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Platform bike rack

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Just finished my trip with 4 bikes on a platform rack and here is the update.

First off, we only took the road bikes, including an electric road bike. Total rack + 4 bikes weight was 165 lb, only 5 lb above the capacity.

The car was over GVWR capacity though. For Model Y AWD with Tow Hitch, the Payload is 826 lb. This is based on GVWR of 5,302 lb, which suggest the curb weight of the car is 4,447 lb. These figures are all from my own car's labels near the driver door.

Our payload was 930 lb, 104 lb (or 13%) above the car's capacity with 670 lb for 4 people, 165 lb for bike + rack, and 95 lb of cargo. The reason I felt comfortable going beyond capacity is the Gross Axle Weight capacity of Model Y is oddly 25% more than GVWR. This 25% derating is very odd for every other car, including all the other Tesla's, as the norm is GAWR is roughly 0%-5% more than GVWR, but not for Model Y, where GAWR is 6,610 lb, 25% higher than GVWR.

I traveled total 193 miles each way. Climbing from sea level to 7,000ft, and return. The consumption was 475 Wh/mile on my way up and 391 Wh/mile on my way down. I did not try to maximize range or reduce power consumption whatsoever. I was pretty fast, averaging 80-85 on the highways, though my overall speed average was barely 60mph due to traffic at multiple spots. I did not feel the rack or bikes impacting car's handling whatsoever in windy climbs, at times over 80 mph. The rack and the bikes were practically a solid part of the car with no movement whatsoever. Unfortunately, I won't know how much of the high power consumption was due to my spirited driving vs car being beyond full, with an aero drag of 4 bikes and the rack hanging on the back.

Autopilot worked with no problems at all. Perhaps 1/3 of the road, I was on autopilot.

Lastly, I stopped by at a supercharger. With bikes on the back, I was hoping for a relatively empty supercharger so that I can stop orthogonally to the parking slots. The supercharger I stopped had only 4 empty spots out of 14. I thought I was going to need to take the bikes off the rack but one of the charging spot has enough opening on the back that I was able to comfortably park and charge the car without taking the bikes off (picture is below).

All in all, I was very happy with how Model Y handled 4 bikes plus the rack plus all the family and the gear. I've been using this rack with 4 bikes for 5 years now with thousands of miles previously on Land Rover Discovery. I felt equally comfortable in carrying all this gear plus people in Model Y as I was in Discovery, which is a lot to say given Discovery's whopping 1,900 lb payload capacity and Class IV hitch, vs Model Ys 826 lb payload capacity and Class II hitch.

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Thanks for such an informative post. It's been difficult to discern if the Model Y stock hitch can handle four bikes. Based on your posts, I ended up going with the vertical LOLO rack (65lbs) since we are carrying kids and city bikes (~20-27lbs). The trays like Kuat are definitely the way to go in terms of easy of loading and spacing (avoid rubbing between bikes) but my concern was the overall weight. I realize this is a thread on platform racks but for those of you who might want to compare. The vertical rack appealed to me for is shorter profile. The LOLO is nice because the bikes are rear facing and will not touch your vehicle. It's taller which probably reduces efficiency, but coming from a Yakima Fullswing, it's night and day.

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This is my rack. I have had this for many years.

I tried it the first time today going to bike trails which is just a few minutes from where I live.

Probably I'm at 175 lbs....
Just to update. I did a trip from Miami to Fort Wilderness in Orlando for camping. Brought all my bikes on this 400+ mile trip (200+ mile one way) and I realized that I was consuming an additional 50-100kwh. Felt stable. My main problem was finding a supercharger stall that will accommodate my long tail.
 
Just to update. I did a trip from Miami to Fort Wilderness in Orlando for camping. Brought all my bikes on this 400+ mile trip (200+ mile one way) and I realized that I was consuming an additional 50-100kwh. Felt stable. My main problem was finding a supercharger stall that will accommodate my long tail.
Thanks for the update. After seeing your feedback and Dcd7041, I am leaning more towards the platform setup for our 4 bikes. Granted 2/4 bikes are kids bikes as well.