Older Thule hitch rack barely fits 29" tire

rogerfromco · Dec 2, 2012

I have an older 2 position hitch rack that has the wheel cradle and j-hook to secure the front tire. It was made before the 29-ers were getting popular and the j-hook barely fits over the front tire. It take a lot of wiggling and pulling to get it over the top and only has a 1-2 clicks when pulling it down to lock it on the tire.

So while it works, I was wondering if I could by replacement arms for the rack so it would hold the 29-er's easier?

crux · Dec 2, 2012

rogerfromco said:
I have an older 2 position hitch rack that has the wheel cradle and j-hook to secure the front tire. It was made before the 29-ers were getting popular and the j-hook barely fits over the front tire. It take a lot of wiggling and pulling to get it over the top and only has a 1-2 clicks when pulling it down to lock it on the tire.

So while it works, I was wondering if I could by replacement arms for the rack so it would hold the 29-er's easier?

Nope that actually looks normal. One option is to tip the bike in with the arm further up but I don't really have the clearance for that on the back of the Jeep. Another option is modify the rack. If you remove the limit screw that stops the arm from sliding off you can make a slight notch with a dremel tool gaining 1/2" there. I did that and fits a 29er much nicer now.

Jayem · Dec 3, 2012

Hmm, looks strange to me. My arm goes to and hooks in just next to the fork. Same rack.

rogerfromco · Dec 3, 2012

Jayem said:
Hmm, looks strange to me. My arm goes to and hooks in just next to the fork. Same rack.

Mine does too, but the first photo was provided to show how much of a fight it is to rotate the j-hook up to the forks. Here's one showing it in place. Sorry for the confusion.

Sent from my Android - because Carrier Pigeons are slow!

nativeson · Dec 4, 2012

I've got a similar old sport works rack w/the same problem. I removed the stop at the end of the arm, it helped w/getting the arm over the tire. I only had 1-2 clicks too, felt kinda sketchy. I ended up running an NRS strap over the wheel onto my rack for extra safety, worked good on a trial run to the trailhead the other day, about a 40mi round trip. I'll try and get some pics up in a few days.

rogerfromco · Dec 4, 2012

Thanks. First thought I'm having is to trim off the dense foam material on the inside of the j-hook to see if that adds enough clearance to make it pull over the wheel easier. If I need more clearance, I may try the Dremel recommendation above too.

Shark · Dec 7, 2012

Yip the new ones are nicer, the arm is extended. Even fit fat bikes now, before had to let air out of tire.

rogerfromco · Mar 27, 2013

Well, I finally talked to someone at Thule today who took some measurements for me on the new racks versus the older one like I have. Turns out the arms and j-hooks are the same length on both the old and new rack styles. What they did to get the extra reach was they moved the pivot point about 1.5" forward towards the front tire. That point is welded onto the square tubing that holds the wheels so I do not have the option to buy new parts for the arms to convert my old rack.

Thought I'd share this here in case anyone else was thinking about the same thing.

Older Thule hitch rack barely fits 29" tire

rogerfromco

crux

Jayem

rogerfromco

nativeson

rogerfromco

Shark

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