June 30, 2010
Rack Attack Team
The customer just bought her lovely Toyota Sienna a new hitch and a Yakima Swingdaddy to go with it, knowing that she needed a wash. When she was in the shop she mentioned this to me and I told her, "just make sure you take the bike rack off before going through the car wash!" And to her credit, when she arrived at the car wash she stated this fact to the attendant. Unfortunately, the attendant said, "oh, we get those coming through here all the time. It'll be fine." Unfortunate indeed.
The result was a snapped cradle button on the anti-sway portion of the Swingdaddy. Can it be fixed? I wouldn't, because even with a "super adhesive" the part is weak enough that you'll just have it snapping off in your hand later. Can it be replaced? Absolutely, Yakima sells replacement parts, including the anti-sway seats. Will it be easy to replace? It's not too big of a deal, you just have to take out the screws holding the cradles in, slide out the broken one, and replace with your new part. Good as new!
So, the lesson here... don't go through the car wash with your brand new bike rack, whether hitch or roof mounted, because it'll cost you an extra twenty bucks in parts. Another way of looking at that, though, is that Yakima spare parts are available if anything happens to your brand new rack. Be careful out there!
