Kuat Sherpa Hitch Bike Rack Review - 2012 Kia Sorento

Review of the Kuat Sherpa Hitch Bike Rack on a 2012 Kia Sorento

Today on our 2012 Kia Sorento we'll be test fitting part number S102, the Kuat Sherpa Aluminum Hitch Mounted Two Bike Carrier with wheel mount cradles. With the 2 inch adapter already installed on our bike rack shank we'll slide the shank into the hitch, line up the hitch pin holes, and install our hitch pin. We'll then move to the back of the bike rack shank where we can tighten down the knob, securing our bike rack to the vehicle. With the bike rack secure we'll go ahead and give you a few measurements. Our ground clearance at the back of the bike rack measures 14-1/4 inches. From the closest part of the bike rack to the closest part of the vehicle with the bike rack in the stored position measures 2-1/2 inches. We can now check for rear vehicle access.

We'll pull the switch at the base of the bike rack shank to unfold the bike rack platform and open our cargo door. As you can see we can gain full access to the cargo area with this bike rack secured to our vehicle. At this point we're almost ready to load our bike. We'll need only to make sure that our front wheel clamp is fully extended and that our rear wheel strap is undone and out of the way. We'll place the bike into the carrier and bring the wheel clamp up just in front of the front brake caliper. We'll move back to the rear wheel strap where we'll put the strap through the wheel and secure it on the other side.

That's it, our bike is loaded. Now another great feature of the Sherpa is its ability to fold down the platform to allow for cargo access with your bike loaded. We'll simply pull the knob that we used to unfold the platform and allow it to further tilt down. We can then open our cargo door with the bike loaded on the bike rack. That completes our test fit for the Kuat Sherpa, part number S102 on our 2012 Kia Sorento. .