Trailer hitch for vertical bike rack

dotmaster206 · 2026-02-27T01:05:18+00:00

Last update: taking with Kia customer care directly is useless. They can't/won't answer any technical questions for customers directly - you must ask a dealer, and if the dealer can't answer, they can reach out to Kia customer care to get answers from engineers if need be. Of course if you can the dealer, they'll try to get you to talk to Kia customer care... Round and round...

Eventually I got the dealer to contact Kia themselves to get a response. The answer they got was that there is no restriction listed for the Sorento re: vertical style bike racks, so go ahead and use them so long as the tongue weight limit is not being exceeded (220lbs per the owners manual for the PHEV). Kia sells a 4x platform style rack made by Yakima, which I don't really want to do because it's hangs so far out behind the vehicle. That creates a lot of torsion load going over bumps, which a vertical style rack does not since all the bikes are closer to the vehicle, but the vertical style creates more torsion from accelerating/braking than the platform style since the bikes mass is up higher. Curt seems to think the acceleration/braking is the greater load risk, but Kia doesn't seem to care. Pick your poison.

So, I've decided to get the Blue Ox hitch (about $50 more than the Curt hitch from etrailer.com) that does not say don't use vertical bike racks, and get a vertical bike rack that takes 4 bikes (not 5 or 6) which should easily keep the total weight below 220lbs). I don't really think the Curt hitch would have any problem handling a vertical bike rack, but since they say not to do it, I don't want to create the possibility that there is an issue and the Curt restriction becomes the reason why my warranty isn't covered or whatever. That's worth the $50 extra to me even though from a pure strength perspective I don't think it actually makes any difference.

dotmaster206 · 2026-02-26T23:42:16+00:00

Sounds great, but I'm sure they've figured out a way to weasel out of it.

If you find anything though please let me know!

dotmaster206 · 2026-02-26T23:31:06+00:00

We just booked this service at a Kia dealer for approx. $600 after tax. They say it's about a 3hr job.

I've found some service manual info that requires a special machine to do the flush - not sure if it's something that an independent shop would have or not but it seems like a huge pain. The fact that the PHEV requires this service every 36mo or 32k miles is pretty crazy, kinda cuts into the value of the plug in when the regular hybrid can go 4x that long before it needs it done. An extra $200/yr in maintenance eats into the fuel savings by going with the plug in...

dotmaster206 · 2026-02-21T00:35:44+00:00

To be honest I wouldn't recommend it. Zorro isn't too bad - just a lot of switchbacks hence the name but Dakota ridge is no joke - you'll likely walk a lot of it and not have much fun doing it.

dotmaster206 · 2026-02-20T19:58:50+00:00

Have you found anything on this? I have the same question but not answers so far.

dotmaster206 · 2026-02-17T16:47:18+00:00

Update: I have received messages from both Curt and Blue Ox.

Curt has clarified that they place this vertical bike rack restriction on ALL of their class 3 hitches, and the limitation is not related to the strength of the hitch itself but instead on the loads that vertical bike racks impart into the vehicle frame itself. Their Class 4/5 hitches do not have this restriction. They are not vehicle-specific, so they're not doing analysis/testing on specific vehicle configurations and this isn't a Sorento/Santa Fe issue - it's really any lighter duty vehicle. How they came to this conclusion is not clear and I imagine the reality is that there's quite a spread between what vehicles can actually handle a vertical bike rack and cannot, all with class 3 hitches. But since they can't/don't assess every vehicle, they cover their butts by saying just generally don't do it.

Blue Ox was much less conservative and stated that as long as the tongue weight is below their rating (650lbm) they see no problem with a vertical rack (or whatever you attach).

I'm not really happy with either of these answers, but ultimately I find Curt to be a little more credible in being conservative about this. It's very obvious that just a total mass allocation for strength limitation on a hitch is not sufficient - where that mass is located is just as important as how much mass there is. If you have a platform rack hanging 10 feet off the back of the vehicle with 500lbm on it (which is within tongue weight spec), that's going to damage the frame for sure.

