Yeah, my sole use would be for a bike rack.
Well, since my Stealth Hitch installation was a failure, and I needed to carry two bikes to Yosemite, I borrowed a Saris trunk-mount rack:
Yes, I know it's "unsupported" for this model, but I rolled the dice.
A week later, I'm back home, and the rack worked ok:
- The bikes made it there and back.
- There was no bending of metal or other deformation on the car.
- There is very slight scuffing on the car where the "side" straps/hooks attached:
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- It looks worse on the photo than in real life. If you were just walking by my car, you wouldn't notice unless I told you to look for it.
- I probably could have prevented it with some tape, but I was worried more about the load on the glass, so I put some old socks over the "feet" and forgot about this potential problem.
- A detailer could probably buff those out.
- There are 3 pairs of straps/hooks to secure the rack to the vehicle--top, side, and lower. The lower ones were useless, and detached every time, despite me tightening them pretty firmly at every stop. The top and sides were fine, other than the scuffing shown above.
- I did not feel very confident during the trip, and will get a hitch installed, soon, for my hitch-mount rack.
- If Stealth doesn't modify their design very soon, I may have to go with the Torklift Eco-Hitch, which will reduce my departure angle, but I think I can live with that.
- I could conceivably swap the Eco-Hitch for a Stealth Hitch down the road, if Stealth ever does a design mod, and then try to sell my Eco-Hitch for a fraction of what I bought it for.
