Thule Hitch Bike Racks Review - 2015 Toyota Tacoma

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

Today on our 2015 Toyota Tacoma, we're doing a test fit of the Thule Vertex swinging 4-bike rack. Part number is TH9031XT. Now, we have a bike on our rack and we have our rack on out vehicle. I'd like to show you a few features. Now, the first feature I would like to show you, this is a swinging .. Swing away bike rack.

What we want to do is take our T pin here, let that dangle. Untighten this black knob here. Then we got to pull up on the T pin, swing out. Swing out a little bit and we're going to swing back in, and we can swing it all the way out. Get out here, put our T pin back in. All righty and when the bike rack is in this position, see that you got access to your tailgate, so you got plenty of room.

Now, I just want to take a measurement over here just to show you. Now, the first measurement I'm going to take will be just from your side panel to the middle of the bike. That's going to be seven inches here. Let's say if you're parking on the street and you need to know how far it swings out, I'm looking at 28 inches here. Just keep that in mind, so you don't damage your bike, or your bike rack, or your vehicle. Let's go ahead and bring this back.

Pull the T pin. We're going to swing it around a little bit. Pull up on this T pin, then swing it back out. Keep bringing it around. All righty.

Now it locks into position. First, you want to put this T pin back in. Make sure this is in there. Tighten up our knob and there we go. Now, we can talk about how the bike is connected to our bike rack. We have a total of three straps, two up top, the one on the side, which is the anti-sway strap. That's going to keep the bike from swinging so it doesn't damage your other bike or your vehicle. You're going to take the two up top first, then your anti-sway strap, now we can remove our bike. Now if we we're loading, you just do the opposite way. Now, it's always a good idea to put back your straps so you don't lose them or damage them. All righty. Okay, now we're going to take a couple more measurements. Overall distance we've added to our vehicle now and we're looking at 38 inches. For our ground clearance, I'm showing 17 1/2 inches here. Then our closest point will be six inches here. Now, the cradle arms do come down, so I'm going to pull up on this grid lever here, swing them down, they lock in position. Let's take one more measurement. Overall distance now is 12 1/2 inches. Now, this is equipped for two-inch hitches only. It does come with an anti-rattle bolt, that's going to help keep some of the movement out of your shank as you're going down the road. That's going to complete our look at the Thule Vertex Swinging 4-bike rack, Part number TH9031XT on today's 2015 Toyota Tacoma. Let's see how it does in a test course. Here it is on our test course. First, it's aslalom 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 have the solid speed bumps. We'll show you up and down action to simulate a parking garage or coming out your driveway.