I made a short video about bike rack and hitches for the Model Y. I know I had a bunch of questions when I was searching for a bike rack. I talk about things like range increases, aftermarket vs tesla hitch, the Kuat rack itself. Let me know if you have any questions!
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Kuat bike rack video for the Model Y
- Thread starter burton06
- Start date
rxlawdude
Active Member
Nice review. One issue with the Kuat and most others is for bikes that have fenders.
That's why, for example, the Hollywood Sportrider SE2 has an advantage in that it secures the bikes by their frame (top crossbar). Some bikes with non-horizontal crossbars, of course, may not work well, and some bike owners are very fussy about anything touching their frame.
With a single eBike on the Hollywood rack, I only saw about a 10Wh/mi hit on two 500 mile drives. Your setup with two bikes has a lot more places to increase drag, so it's not surprising you're getting a bigger hit on consumption.
You mentioned on your video that with the two-additional bike extension on the Kuat, those third and fourth bikes can only be 40lb each.
Here's the issue: Rack is 50lb, let's call all four of your four bikes 40lb each. 210lb.
Even two 60lb e-bikes with the Kuat for a total of 170lb would exceed the vertical load limit of 160lb the Tesla MY hitch.
I would not expect third party racks to have any higher limit than Tesla's OEM hitch.
That's why, for example, the Hollywood Sportrider SE2 has an advantage in that it secures the bikes by their frame (top crossbar). Some bikes with non-horizontal crossbars, of course, may not work well, and some bike owners are very fussy about anything touching their frame.
With a single eBike on the Hollywood rack, I only saw about a 10Wh/mi hit on two 500 mile drives. Your setup with two bikes has a lot more places to increase drag, so it's not surprising you're getting a bigger hit on consumption.
You mentioned on your video that with the two-additional bike extension on the Kuat, those third and fourth bikes can only be 40lb each.
Here's the issue: Rack is 50lb, let's call all four of your four bikes 40lb each. 210lb.
Even two 60lb e-bikes with the Kuat for a total of 170lb would exceed the vertical load limit of 160lb the Tesla MY hitch.
I would not expect third party racks to have any higher limit than Tesla's OEM hitch.
Thanks! Yeah, actually I started out looking at the hollywood rack as well. But because my top tube slopes down so much, it wouldn't work as well.
Woah, 60lb e-bike sounds heavy. I was looking at the specialized and santa cruz ones and they are around 35-45 pounds. But yea you're right, if there is a super heavy e-bike like 60 pounds, then you'd definitely go over the weight limit.
rxlawdude
Active Member
Rshephorse
Member
You owe it to yourself to check out 1UP bike racks... they are almost as cool as a tesla, designed well, will last decades....
Great review. I started using my Kuat NV 2.0 rack about three weeks ago with a Tesla installed hitch and am very happy with the new rack. One correction is that the height of the bikes can be adjusted into three different front wheel positions using an enclosed wrench, so there is no need to move the bike seats if the two bikes are touching.
Nice. I think this is the only pic I’ve seen with this type rack and 4 bikes. How much do they all weigh and range hit?
rxlawdude
Active Member
Would've been my first choice, but for one of my bikes has fenders and the 1-up shares the same wheel securing issue as the Kuat.
Thanks! Yeah I tried this method at first, but it still wouldn't allow me to fully extend my seat for some reason
I guess it depends how tall your seat might be? not too sure.I wanted to get that one too, but then at the time, you wern't able to lock the hitch with a pin right? You could only lock it with the turning knob mechanism? I believe now you can do both.
I saw several videos of people stealing racks by just yanking out the rack from the hitch when there wasn't a pin.
I saw this on facebook the other day... I wonder if this owner did calculations on the weight for this.
rxlawdude
Active Member
Not to mention how much of a fulcrum that is with all that weight distributed like that.
I saw this on facebook the other day... I wonder if this owner did calculations on the weight for this.
Our drive wasn't too long (only about 50km) and I had introduced both cargo box and rack so wouldn't do it justice. Wasn't concerned about range hit since travel was well within the range.
As for weight, the freedom 4 I have weight in at 47lb (its the older model and I see the new one is measured at 53lb). I have 2 26" adult bikes and 2 kids bikes (size 24" and 20") so with the rack at 47lb, I had ~ 113lb to split for the 4 bikes which I was able to meet.
I see the new premium racks like 1UP and Kuat and even the new MTB from Saris are all quite a bit heavier than the freedom 4. So definitely would be tough to be under the 160lb limit for 4 bikes. Especially for MTB. But I'd love to use that as excuse to buy new bikes. : ). "honey, it is for our safety I must have that carbon bike!"
Congrats! Note that if you have the Tesla OEM hitch, you will need to buy a hitch lock with an L-shaped lock since there is not enough room to insert the included Kuat hitch bar between the hitch receiver and electrical socket. Either of these alternative locks would work:
https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Hitch-Lock/Kuat/HL2.html
https://www.amazon.com/Curt-Manufac...qid=1605049509&sprefix=curt+hitch+lock&sr=8-8
