Originally Posted by chaadster

You worked in glass shop 40 years ago, right? That’s more than 2 decades before Seasucker even existed, so your experience is not with Seasucker, it’s with glass from around 1985, a time when when rear window defrosters and power windows were optional extras on most American cars.

I think it’s important people understand that context to your comments, because the way you state it, “As someone who worked in a glass shop….just say no to Seasucker,” implies you have some work experience with Seasuckers breaking glass, which you do not.

And you also intend to mislead when you say Seasucker modified their instructions because of glass breakage, but that was not a general revision and was done only for Tesla Model 3 because of what they attributed to rare problems with Teslas roof glass and was actually a recommendation to move the front piece of the Talon rack off the roof and onto to the back glass. Yet, you rail on about Seasuckers and back glass…

Originally Posted by msu2001la

I don't really understand why my comment is causing so much grumbling. There isn't a kit available for my car in the link above, but they do make one for older models that looks like it might work. It's nearly $600 (plus tax) and described as 10/10 installation difficulty. Steps required include:

• Remove the interior side panels of the trunk, remove the rear bumper/facia, both tail lights, both rear wheel well liners and the rear factory reinforcement beam.
• Disconnect and pull the hands-free trunk opening sensor out of the rear facia (it's embedded inside).
• Use a saw to cut out and remove an 11" x 4" section of the rear facia, which is also the location where the hands-free trunk opening sensor is embedded by the factory.
• Re-attach the hands-free trunk sensor to the outside of the facia around the hole using zip ties
• Bolt the hitch kit onto the chassis using the bolt holes for the factory reinforcement beam. The beam gets installed on top of the hitch kit, using longer aftermarket bolts (is this safe?).
• Re-install the tail lights, rear facia/bumper cover, wheel well liners. Hopefully those panel gaps all line up OK. Note says that parking/self driving sensors may need to be recalibrated by a dealer.

The installation photos show the use of a hydraulic lift to access the bottom of the car. I doubt the ground clearance on my car is high enough to use ramps, so I'd probably need some kind of floor jack and stands to access the underside of the rear facia? I'd also need an electric saw, a set of torx drivers, a file and a bigger torque wrench.This is not a cheap or easy solution, even assuming I can successfully DIY this in my driveway. There is also a potential that I have to pay the car dealership to re-calibrate sensors. I'd also likely void my car's factory warranty on anything related to the rear sensors, bumper and tail lights.

I stand by my original post: If your car isn't designed to accommodate a hitch from the factory, I'd proceed with caution on getting one installed. Just because someone makes a kit or says they can do it doesn't mean it's a good idea. I'm sure on some cars it's no big deal.

Originally Posted by rsbob

Oh good, an argument over something trivial.

Originally Posted by msu2001la

I don't really understand why my comment is causing so much grumbling. There isn't a kit available for my car in the link above, but they do make one for older models that looks like it might work. It's nearly $600 (plus tax) and described as 10/10 installation difficulty.

Originally Posted by msu2001la

I don't really understand why my comment is causing so much grumbling.
...
Just because someone makes a kit or says they can do it doesn't mean it's a good idea. I'm sure on some cars it's no big deal.

Originally Posted by Pop N Wood

One thing to keep in mind is Curt Manufacturing has been in business for a lot of years. Mine has been on the car for 9 years now. If their stuff has been used to tow boats and trailers without them being sued into oblivion one has to guess they probably got the engineering right. Our little bike racks can't be stressing their product too horribly.

Originally Posted by chaadster

I imagine some folks indulged that same logical fallacy when the Takata airbag fiasco emerged. In 2013, Takata had been around 80 years, and making airbags for 26 years, so by your “reasoning,” that should have meant they had the engineering right. Well, we all should know how the Takata story goes.

Seasucker has been around 14 years…at what age do they earn your “I can only assume the engineering is good” pass? And what about GM? Good gravy, can you imagine how many lawsuits they’ve survived? Corvair alone brought them 294 lawsuits with over $100 million in claims. Some of those lawsuits they lost, too, for lousy engineering. Has GM earned your Lifetime Engineering Inviolability Award?

Originally Posted by Pop N Wood

Man you don't give up.

Originally Posted by soyabean

And yet it breaks car parts like rear wiper arms, that cost more than the cost of the rack itself. While you like your product so much, it caused the problem for you to start this thread.