Has anyone tried carrying four bikes on a Kuat or Thule tray hitch-mounted rack?

[kayaker99]

Hi fellow C-MAX owners!

 

We have a 2016 C-MAX hybrid SEL.  Just got a 2" Torklift EcoHitch put on it.  Now we are looking for bike racks that can carry three or four bikes.  Any experiences or recommendations to share?  

 

We are looking at both tray racks and hanging racks.  We have three road bikes (two 20 pounds, one 30) and would like the option of transporting a fourth bike if our kid has a friend along.  It seems almost impossible to actually get four bikes on a hanging four-bike rack, though.  The spacing is too close.

 

We liked the Thule T2 tray rack, which we tried out in our local REI store, but we have only been able to see the rack with two bike trays, and not the add-on which would make it carry four bikes.  Both the Thule and the Kuat have the capacity to add an extra piece which gives a total of four trays.  But the four-bike set up weighs 80 pounds and makes the rack quite long, which also increases the amount of force from bikes potentially bouncing at the end of the rack.

 

Has anyone actually tried carrying four bikes on a Kuat or Thule tray hitch-mounted bike rack?

 

Thank you!

[KCmax]

Not quite the same thing, but I recently installed the Torklift 2" hitch and use a Thule Easy Fold Bike Hitch rack with two E bikes. The bikes have a combined weight of close to 100 lbs. (we remove the batteries before loading them to save a little weight) and the rack itself weighs 41 lbs. It is very stable. 

4 regular bikes should be about equivalent.

[anbron]

Any update on this? Have you tried hauling 4 bikes?