08-09-2018, 01:52 AM
davester wrote:
IMHO the main reason for a platform rack is if you have either a fragile bike frame (i.e. carbon) or the type of bike frame (some full suspension MTBs) that won't hang from a regular hanging-type bike rack.
We have a Thule four bike hanging-rack hitch mounted carrier. I've never figured out how to prevent the rack from wearing on the bikes' paint where the bike sits on the rack. The bikes swing back and forth a little, however much I try to tie them in place. A platform rack would keep the bikes from getting wear spots. (There is probably something I could do with padding, but so far I've not succeeded, and no one else in the family will make the effort.)
I'd take a platform mount over the hanging mount any day.
Ours is a "drop down" rack, which folds back away from the car. On the plus side, because it cannot fold down past about 30 degrees, it's not hard to get it back up, even when it has four bikes on it.
Our hitch is mounted lower on the vehicle than I'd like. (A "factory" Toyota hitch made by Draw-Tite). The hitch itself will ground at the angle on steep driveways. The hitch has been more of a problem than the bike rack, but I can definitely see watching out for how the lower bar of a bike rack could hit the ground when the vehicle is transitioning an angle.
One other thought: we got a Thule locking hitch pin, so the rack cannot be removed without a key. This allows us to lock bikes to the rack. As our hitch has a couple of rings for trailer chains, we could get by without this by running a locking cable to one of the rings, but the locked hitch gives us more flexiblity.
Good luck.
- Winston
ps: I also like the idea of a swing-away mount, but haven't looked at any to see how useful the swing-away feature is. Our drop down hitch allows us to open our minvan's rear hatch, but the bikes are still in the way of any major loading and unloading. So for a big trip the bikes go on last.