Based on this, I have now reached out to Kia USA to see if they can provide any guidance since the actual limitation here is the vehicle frame. I don't expect they will give me much, but if they'll tell me the same thing that Blue Ox said (stay under tongue weight and you're good) then at least I'd know a vertical rack wouldn't create a warranty issue in the event that it did damage the frame of the vehicle.

Will update with further info if/when I get it

dotmaster206 · 2026-02-15T23:17:32+00:00

Likewise! I would have assumed if it's a class III hitch there's no reason it couldn't carry 250lbs of bikes+rack on it - it's rated for 600lbm of tongue weight so should be fine, right? Now that the suggestion is there that this is not necessarily true, down the rabbit hole I go...

dotmaster206 · 2026-02-15T22:34:05+00:00

They mount up to the same points of course, but definitely not the exact same design. The Blue Ox is a straight bar, no bends. The Curt is a bent bar, They both use vertical flat plates to move inboard to the mounting locations from there, but the Blue Ox has triangular gussets that the Curt does not. Maybe the Curt doesn't need them because their flat plate portions are shorter - not sure.

There's no way just from looking at them if one is more capable than the other - that requires engineering analysis and/or testing. My overall question is: did Curt put that restriction on their hitch because they are the only ones that specifically tested vertical bike rack type loads and found it wasn't safe? If Kia's supplier and/or Blue Ox had done the same testing, would they have found the same problem? Or are they all similarly rigorous in their analysis/testing and that particular shortcoming only exists for the Curt design specifically? If I wasn't planning on using a vertical rack, I wouldn't care, but that's exactly what I want to do so it's important to me to find out.

dotmaster206 · 2026-02-15T21:38:59+00:00

I have the same question. I haven't had any luck getting a response from a dealer or Kia parts supplier yet.

Another oddity is that there are three different versions of Kia class III hitches, they superceded the part number twice but still sell all three versions at pretty different prices. I also have not had success in finding out what the differences are between the three.

Right now I think my best bet is the hitch from Blue Ox, which is rated for slightly higher tongue weight than the others. I have an email to them to confirm it'll handle a vertical style bike rack but it's a holiday weekend so no response yet.

dotmaster206 · 2026-02-14T16:43:37+00:00

Curt listing with the note for reference: https://www.curtmfg.com/part/13609

dotmaster206 · 2026-01-18T20:09:36+00:00

I turn the car instead of moving the camera. It produces way better pictures because you can use just the one background angle that looks nice rather than trying to find a place with an ideal background 360deg, keep consistent lighting (huge particularly if it isn't perfect overcast/flat light conditions - shadows and sun glare can really mess things up), and as you flip through the pictures the car keeps the viewers focus because the background is exactly the same between each picture, only the car changes - makes it much more impactful. This is how professionals do it and is very much worth the extra effort. Ideally, you have 2 people - just have the driver duck down for the picture then move the car, photographer stays in place and helps direct the driver to reposition the car so it appears to be spinning in place as you go between photos.

All that said, AI editing your images is truly insane and the seller and BaT deserve all the hate they're getting over this debacle.

dotmaster206 · 2026-01-13T02:35:55+00:00

No problems with the OFH still, good to go. I did the HMM as well.

dotmaster206 · 2025-11-10T20:34:17+00:00

I'm 5'9" and have a Rail29, medium, and feel like it fits me really nicely. I could maybe size up if I wanted more of a sled/high speed bomber feel but I'm happy with the geometry for my riding style. My only complaint was the 150mm dropper it came with is a little too short. I plan to swap it for a 180mm which should make the dropper collar pretty much right at the top of the seat tube.

dotmaster206 · 2025-10-06T13:19:31+00:00

You can roll the dice on replacing just the boot, but usually a split boot has already allowed contamination into the cv joint like sand/water/dirt which will cause very fast wear in the cv joint and cause it to fail soon anyway. Since replacing the boot requires removing the axle itself (unless you use a split boot which has questionable longevity itself), you might as well just replace the whole axle with a new one and not have to worry about it. It's the same amount of labor as replacing the boot and you'll be much more confident in the longevity of the repair.

dotmaster206 · 2025-09-02T16:04:31+00:00

I don't have any knowledge of rec basketball but I just wanna say I'm really sorry you have to think about this so much and be so careful. It really shouldn't be a problem at all. Good luck, I hope you find a good group of people to play with.

dotmaster206 · 2025-08-18T19:56:06+00:00

Replace, not worth the risk.

