Premier Locking

Excellent product and well built. I mounted mine on a 2005 Honda Pilot and found the tilting mechanism to be both easy to operate and clears the opening of the hatch just fine. See pictures.I have a few observations to make, having read the reviews prior to purchase:1. The rack does NOT fit toddler bikes. Our family currently has two adult bikes, one bike for an eight year old, and two bikes for twin five year olds. When mounting the bikes on this new rack, I discovered that the smaller twins' bikes would not fit at all. The good news is that they still fit inside the car and eventually will need bigger bikes that will mount on this carrier.2. There is NO problem with black powder or residue rubbing off on your hands from the straps. I saw this complaint in several reviews, and perhaps this was an old design issue, but with the product I just received I had no such problems.3. The rack has a structured loop for attaching a cable lock or other security solution. In a few of the reviews, customers seemed to have wisely made the suggestion that there should be some way of "locking" the bikes to the mounting rack, and I was pleased to see that mine arrived with the ability to do this. Conversely, the rack is only secured to the hitch only with a nut and bolt and my hitch lock does not fit the pre-drilled holes in the rack. So, I either need to buy another hitch lock or drill-out a larger diameter hole. In the end, with the bikes secured with cable locks and a U-lock, chances are the nut-and-bolt solution will be enough of a deterrent. So, I will likely just rely on the nut-and-bolt that came with the product, since the bolt was machined with a "shoulder" to best secure the mounting post to the hitch.Mounting the bikes does take some trial-and-error. Finding the right configuration is a bit of a puzzle, but not too daunting with some planning.All in all, this is a good product, functions as intended, and appears to be well-built. I will update if there are any issues, once I travel with this new mounting system.

I've never owned a rack before and have just been waiting to buy one. After reading all of the reviews for this rack and several other racks, I must say that I am so happy with the choice that I made!!! The rack was incredibly easy to put together, easy to get into the hitch, and easy to operate. I read several reviews that mentioned not being able to get the pin back in once they had lowered the rack for trunk access, I didn't have that same problem.For informational purposes, these are the couple of issues that I do have (which are not a fault of the rack, but situational):I drive a 2005 Jeep Liberty. In order to use the 5th spot for a bike, I will have to remove my spare tire. I will also have to remove the spare tire if I want to open the back door of the car. That is a mild set back, but something that I can definitely live with. An if I'm not mistaken, I believe that there is an extension that can be purchased if this becomes a problem.Also, I purchased a receiver lock to use with the rack. The rack itself comes with a "no wobble" bolt to use in the hitch, and I'll tell ya, the rack doesn't budge when the bolt is tightened. When I put the receiver lock in place, however, there was all kinds of room for the rack to wobble back and forth. In all reality, I can't imagine that any one person will just so happen to have the right size wrenches (you definitely need two in order to get the bolts on and off) while passing by that will make it possible to steal the rack. So really, no worries.All in all, I'm extremely happy with the purchase. The price was more than right, the rack itself is very sturdy, and I'm just dying to get it out on the road.

I was looking for a 5 bike rack and didn’t want to pay top dollar for it. I have a mechanical engineering background and believe this rack will hold up for a long time. There are a few things I would redesign if I produced this product. 1 - add a large welded loop to put a locking cable through, 2 - design the bike rest so they can be locked in position or tighten the tolerance so they will not be able to rotate easily as you put the bikes on (Nice idea for positioning the bike but very frustrating when they rotate as the bike is going on). 3 - add into the kit some padded Velcro straps to put between bikes as they are very tight together and rub in spots. 4 - build this this rack with the same dimensions for four bikes with an added push button extension bar on the end for a fifth bike if needed (this would allow for more room between bikes).Comments: I was concerned about the bike straps being difficult to reach and feed the straps through. It turned out not to be a problem. Overall they work fine, but take a little more time to put on and especially to take off than the rubber stretch style. They will not come loose after pulling them tight. I am not sure how well the strap material will hold up over time if left out in the elements but I believe they are replaceable. To put a bike on the inside towards the car the rack needs to be tilted out and then lifted back up with the bike on the inside. I only put a small bike on that side so far and it cleared the back of my van. If you put a bike on inside of the rack there is no way to access the back of a van even after tilting the rack because the van tailgate will hit the bike. Without the bike there it clears fine. It is a little difficult to reach and remove the tilt pin with all the bikes on to access the tailgate. I did it a few times with not too much difficulty but I am a bit stronger than the average person to lift all the bikes back into position. Overall, well built and designed and I would still recommend it as it is without improvements.