Saris B.A.T. 2-Bike Spare Tire Rack Review

Purchasing a bike rack for a 2007 Toyota Rav4 is a big pain in the a**.

The rear door for the 2007 (and I believe 2006, both of which saw a significant redesign to previous models) swings to the side rather than up. The spare tire is attached to the rear door, and there's a metal bracket that the tire bolts onto.

I originally purchased the Yakima Spare Joe and it didn't really fit on the Rav4 due to the bracket in the back blocking the strap that is supposed to run vertically behind the tire.

I returned that one and purchased this one instead. It's a pretty good price but requires that you also purchase one of two special metal pieces that goes behind the tire and eventually gives you something to bolt the BAT to. See: Saris BAT Spare Tire Rack Mounting Plate B - 996B. For a simple hunk of metal and a bolt, $50 is pretty ridiculously expensive, making the entire product much more expensive than it initially appears.

Once you get everything you have to attach it to your car. The plate the company recommends doesn't fit the Rav4 at all, as the spare tire mount (the Toyota bracket) has a metal lip that is in the way of the BAT bracket.

Your only options at this point are to return everything or bust out your handy metal grinder and grind off the entire metal lip on the spare tire mount. Which is what we did and at that point I was able to attach everything and it worked fine after that.

An additional annoyance is that to actually get to your spare tire in case of a flat, you need to remove the BAT, which is to be expected, but for some reason they didn't bother to make the final mounting bolt a size larger than can be removed by standard lug wrenches, so you have to carry an additional wrench around to removed the bolt.

It would have been handy if the customer rep that I spoke to on the phone from Saris had warned me ahead of time that this didn't fit my Rav4.

Anyway, now that everything is on it does seem to work fine.

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Product Description:
The Saris B.A.T. 2-Bike rack mounts securely to your spare tire. The fitted mounting plate (sold separately) ensures a solid connection.

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Surco BT300 Spare Tire Mount Bike Rack, Up To 3 Bike Capacity Review

I just completed a 500 mile trip to Maine with three bikes on this rack.It was attached to my CR-V.We encountered all types of road surfaces from high speed highway to dirt roads and the rack preformed very well.The bikes (two mountian and one kids) were held firm and without any sway or wobble.To mount and dismount the rack was a piece of cake.The only thing I had to do was purchase a conversion tube for my daughter's bike as it is of the modern kids style that has a large frame tube.

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Product Description:
3-Bike Rack and Spare Tire Rack; carry your bikes safely with our spare tire bike rack

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Hollywood Racks SR1 Spare Tire Rack 2-Bike Spare Tire Mount Rack Review

We purchased this rack for use on a Chevy Tracker & Jeep Liberty. We wanted something that would be able to slip on/off without alot of tools and be able to be mounted on either SUV that we own without alot of hassle.
Both spare tires have covers and we wanted something that did not require mounting to one of the bolts holding on the spare tire.
This rack has been used several times in the last month and works great.
Another review on here stated they received the rack with just plain arms for sitting the bike on. Ours did come with the plastic cradles and rubber straps shown in the present picture of the rack and which are the newer model. (part# SR1-SA2)
The rack has remained tight on the spare tire ever since the original mounting. The only cons we noticed and this was mentioned on another review was that we did notice a small amount of rust after only a few days on the tightening bolts threads. Other than this, the rack has performed as expected and we would recommend this rack for anyone who has multiple vehicles with outside spare tires and might want to change the rack to the either vehicle without alot of hassle.

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Product Description:
Allows fast installation or removal with a rugged strap system. Fully adjustable to fit most rear spare tires. Support arms can be centered for side-mounted tires, and folded when not in use. Carries two bikes, comes fully assembled and folds flat for storage.

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