to tighten the hold over the tire, and chagrined that I had to "rear" my smaller bike frame angled upwards in order to seat it on the red rack receivers. This was because there wasn't enough room vertically on the frame or horizontally on the frame. Not sure how I would have been able to prepare for that, maybe there is some comment about smaller bike frames somewhere? One strap to secure the bikes is not enough in this situation, so things were strapped every which way, including the front tire of the bike so it wouldn't wobble everywhere. The bike and rack made it home for the maiden 60 mile highway trip, but I was not totally confident with it.

For the price, not bad. This bike rack is a simple design, that's easy to use, but doesn't seem very secure. I have used this on an older model Rav4, which means the bike or bikes are going to stick out more on one side of the vehicle. There seems to be a lot of movement when hitting potholes and bumps in the road. If you don't plan on using this rack often, don't want to spend a lot, this may be for you. Sufficient, but not very sturdy.

Nobody could beat your price or the timely delivery. I had a super customer experience thanks to Jamie. Thank !

5 stars

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I am very pleased with this bike rack. For the price and sturdiness it works perfectly for my mountain bike. I will probably buy another one for the other side of my roof rack an my Toyota Rav4.

I've been using this rack weekly hauling a TT setup and a heavy mountain bike. I highly recommend this product to anyone seeking affordable dependability! -c

Great bike rack. I had tried several for my Rav4, but none were quite right. This rack is solid, fits nicely on my spare tire. I am now able to access my trunk with my bike rack in place! Relatively easy installation, though had some trouble unscrewing one piece.

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Arrived promptly from etrailer in just a few days. very easy to install on my 2008 Toyota Rav4. the rack is very sturdy and high quality. i put my 29er mountain bike and my road bike on it with no problems. i used to have a roof rack bike carrier and this is much better.

Bought two. Easy to put together and install. Holds bikes tight.

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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This is my first bike rack purchase ever and I am very pleased with my choice. I was contemplating between Thule or Yakima, I decided to go with this Thule because it holds 4 bikes and the value and price was just hard to beat. The quality and build of this rack is very nice. After installing it onto the hitch and inserting the anti-rattle bolt, this piece of hardware is going nowhere. It feels very durable and sturdy. Driving with the rack on without any bikes mounted, I did not even notice or feel that there was a rack mounted behind my vehicle. Very low noise and pleasant to drive with. With the bikes mounted on the rack, it holds each bike very tightly with its straps. Still, a pretty quiet ride with the bikes on. Not much of a rattle but you do notice and hear it slightly especially for rear passengers. As the driver, I barely noticed anything until I looked into my rear view mirror. I highly recommend this bike rack, it's easy to install and worth the price. It feels like a quality rack that can last for many years.

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This product has stood up very, very well. It is difficult to get four bikes on any rack but we have managed to do it a few times with wiggling here and there. I should note these are all adult-sized bikes, too, not little kid bikes. We have driven from SE Michigan to Madeline Island in Wisconsin and back with this hitch and had no problems whatsoever. That was a 12-hour trip each way. We also drove across the state of MI to the Muskegon area recently with all four bikes on the rack. Before any big trip, we check to make sure nothing is loose. So far, it has worked out really well for us. The best way to get them on is to kind of tilt them and wobble them back and forth, slowly rotating the frames back onto the rack. We are very happy with the product. It's true we cannot open the back of our RAV4 with the rack up but we've discovered it's not such a big deal to lower part of the rack (with built-in pin) if we really need to access the back of the car. We do take the rack off during winter as there doesn't seem much point in having it on during that season.

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After buying a 2017 Toyota RAV 4 I was faced with the dilemma of a new bike rack that fit my car without destroying the spoiler on the back hatch. etrailer made it easy to find the correct rack for my car. This rack works perfectly for this car without doing damage to the spoiler. It is heavy duty and I have had so many comments about what a great bike rack it is from people who knew of my concerns about finding a rack for this car.

It's not my intent to write a negative review-- rather, simply to say that this bikerack doesn't fit my 2017 RAV4 Here is why: the straps would have to go *over* the spoiler on top of the hatchback door. This is specifically not recommended in the directions for installing the product. Also, for most new bicycles you would need a "bike-bar" accessory to hang each bike in a level position. Once again, mounting a bike in a 'not-level' position is specifically not recommended. I hope to send this one back.... and get a platform rack that attaches to a trailer hitch.

This rack is very easy to put on the spare tire. It works fine with most bikes. It does not work with the newer expensive mtn bikes whose frames are really wide. it doesn't sit in the rubber holders correctly. It's great for slim framed bikes.

