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Anyone using the Seasucker Mini Bomber bike rack on their Model 3?

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I use a Talon on my Model S numerous times/year. Never any issues. Just recently had to update it as I purchased a new bike with thru-axle mounts. Seasucker sent me the required parts with a minimum of fuss. Great products. Great company. Recommend.
 
Sigh...

tl;dr: Got the Seasucker Talon, 3rd use cracked my rear glass.

So going back a month + i bought a Rockbros b/c the seasucker was over twice the price, used that for my hybrid bike, worked pretty well. Did the 3 suction cup (1 bike) setup on the front glass and the single one for the rear tire in the rear. Had no issues for the 5x i used it.

Ended up getting a nice new mountainbike and didn't like the idea of be chinsing on the cheap bike rack and decided to upgrade to the Seasucker, and man, quality wise it's a huge difference fwiw.

Used is as Seasucker recommends https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1524/8364/files/Tesla_Model_3_Special_Instructions.pdf?637 , 3 on the back glass and the one on the trunk lid. Did that about 3/4x and just now it cracked. I let them know about my experience. I'm not mad at anyone, just slightly disappointed in Tesla's glass durability.

And before everyone complains....that's the risk i took. And i can afford the replacement/deductible. Still sucks. I really don't want to add the roof racks + extra just for one bike but looks like that's what I'll do.
 
Sigh...

tl;dr: Got the Seasucker Talon, 3rd use cracked my rear glass.

So going back a month + i bought a Rockbros b/c the seasucker was over twice the price, used that for my hybrid bike, worked pretty well. Did the 3 suction cup (1 bike) setup on the front glass and the single one for the rear tire in the rear. Had no issues for the 5x i used it.

Ended up getting a nice new mountainbike and didn't like the idea of be chinsing on the cheap bike rack and decided to upgrade to the Seasucker, and man, quality wise it's a huge difference fwiw.

Used is as Seasucker recommends https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1524/8364/files/Tesla_Model_3_Special_Instructions.pdf?637 , 3 on the back glass and the one on the trunk lid. Did that about 3/4x and just now it cracked. I let them know about my experience. I'm not mad at anyone, just slightly disappointed in Tesla's glass durability.

And before everyone complains....that's the risk i took. And i can afford the replacement/deductible. Still sucks. I really don't want to add the roof racks + extra just for one bike but looks like that's what I'll do.
That's really unfortunate. You seem to have a good outlook on the incident, though. I can't say I'd be so willing to let it go.

Thanks for posting your experience. It certainly puts the Talon rack on the "Do Not Use on a Model 3" list.
 
Sigh...

tl;dr: Got the Seasucker Talon, 3rd use cracked my rear glass.

So going back a month + i bought a Rockbros b/c the seasucker was over twice the price, used that for my hybrid bike, worked pretty well. Did the 3 suction cup (1 bike) setup on the front glass and the single one for the rear tire in the rear. Had no issues for the 5x i used it.

Ended up getting a nice new mountainbike and didn't like the idea of be chinsing on the cheap bike rack and decided to upgrade to the Seasucker, and man, quality wise it's a huge difference fwiw.

Used is as Seasucker recommends https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1524/8364/files/Tesla_Model_3_Special_Instructions.pdf?637 , 3 on the back glass and the one on the trunk lid. Did that about 3/4x and just now it cracked. I let them know about my experience. I'm not mad at anyone, just slightly disappointed in Tesla's glass durability.

And before everyone complains....that's the risk i took. And i can afford the replacement/deductible. Still sucks. I really don't want to add the roof racks + extra just for one bike but looks like that's what I'll do.

Thanks for sharing your first hand experience. I have a zero dollar glass deductible on my car and am willing to take the risk for the handful of times I will use it.

Considering that the Seasucker racks are so widely used it's my opinion that Tesla using lower quality glass is a more likely contributor to the failures than that the rack has an inferior design.

Definitely don't want to go through the cost and hassle of putting the Tesla approved roof rack on and we actually just had a new thread in the last week or so where a guy cracked his roof glass when applying what he described as "very light" tightening pressure with the factory rack mount.
 
Great thread. I too went with the Tesla roof rack (paid Tesla to install it for me) and the Yakima HighRoad bike rack. Note, the Yakima FrontLoader rack will not work with the Tesla roof rack, it can't grip the rack bars properly.
Very solid and stable at highway speeds.
I did put some black electrical tape around the top edges of the Tesla roof rack posts as those post covers clip on very weakly and I have no doubt they would fall off soon. Am going to think of something more secure than electrical tape. (see red circled areas in picture)

IMG_0066.jpg


I went with the Tesla rack with a Thule Upride single wheel on bike rack.
I found the Tesla rack to be super solid. I was also amazed it how little efficiency loss there is from the Tesla rack bars. I thought I was going to have to take the bars on and off to avoid an efficiency hit, but I'm just going to leave them on for the riding season and take them off in the winter.

I take the bike rack on and off the bars, because I'm assuming it will add a quite a bit of extra drag.
It's relatively easy to mount and dismount the rack to the bars so that's not too bad.

I'm a bit paranoid about cracking the glass, so I throw a blanket on top of the glass when mounting the rack and when putting the bike up there just in case.

