Bike Rack for JX
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Not sure how real this is
http://fitguides.orsracksdirect.com...bledown-4-bike-rack-for-2013-infiniti-jx.html
Yakima bike rack for the Infiniti JX
http://fitguides.orsracksdirect.com...bledown-4-bike-rack-for-2013-infiniti-jx.html
Yakima bike rack for the Infiniti JX
I need to buy a 4-bike rack to attach to the 2" hitch to haul our bikes. To access the rear hatch while the bikes are mounted, I need a swinging hitch such as the Yakima SwingDaddy or Thule Apex Swing. Does anyone on this forum have expereince, good or bad, with either of these racks on their JX?
Thanks!
Thanks!
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I just got this the Kuat NV bike rack for my JX. It is by far the nicest bike rack I have owned. I went to LBS to get a Thule and my shop showed me the Kuat NV and it wasn't close. Check this own out before you get the standard Thule/Yakima.
http://kuatracks.com/en/products/bike/the-nv/[/URL]
http://kuatracks.com/en/products/bike/the-nv/[/URL]
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Also I turn the TOW Mode on, so it disables the backup sonar. I used the rack today, it takes 2 min to put the rack on the JX and even less to put on my bike. I love not having to take bike wheels off, I show up for a ride and I'm ready in a minute while everyone else puts their front wheels on and adjusts everything. It is a top quality rack, no cheap stuff on it, it will tilt down so you can open rear hatch with bikes on the rack.
That's one sweet looking bike rack. 2 bikes only?
I've used Yakima is a past 10+ years ago and they were GREAT back then - I'm sure they can only be better now.
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2 or 4 bikes, you can add an additional piece to carry four bikes when needed
Everyone likes something different, it's a good thing there are so many products on the market. The Kuat is definitely a cool looking piece, but I went with Thule for it's more functional design. Some things to think about...
1. The Thule's tongue has a nut welded on the inner wall. The "hitch pin" is actually a long bolt that pulls the tongue tightly against the side of the receiver tube to keep it from flopping around, essentially making rack a rigid extension of the car's frame. A lock goes on the protruding end. A picture below shows the configuration, I actually cut the tongue off to move the center of gravity as close to the car as possible for less torque on the hitch. I fitted it perfect and welded a new nut in. You can see how closely it folds up against the car.
2. The owner of the local bike shop bought a Kuat for his Audi SUV. He promptly sold it and put his Thule back on. His main concern was the lack of adjustability. Looking at their specs and design, also see two issues that I couldn't live with, adjustability between the rails and rail offset side-to-side off the spine. These hitches put a tremendous torque on the hitch, so I wanted the bikes as squeezed up against the car as possible, which required sliding the rails together towards the car, and staggering them sideways slightly so that forks didn't hit derailleurs, etc. The combination of clipping the tongue and adjusting the bikes reduced the torque 20%(!) Kuat says they have best in class 13" between bikes, I have mine adjusted to 9" without the bikes touching. That 4" times 3 equates to the fourth bike sticking out a foot further on the Kuat.
3. I love Yakima products, I use their crossbars and rails (and ski racks) on our other cars. But they aren't adjustable between rails either.
Soooo... everyone has their freedom of choice. I tend to be pragmatic because of our extreme application, like buying a Pathfinder for its transmission and more mainstream styling.
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1. The Thule's tongue has a nut welded on the inner wall. The "hitch pin" is actually a long bolt that pulls the tongue tightly against the side of the receiver tube to keep it from flopping around, essentially making rack a rigid extension of the car's frame. A lock goes on the protruding end. A picture below shows the configuration, I actually cut the tongue off to move the center of gravity as close to the car as possible for less torque on the hitch. I fitted it perfect and welded a new nut in. You can see how closely it folds up against the car.
2. The owner of the local bike shop bought a Kuat for his Audi SUV. He promptly sold it and put his Thule back on. His main concern was the lack of adjustability. Looking at their specs and design, also see two issues that I couldn't live with, adjustability between the rails and rail offset side-to-side off the spine. These hitches put a tremendous torque on the hitch, so I wanted the bikes as squeezed up against the car as possible, which required sliding the rails together towards the car, and staggering them sideways slightly so that forks didn't hit derailleurs, etc. The combination of clipping the tongue and adjusting the bikes reduced the torque 20%(!) Kuat says they have best in class 13" between bikes, I have mine adjusted to 9" without the bikes touching. That 4" times 3 equates to the fourth bike sticking out a foot further on the Kuat.
3. I love Yakima products, I use their crossbars and rails (and ski racks) on our other cars. But they aren't adjustable between rails either.
Soooo... everyone has their freedom of choice. I tend to be pragmatic because of our extreme application, like buying a Pathfinder for its transmission and more mainstream styling.
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Well I'm not as smart as Gibbons, but I do own a JX because its a better SUV than a Pathfinder. I also have had a Thule hitch rack and they are ok for the family bikes, but if your carrying 2 or more carbon TT bikes, the Thule is below average. The Kuat is much better for these bikes hands down, no sway, no stress on carbon frame.