I used to have a trailer hitch bike rack on a Toyota RAV4. It worked well but was difficult and messy to swing out of the way to open the door and put groceries in the back. The Toyota died and I got a similar Honda CRV. I knew the downside of the trailer hitch so I got a roof rack bike mount. It looked awesome but was VERY difficult to get bikes on after a long ride and in the wind on non-level ground. I had to carry a step stool with me. I still scraped up the side of my car. The final disaster was I forgot the bike was still on top and backed into my covered car port. DOH! So I looked into tire rack mounts. Both Honda and Toyota mount the spare tire off-center. Some of the brands cannot adjust for this and your bike sticks out a couple of feet on the passenger side. Some brands must be mounted to the spare tire itself and cannot have a tire cover. The SR1 rack below has held up great the last year. It was a fraction of the price of the big name bike carriers. I leave it on 24/7/365 and take it through the car wash with no issues. I live in the sunny SW and it has survived the sun and heat. It has not slipped at all when put over the vinyl tire cover. The only issue is you do need to supply a short bungee cord to keep the arms retracted when folded back and not in use.

On-line fit-up instructions specific to my vehicle, a RAV4, did the trick for me. Installed easily out of the box with no tools required. Very sturdy carrier, and we look forward to taking our bikes along with us on the next trip to the beach.

After buying a 2017 Toyota RAV 4 I was faced with the dilemma of a new bike rack that fit my car without destroying the spoiler on the back hatch. etrailer made it easy to find the correct rack for my car. This rack works perfectly for this car without doing damage to the spoiler. It is heavy duty and I have had so many comments about what a great bike rack it is from people who knew of my concerns about finding a rack for this car.

Nice product, again the video shows all the features accurately. The illustrations with the included instructions are pretty bad and instructions a little thin, but there's really not much to assembly. A few notes: Be sure to stagger the wheel holders or you will be stuck with one long bike and one short bike... Also there is a top and bottom hold-down hooks be sure to put them on in order. If you don't it will be obvious and easy to correct. One tricky part is is bolting thru the trailer hitch. The 2" square rack insert (can remove part of this insert and use on a smaller 1.25" hitch) has a sliding inner core with a threaded hole for the included bolt/lock washer. You may have to use a small screwdriver or pick to slide the core slightly so that the threaded hold aligns with the holes on the insert/hitch. Not sure but I think if you use a different bolt (like the J-pin 63201) that threads all the way thru the hitch, you would need to slide the core all the way out of the way and not use the threaded hole in the core. I ordered J-pin 63201 so I'll update when I try it out. Oh and if you want the locking J-pin order it at the same time or you will get dinged for an additional $5 shipping if ordered separately (i.e. <$100). I'm using this rack with the Draw-Tite 75235 2" hitch on a 2017 Rav4 Hybrid - works great!

Just as described. Well designed and easy to assemble. Great for hybrid bicycles.

Just installed hitch and carrier and it all went smoothly, the videos were terrific on how to install and use.

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Only complaint like others have noted is the Yakima logo is a sticker that easily peels off. Other than that, it's strong, sturdy, and easy to load my bikes. I've used it about 6 times over the past year with no problems. I'm very satisfied with my purchase.

When together easily. Looks like what I wanted in a rack.

This is a tough and well designed bike rack. Things I like the most are the bikes get locked down very securely. The tire hoops prevent the wheels from moving at all (on freeway, over bumps, etc). There are no vibrations whosoever. You will forget you even have bikes on the back of your vehicle. One word of caution: be mindful of your hands when operating the sliding lock mechanisms. May want to wear work gloves to prevent pinching your fingers. They can also be a bit of a bear to break loose when you want to take your bikes down, especially if you are like me and lock your bikes down very tight. Pushing down on your bike when trying to loosen the slide locks seems to help though. Helps to have some muscle.

Besides the awesome "Swagman" name, I feel confident towing two bikes off the back of my Rav4 through our upcoming North American Roadtrip. Installation was easy, however I would have liked if the rack folded down more in order to be able to open the back door of a 2005 Rav4 without removing the rack. Other than that, really like the product!

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Absolutely satisfied with the products and the timely shipment. The trailer hitch from Curt fits perfectly, and the Swagman bike rack works as expected and is very simple to use. Selected 4 stars as the packaging was not very robust and was significantly damaged when received, however the products were not damaged. I've purchased from eTrailer.com previously with excellent service and would recommend them to others.

Just put the Swagman Chinook on my 2016 RAV4. For a reasonable price, the quality seems very good. Assembly is easy, and it is much lighter weight than another brand I returned. The rear hatch opens with the bikes and rack tilted back. Since I most often use a single hybrid bike but occasionally like to also bring my mountain bike, I can set the Chinook up for one or two bikes, leaving three large pieces at home if I only need one bike. A platform bike rack like this keeps the bike wheels away from the car exhaust, and from scraping ground when going up driveways.

One year later I'm still delighted with this bike rack. I love that it is so versatile, allowing me to open the RAV4 back hatch using the tilt feature. The bicycle rides so securely and without wiggle at all. I also feel confident in the security of the locking features. This was one of the best purchases I've ever made! My only frustration is that I cannot use this bike rack when I am towing my new camper, which has zero to do with the product. Sad face.