Me and my buddy leave our bike racks (1-up) on at all times. He was rear-ended by a Tesla recently while waiting to turn left at a signal. Did $15k damage to Tesla front end and just tweaked his rack a LITTLE 👍. I’m sold.
What are you relying on AAA to do for you, bring you a spare tire?
That is one of the things they do, yes.
Tow me on a flat bed truck
Next thing they will ticket you for driving around with bike racks attached. They want those money!
Enjoy your prison time
Where I live and they routinely salt the roads in the winter, they will rust in place and become almost impossible to remove.......coming from someone who learned the hard way!
They don't send people to prison in Canada, like they do in the states. A good slap on the wrist, and a $100 fine at most.
In many countries an additional license plate and even rear lighting is compulsory if the bike rack obscures the original lighting and license plate.
I had to sweet talk a reluctant sign company to make a copy of my plate for when I have my cargo rack slid into my hitch. When the rack is loaded up you can’t see the cars plate. I fasten the duplicate plate to the back of the rack with bolts and nylock nuts, and also added lights wired to the trailer connector. A cop friend said the copied plate isn’t legal, but probably would not be an issue unless one was doing something else that provoked attention. Moving the real plate would be a pain and increase the chance of loss by contact with a steep driveway or some other mishap. Look at most utility or boat trailers and see how beat up the plates get. I’ve lost several trailer plates over the years, I suspect a rack plate ultimately would suffer a similar demise.
I see your point. I am considering getting an OEM hitch and using a bumper step with brake light. I think the bumper step solves three issues. 1st, I think the Gen 5 Rav needs more brake lighting in the back, second, the step will help when I wash the car's roof, and third it will provide some protection from rear bumper dings.
That's not always true here.
There is a reason why in US all the receivers allow removing of the ball carriers and they stop at the bumper line. Bumpers are required by federal law and approved for road usage when car is homologated.
When we lived in SoCal there were rings of people who deliberately cut right in front of other drivers, braked hard, and caused crashes. Then those attempted to get large settlements for alleged damage and injuries.:Law enforcement and insurance companies became aware of the scams and often used victims' dash camera evidence and then counter sued. That generally put an end to the scams.
This was at a line of cars merging to exit the main road to highway, morning rush hour. He bypassed the line of stupid people (like me), and thought that he can jam his SUV in the small space in front of my car (an older Mercury Sable).
