Thats not gone well...

"DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back" (karsonkinja) 05/10/2018 at 10:19 • Filed to: None

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Some may remember !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Well it looks like the time-frame for purchasing a new rack has been pushed up.

The above picture is not mine, but my picture was taken from underneath the circled area. Where the receiver insert meets the rack flange. its basically two pieces of plate with square tubing (the receiver) welded in between. The receiver insert is then bolted to the receiver.

The rack had developed a sway in that area, so I took it apart and inspected it, found nothing, and put it back together. I just figured it was something it was going to do from now on. However yesterday the swaying was noticeably worse, so I got underneath to re-tighten the bolts which is when I discovered the cracks around the bolts and in the weld. I drove well below the speed limit on the way home and avoided major highways. Full pucker.

I sent an email off to Swagman to see if its still under warranty, but I doubt it. I’m just glad it didn’t snap off on the highway, destroying almost $3000 worth of bikes, the car of whoever happened to be behind me, not to mention the possible injuries.

OPPOsaurus WRX > DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back 05/10/2018 at 10:24

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https://www.amazon.com/MaxxHaul-70210-4-Bike-Deluxe-Hitch/dp/B00AK9YMIM/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1525962144&sr=8-18&keywords=trailer+hitch+bike+rack

this seems to good to be true cheap. I like that the bikes hang, it would make it easier to work on them. I also like that it has a solid clamp vs some that have velcro or some type of rubber thing.

BeaterGT > DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back 05/10/2018 at 10:29

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Guess I’m inspecting my Swagman rack when I get home...

DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back > OPPOsaurus WRX 05/10/2018 at 10:31

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If its too good to be true, its too good to be true...lol

I’m also not a fan of those hanging style racks. I’m pretty set on getting a 1up rack at this point.

PartyPooper2012 > DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back 05/10/2018 at 10:31

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Let me put my flame suit on....

OK. They can drag Trump over hot coals all they want... but damn it. Chinesium is real and he is right. This here is chinesium. Brittle piece of shit metal that crumbles.

I have some old school tools from the olden days. Those things are made of metal that will bend other metal just by looking at it.

We need American made metal

Eberle-Hills-Cop > DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back 05/10/2018 at 10:36

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I’ve gone through a lot of bike racks in my day, and from now on i’m full North Shore Racks fanboy.

Captain of the Enterprise > DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back 05/10/2018 at 10:41

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How big is your hitch?

DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back > BeaterGT 05/10/2018 at 10:41

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Hopefully mines just a defective one. My buddy has an identical one which he used until just recently because he got a truck. He didn’t seem to have any problems.

Also, 2 years ago it fell off the back of my car (my receiver is recessed into my bumper so I have to line up the pin holes by hand and instead of feeling what I thought was the pin hole I was just feeling the end of the receiver insert.) Amazingly it landed and skidded completely upright. Only damage was to the plate on the flange (which is why its rusted in the picture). I’m also really glad this particular event was early in the morning and there was no traffic. I have been extremely careful to line up the pin hole since then.

I very much doubt this incident is the cause of my rack breaking two years later, but it is very possible.

DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back > PartyPooper2012 05/10/2018 at 10:44

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No flame suit required. Its the truth. In my line of work I deal with shackles on a regular basis and we can’t use Chinese shackles for anything. I’m sure the Chinese can make great steel, but people go to the Chinese when they want something done cheap. You get what you pay for.

DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back > Captain of the Enterprise 05/10/2018 at 10:45

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1-1/4"

Wacko > DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back 05/10/2018 at 10:45

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guessing those cracks might be because of this

BeaterGT > DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back 05/10/2018 at 10:47

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It’s easy to line mine up because it’s when the scratched paint/rust line ends on the receiver insert :)

I’ve never even had to re-snug up the bolts but it is certainly worth examining before riding season is well underway. Awaiting a new rack review post once you get sorted!

DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back > Eberle-Hills-Cop 05/10/2018 at 10:47

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I’ll have to look into these, although I feel like it’ll look pretty silly behind my WRX. Do you have any experience with 1up’s bike racks? How do they compare?

DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back > BeaterGT 05/10/2018 at 10:53

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I never had to snug up the bolts either. It just kept getting wobblier on its own. I would go to try to tighten it but it was as tight as it would go. It must have been slowly failing.

I’m sure that post is gonna be titled “Just buy the more expensive thing first. its expensive for a reason, dumbass”. At that point I’l have spent around $1000 on bike carrying solutions when I could have just sucked it up and done it right the first time.

BeaterGT > DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back 05/10/2018 at 10:58

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Oh wow, $1000?! I got a hitch installed as a birthday present and picked up the Swagman rack for a good price. I think I’m on year 4 of using it. That 1-Up unit does look good though...

DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back > Wacko 05/10/2018 at 10:58

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I mean its possible it was over tightened. I won’t dismiss it offhand, as I’m not educated in materials science. But its also cracked in the weld. It would be convenient to blame it on over tightening but that happened a little over 2 years ago when I first put it together. I was using an imperial Allen wrench instead of metric, and the bolt stripped really easily. Its probably a cheap bolt with soft steel.

benjrblant > DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back 05/10/2018 at 11:00

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Unsure of your budget, but 1up and Kuat make some excellent racks. I have a roof rack so that might not be of much help to you.

DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back > BeaterGT 05/10/2018 at 11:00

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Also, I don’t know how long you’ve had yours, but mine is only just over 2 years old and the grooves on the vertical tube where the clamps slide down had worn quite significantly. The pawls on the clamp wouldn’t hold very well and the clamp would loosen slightly.

Bluecold > Wacko 05/10/2018 at 11:02

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Yep, it takes a lot of force to wreck a 12.9 bolthead like that.

I cannot fathom why 12.9 bolts where used in that area. 12.9 can suffer from hydrogen embrittlement and is way too stiff for the surrounding structure. 

BeaterGT > DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back 05/10/2018 at 11:05

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Ah, that’s good info. I’ve tried to be mindful of this happening and would slide the clamps as far down as possible before starting to “ratchet.”

DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back > BeaterGT 05/10/2018 at 11:05

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Yeah I tried seasuckers first which were $300 when i bought them, but they popped the thin metal on my roof a lot which irritated the crap out of me, then my peadl swung around and scratched up my roof. So then I bought the hitch for like $300 and this rack for $180. So when I buy the 1up and an add-on ($500 total) I’ll have spent over $1,300 total on bike carriers over the last 3 years.

DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back > benjrblant 05/10/2018 at 11:08

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Yeah gonna go for a 1up probably.

DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back > Bluecold 05/10/2018 at 11:12

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I would not consider myself a strong person at all, and these bolts were hand tightened with an allen wrench. however I was using an imperial instead of metric wrench when I put it together which probably didn’t help.

BeaterGT > DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back 05/10/2018 at 11:12

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I could never go with a roof rack, too many concerns of damage. The last thing I want to do after a tiring ride or when I’m in crash-recovery mode is to try and finagle a bike on top of my car. That’s what I love about this setup, just throw the bike on, clamp it down and be on your way.

PartyPooper2012 > DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back 05/10/2018 at 11:13

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I am no metallurgist or anything close to it, but I am sure you can take a little bit of iron. Mix in some garbage metal. Make it look like real metal steel/iron/alloy of sorts and sell to stupid world as real metal/steel/iron/alloy of sorts.

I have no proof they are doing THIS... but I have seen similar shenanigans coming out of China. Here is a 5 cell battery with only 2 functioning cells and 3 others are simply filled with sand.

Fuck China. Fuck their cheap bullshit knockoff merchandise.

Captain of the Enterprise > DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back 05/10/2018 at 11:31

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Ok I have a used 2 inch but it’s the wrong size and would probably cost a lot to ship since it’s so heavy.

Eberle-Hills-Cop > DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back 05/10/2018 at 11:32

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1up I do not. I had considered them a while back before I got this one because I was tired of most racks having too much plastic that gets sunbaked and brittle. The metal construction is key imo. But I don’t really like the horizontal style rack once I started adding bikes and pushing them farther and farther from the receiver. Obviously not a big concern if you are only carrying one bike though.

DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back > Captain of the Enterprise 05/10/2018 at 11:37

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I appreciate the thought man! I think I’m just gonna buy a 1up hitch though.

Captain of the Enterprise > DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back 05/10/2018 at 11:47

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No problem! Nice WRX too! That’s the color I would want!

Bluecold > DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back 05/10/2018 at 14:25

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aah no that probably didnt help. But 12.9 is really strong steel for bolts. 12.9 means 1200mpa yield (material starts to stretch) strength, which is 90% of the maximum strength (so to pull the bolt apart you need 1333mpa).

Crappy bolts have a rating of 4.8, which means 400mpa yield, at 80% maximum strength, so to pull a crappy bolt apart, you need just 500mpa. ‘decent’ bolts are 8.8 (so 800mpa yield, 1000mpa max).

12.9 is verging on ‘special use’.

DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back > Bluecold 05/10/2018 at 14:57

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Holy crap thats a lot of force.

So it seems the cause of this is that:
1. I probably over tightened it at some point, and
2. The bolts are much stronger than the surrounding metal, which meant they didn’t flex or absorb much impact, which translated the force into the surrounding material causing it to fracture.

Fascinating. Thanks for your input. Learned a little bit today.

functionoverfashion > Eberle-Hills-Cop 05/29/2018 at 16:38

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I saw a rack like that behind a small car and it did look... odd. But works with your taller Xterra for sure.

functionoverfashion > DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back 05/29/2018 at 16:38

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Are you anti-roof rack? I love my roof-mounted thule rack.

DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back > functionoverfashion 05/30/2018 at 13:00

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Not necessarily, but I really do like hitch racks. And my car doesn’t have fixed points for crossbars so thats a no go.

I actually have an update to post, but its just been one thing after another and I just haven’t had time. After I emailed swagman about the rack they asked for the batch number and then sent me a brand new one for free. Really stoked about that and really happy they stand behind their products.

functionoverfashion > DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back 05/31/2018 at 09:31

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Well that’s great news! Sounds like they had some production issue they’re aware of. And you’re lucky it didn’t end badly!

I was imagining your car had the roof rails already, which makes a big difference obviously. I used simple u-bolts to attach my thule crossbars, and I’ve had the bike racks forever.