Kuat Hitch Bike Racks Review - 2015 Toyota Tacoma

Review of the Kuat Hitch Bike Racks on a 2015 Toyota Tacoma

Today, on our 2015 Toyota Tacoma, we're doing a test-fit of the Kuat Transfer 3 Bike Rack Platform Style, part number TS03G. Now, we have the bike on our rack, and we have the rack hooked to a vehicle. I'm just going to show you a few features. Now, the first feature I want to show you with the bike on, is it actually has a tilting feature. We're going to press on this lever here. You're can either do it with your hand or the foot.

We're going to press that, holding on to the tail of the bike rack, bringing it down. Now, in this position you should be able to open your tail gate, so you can get into the back of your trunk bed, but it actually, almost is touching right where my hand is, so I'm putting my hand down there, so it doesn't touch. Right there it does touch, so just keep that in mind. If you have a extra set of hands to help you out, that'll be actually, perfect. Let's go ahead and pull our bike rack up. Always grab your bike rack, never your bike.

All right. Now we're going to talk about how our bike rack is connected to our bike itself. First we're going to talk about, back here in the back, we have our wheel cradle with a nice strap. It's going to protect your spokes and your tires. We're just going to release this, and we'll go to the front.

Now, our front tire is also sitting in a wheel cradle. Well right here, we have our wheel hook, so to disengage it, you press the button, push up, then you can pull out. To engage it, you just bring it to where you need it, right in front of your break pads here, and just bring it down until it stops. Let's go ahead and take off our bike, set this off to the side. Now we're going to go ahead and replace our straps, so we don't get it lost or damaged.

All right. Now I'm going to bring out the wheel hookup, and we're going to take a couple of measurements. All right, first measurement will be overall distance. Overall distance we've added to our vehicle, one second, that's going to be 47 inches. Our ground clearance, back here it has 28 inches here. Then our closest point to the bike rack itself, I'm looking here, and that's 5 1/2 inches. Now, with the bike not on, the tail gate still touches the bike rack right here, or actually, even here on the wheel cradle. We're going to show you another position, which is a stow position. Same lever, bring it up. All right. We're going to take a couple more measurements again, so overall distance now, right here we're looking at 11 1/2 inches. Now for our ground clearance, we come down here, I'm looking at 16 inches, right under here. Now, today we're using a 2 inch hitch, and this is adaptable for 1 1/4. Now, it does come with a anti-rattle bolt and clip, so that's going to help keep some of that movement out of your shank as your traveling down the road. That's going to complete our look at the Kuat Transfer 3 Bike Rack Platform Style. That part number again, is TS03G, on today's 2015 Toyota Tacoma. Here it is on our test course. First is the slalom area, which simulates side to side action, like turning the corners, or evasive maneuvers. Next are the alternate speed bumps, which show you the twisting action like hitting a pothole, road debris, or hitting a curb. Finally, we're at the solid speed bumps, which show you up and down action to simulate a parking garage, or coming out your driveway.