Thule Hitch Bike Racks Review - 2014 Toyota Venza

Review of the Thule Hitch Bike Racks on a 2014 Toyota Venza

Today, on our 2014 Toyota Venza, we're going to take a look at the Thule Roadway 2 Bike Rack. Part number is TH912XTR. Now, we have a bike on the rack, and we have our rack hooked to the vehicle. I'm just going to show you a few features of it. Now, how we have our bike strapped down, we have a total of 3 straps. We have two up top, one to the side, which is our anti-sway strap.

How we're going to do it, just going to take off the two up top first, then we're going to take off our anti-sway strap. Then if you're loading your bike, you do the anti-sway strap first, then the two up top. We're going to go ahead and remove our bike, and set it to the side. It's always a good habit to replace your straps, so you don't lose them or damage them. All right.

Now I'd like to take a few measurements, just to show you the overall distance we've added to our vehicle. From the bumper, out to the end of the cradle arms, I'm looking at 27 inches here. Our closest point, will be 4 inches here, and for our ground clearance, I'm looking at 11 1/2 inches right here. Now, the cradle arms do come down, so how we want to do that, pull up on the gray lever here, bring them down into position. We're going to take one more measurement, overall distance. Now I'm looking at approximately 12 inches.

Now, to get inside your hatch, can't do it, but this has a tilting feature. Right back here, there's another gray lever, you pull up on there, bring it back, sits down, now you'll be able to get in and outside your hatch, so if you need to put things in, or take things out, you have plenty of room on both sides of the bike rack. Let's go ahead and close this down. Let's bring this back up to the up position. Let's go down here, now this is equipped for 1 1/4 and 2 inch hitches.

Today we're using a 2 inch hitch. Now, this right here, is the adapter on it. It actually can fit, like I said, an inch and 1/4. Also, we have a anti-rattle bolt, come around here. That bolt there is going to keep out some of the play in your shanks, so you should have a nice smooth ride inside and outside your vehicle. All right, so that's going to complete our look at the Thule Roadway 2 Bike Rack. Part number again, is TH912XTR, on today's 2014 Toyota Venza. Let's see how it does on a test course. Here it is on our test course. First is the slide 'em 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 are at the solid speed bumps, which shows you up and down action, to simulate a parking garage, or coming out your driveway.