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"Hands down better"? Name one thing that's better on a Kuat except for the looks. Tell me how it's better on a carbon bike than a Thule, when they both put the front wheel in a cradle with a hook over the top, and a strap around the rear wheel. They're exactly the same!!! The only thing is, Kuat isn't adjustable. So you get the situation where you can't really put 4 off-road bikes on it, as the pic on their own website inadvertandly shows, where they only have 3 bikes on a 4 position rack, in spots 1, 2, and 4, because another won't fit in spot 3. Oops! http://kuatracks.com/en/products/bike/
I liked your shot at me with our "family bikes", noting twice that your bikes are carbon. On that rack in my pictures is my $8K SantaCruz Tallboy (carbon) with Enves. When my wife and I go roading, I put her $6K Orbea Diva (carbon) and my $12K Wilier Zero.7 (carbon) the rack. Yeah, 2 of my 3 bikes are carbon, but my Surly Moonlander is chromoloy because no one makes a carbon fat/snow bike yet. I admit, my road bikes would fit and look nice on a Kuat. I just need more functionality when the bike mix changes.
Let's face it, the JX and Pathfinder are both AWD mini-vans. "SUV", seriously, with 6" of ground clearance? LOL... But, if you must say the JX is a better "SUV", it's not, because the Pathfinder has locking 4x4. It's hardly noticeable, but yeah, it's a titch better in extreme conditions where 99.9% of owners would never get caught in.
I did some data collection and a static freebody analysis of my worst case loading, 4 mountain bikes. I loaded up the rack and balanced it on a fulcrum to find the centroid. I measured from the centroid to the hitch, and with the 4 bikes, calculated about 510 ft*lbs of torque (leverage) on the hitch. Basic engineering principles tell us that's the equivalent of a 500 lb force on a receiver at 1 ft from the hitch. Following? Soooo... if the Pathfinder has 5000 lb towing capacity, you would expect the hitch to be capable of 10% of the total, or 500 lbs. With a 12" draw bar (the tube that holds a trailer ball), you get 500 ft*lbs of torque. Wow! Yep, the hitch load of 4 bikes is as much as a pretty darn heavy trailer! Everyone knows that right??? Now you do. With the welding mods and close-up staggered set up I did on the Thule, my load is about 410 ft*lbs.
If this has you thinking, as it should, you may be thinking about the JX's lesser towing capacity. Don't worry, that's based on the transmission, not the hitch or unibody structure. The JX and Pathfinder share the exact same unibody frame, suspension, and hitch. So you're safe to load up your bike rack.
And finally, in sentence 1 of hte previous post, it should be "it's" (contraction of it and is) not "its" (possessive of it), and it should be "you're" (contraction of you and are), not "your" (possessive second person pronoun).
I liked your shot at me with our "family bikes", noting twice that your bikes are carbon. On that rack in my pictures is my $8K SantaCruz Tallboy (carbon) with Enves. When my wife and I go roading, I put her $6K Orbea Diva (carbon) and my $12K Wilier Zero.7 (carbon) the rack. Yeah, 2 of my 3 bikes are carbon, but my Surly Moonlander is chromoloy because no one makes a carbon fat/snow bike yet. I admit, my road bikes would fit and look nice on a Kuat. I just need more functionality when the bike mix changes.
Let's face it, the JX and Pathfinder are both AWD mini-vans. "SUV", seriously, with 6" of ground clearance? LOL... But, if you must say the JX is a better "SUV", it's not, because the Pathfinder has locking 4x4. It's hardly noticeable, but yeah, it's a titch better in extreme conditions where 99.9% of owners would never get caught in.
I did some data collection and a static freebody analysis of my worst case loading, 4 mountain bikes. I loaded up the rack and balanced it on a fulcrum to find the centroid. I measured from the centroid to the hitch, and with the 4 bikes, calculated about 510 ft*lbs of torque (leverage) on the hitch. Basic engineering principles tell us that's the equivalent of a 500 lb force on a receiver at 1 ft from the hitch. Following? Soooo... if the Pathfinder has 5000 lb towing capacity, you would expect the hitch to be capable of 10% of the total, or 500 lbs. With a 12" draw bar (the tube that holds a trailer ball), you get 500 ft*lbs of torque. Wow! Yep, the hitch load of 4 bikes is as much as a pretty darn heavy trailer! Everyone knows that right??? Now you do. With the welding mods and close-up staggered set up I did on the Thule, my load is about 410 ft*lbs.
If this has you thinking, as it should, you may be thinking about the JX's lesser towing capacity. Don't worry, that's based on the transmission, not the hitch or unibody structure. The JX and Pathfinder share the exact same unibody frame, suspension, and hitch. So you're safe to load up your bike rack.
And finally, in sentence 1 of hte previous post, it should be "it's" (contraction of it and is) not "its" (possessive of it), and it should be "you're" (contraction of you and are), not "your" (possessive second person pronoun).
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And finally, in sentence 1 of hte previous post, it should be "it's...
And THE is spelled T H E, if your going to be a "smart ass"
And THE is spelled T H E, if your going to be a "smart ass"
Thank you all for the info on bike racks. We've decided to go with the Thule. The Kuat is way more than we need so it came down to the Yakima SwingDaddy or Thule. Thule won out by a small margin with its bike mounting cradles and ease of use.
Thanks again!
Thanks again!
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