The rack with the bike (31lb mountain bike) on it seems very solid as well. Much better than the same setup mounted on the factory bars of our Acura MDX. On the MDX the bars themselves flex quite a bit when the bike wobbles going over bumps. The Tesla is much better.

Overall I feel much more confident with this setup than the seasucker racks.
 
Thanks for sharing your first hand experience. I have a zero dollar glass deductible on my car and am willing to take the risk for the handful of times I will use it.

Considering that the Seasucker racks are so widely used it's my opinion that Tesla using lower quality glass is a more likely contributor to the failures than that the rack has an inferior design.

Definitely don't want to go through the cost and hassle of putting the Tesla approved roof rack on and we actually just had a new thread in the last week or so where a guy cracked his roof glass when applying what he described as "very light" tightening pressure with the factory rack mount.

Well, a few things. I know it wasn't the Talon, that thing is rock solid, but that's part of the issue IMO, it's so durable that it translates all that lateral motion JUST enough to mess with the rear glass. The moment of the "crack" was not even 150 ft from my house, going over a small transition from brick road to normal pavement at prob 15-20mph which is slow for that road.

One thing i just thought of, I'm in central Florida, hot-ish day (high of 92), and i had my AC set to 67 (sounds cold but i have no tint) and set to stay on as i was loading up my car, so hot exterior and cold interior + stress = cracked? maybe.

My car is a August 2018 build, so there's a small chance that newer glass is made differently.
 
Sigh...

tl;dr: Got the Seasucker Talon, 3rd use cracked my rear glass.

So going back a month + i bought a Rockbros b/c the seasucker was over twice the price, used that for my hybrid bike, worked pretty well. Did the 3 suction cup (1 bike) setup on the front glass and the single one for the rear tire in the rear. Had no issues for the 5x i used it.

Ended up getting a nice new mountainbike and didn't like the idea of be chinsing on the cheap bike rack and decided to upgrade to the Seasucker, and man, quality wise it's a huge difference fwiw.

Used is as Seasucker recommends https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1524/8364/files/Tesla_Model_3_Special_Instructions.pdf?637 , 3 on the back glass and the one on the trunk lid. Did that about 3/4x and just now it cracked. I let them know about my experience. I'm not mad at anyone, just slightly disappointed in Tesla's glass durability.

And before everyone complains....that's the risk i took. And i can afford the replacement/deductible. Still sucks. I really don't want to add the roof racks + extra just for one bike but looks like that's what I'll do.


ouch,ok so thats those off the menu...
 
To add to the list of those with cracked glass, I had the Rockbros 3 bike rack with only one bike and it caused my roof to crack. I was really hoping the dispersed weight of the fork across a theee bike rack would be sufficient but surprising the crack formed under one of the front suction cups. Switched to the stealth hitch and couldn’t be happier with it other than the price and slightly difficult installation.
 
We are a family of avid cyclists and are in the fortunate place to no longer have to consider anything but tray racks on hitch mounts. I’m way too forgetful not to drive a roof or hatch mount into something like the garage header, never mind the much higher aero drag.

We installed ecohitches on both our Tesla’s and have been happy about it ever since. As others mentioned 1up is the best tray rack: light, easy to use and most importantly (that most people miss) that it’s easy to position multiple bikes a bit left or right so handlebars don’t hit seatposts etc.
 
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I have a hitch and a 1up usa hitch rack (up to 3 bikes).
Installation looks intimidating but it really isn't that hard.
I also have the roof rack, but I use that one for my kayak
I too have a hitch (EcoHitch, installed by TorkCentral, the manufacturer, as they are local to me) and a 1Up rack. The 1Up is a great rack and I much prefer putting bikes on a hitch rack than on the roof.
 
I have a hitch and a 1up usa hitch rack (up to 3 bikes).
Installation looks intimidating but it really isn't that hard.
I also have the roof rack, but I use that one for my kayak

Hello Jrzapata. I like your rack options. I would prefer a hitch for carrying my bike. Two questions. 1. Do you experience any problems with your rear sensors and cameras when bikes are on the rack? 2. What is the brand and model of your hitch? Were you able to self install it? Thanks, ...
 
I installed Torklift Ecohitches on both our S and 3. I’m pretty handy but not a mechanic and it takes 2-3 hours if you potter about like me. Nothing hard, just a bunch of steps like now remove the 6 screws and drop the underbody cover. Lots of details elsewhere in this forum.

On the S the bumper sensors pick up the bike while in reverse but there is a mute ‘button’ on the big screen. On the 3, Autopilot senses the bikes but still seems to work fine.
 
Hello Jrzapata. I like your rack options. I would prefer a hitch for carrying my bike. Two questions. 1. Do you experience any problems with your rear sensors and cameras when bikes are on the rack? 2. What is the brand and model of your hitch? Were you able to self install it? Thanks, ...

hello, sorry for the delayed reply.
I only out the rack on when I am using it, if it is on the screen shows a warning about proximity sensors being blocked and that the lane departure warning won’t work correctly, even when using a single bike setup.
The rack is a 1up USA bike rack, I got the smaller one but wish I had opted for the bigger one. This one can carry up to 3 bikes, the larger version can do 4
The hitch is a stealth torklift, I had help installing it by an experienced car technician in my family, but it wasn’t too difficult to do. The video that torklift has in their site is very good at showing you how to do it. Check it out and see if you are up for the challenge of doing it yourself. Hope that helps