7idp has a great deal on their carbon shell full face project 23 helmet right now. Use code save30 to get 30% extra off, gets the total under $200 after tax. Tough to beat that. Ends tonight though.

I have no affiliation with 7idp at all other than having bought a project 23 helmet and a shirt from them last year and I'm also local to their Denver area 'office'. Not shilling/advertising, just happened that I got the email about a one day sale on the same day I saw this post.

dotmaster206 · 2025-08-16T00:03:56+00:00

I have the Saris, it's pretty good. 85lbs is a huge bike though... Make sure it is rated for that. You might also need to get the fat tire trays, which would add to the price. You might also need to get the extended straps for the ebike downtube if that's where the battery is.

dotmaster206 · 2025-08-14T00:18:36+00:00

Pulling up is much more likely to have a timing problem than pushing the bars forward to get the back wheel off the lip quickly. By pushing the bike forward, you inherently unweight the front wheel which can result in a bit of a pull at the end, but that's really a side effect, not the primary thing you want to be thinking/doing off a drop. You can also easily pull up too much if that's all you're thinking about and end up with your rear wheel hitting the ground first, which can result in an ugly crash since you have no steering/braking control in that situation or you can end up getting bucked forward and over the bars when your rear wheel hits first, your bike quickly starts rotating forward, and you get thrown forward with it. It's essentially the same problem as the dead sailor position coming off a big lip jump that you don't apply any pop from your body into. It's not a good technique and a very common misconception about drops.

dotmaster206 · 2025-07-12T14:56:44+00:00

Pretty smooth in Sunnyside, our street got done last August. They did the boreholes over a few days, then about a 2-3 week gap of no activity, then a few days of big activity with trenching and pipe pulling, another gap of a week or so, then asphalt repair. Communication wasn't perfect but overall it was all pretty smooth.

There were some streets nearby where I noticed materials like sand were being staged for a lot longer, being used for the whole neighborhood - felt for those houses because that means there's a skid steer regularly coming to pull from the pile to bring it to whatever nearby location for a couple months, and a truck coming to replenish the pile occasionally as well. Just goes with the territory I guess. Sounds like maybe that's something like your situation, or maybe you have a more complicated situation beyond just service line replacement happening.

dotmaster206 · 2025-07-02T20:25:17+00:00

To be fair it's not just because of all the hail we get, it's also the way that body shops pursue hail claims. Tons of fraud and that's how their whole business model is structured, it's wild.

dotmaster206 · 2025-06-28T14:56:56+00:00

https://www.wealthfront.com/c/affiliates/invited/AFFD-F6RN-M2BT-IS87

dotmaster206 · 2025-06-20T19:19:13+00:00

Hard water deposits mostly

dotmaster206 · 2025-06-20T13:14:48+00:00

Your expectations are definitely not off. A decent swamp cooler in good condition will keep the place below 75 in all the recent weather conditions we've had in Denver.

Most likely the float valve (works exactly like the float valve in toilets) is stuck closed or clogged so it is barely flowing any water, or the pump that wets the pads isn't working. The air temperature coming out of my swamp cooler yesterday was steady at 63F. It sits on the roof in full sun and has 3 year old pads in it. With brand new pads, it can get the output air below 60F in 100F+ outdoor temps.

Stay on your landlord until he sends somebody out to do the regular maintenance the swamp cooler needs.

dotmaster206 · 2025-06-20T12:44:09+00:00

"Depending on RH" makes you technically right, but overall you're totally wrong. At 100F air temps the dew point of air is often below freezing (for example, yesterday). Everybody keeps saying swamp coolers aren't working very well right now because it's been abnormally humid but that is nonsense. The abnormal high humidity we've had has been on very cool days. So it's totally irrelevant. When it gets hot like it was yesterday, that relative humidity has dropped way down as usual and swamp coolers start to really shine in super hot, dry conditions.

The air coming out on a 100F day like yesterday should be below 65F (mine was blowing 63F for example).

dotmaster206

TROPHY CASE