1up bike rack installed

[djb_rh]

Wow, no need to be hostile about it. I’m just reporting back on how it fit and that there was some clearance in that upper position.

It’s not ideal to not be able to fully lower the tailgate, but it’s better than not being able to open it at all, only to forget, open it and dent the truck in the process.

I had the Kuat on my old car and installed it on the Maverick, didn’t want to buy a new rack if I didn’t have to. Will probably grab the Kuat extender/lowering adapter to see if I can get more clearance.

Sorry, I wasn’t intending to be hostile. I just wanted to make sure I understood what you were saying. But yes, moving your cables to that position is smart if you have your rack installed so you don’t dent your tailgate because you forgot or someone else didn’t know.

And FWIW, there are a lot of different splitters on the market that will give you a lower position that will get you the clearance you need for the tailgate, but they will give you a somewhat perilous departure angle, so you’ll need to very much keep that in mind. If you scroll up to my other post with pics of my solution, you can see it really doesn’t hang down far and yet I can say for sure that I’ve seen it get fairly close to the ground at times. I have a splitter that gave me about a 6” lower situation and that worked, but it ends up putting everything a couple inches lower than my solution above, so you do need to be careful with it.

The other problem with that solution was that there’s no way to do that and not *also* be extending your rack further from the back of the truck. That means you’re that much longer when you try to park and it also means when you do lower the tailgate that the rack is still sticking pretty far out behind it, making it still not terribly useful as a place to sit and change shoes and whatnot. It’s still a better option than not being able to open your tailgate flat, IMHO, but just something to know.

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[LDProductions]

Sorry, I wasn’t intending to be hostile. I just wanted to make sure I understood what you were saying. But yes, moving your cables to that position is smart if you have your rack installed so you don’t dent your tailgate because you forgot or someone else didn’t know.

And FWIW, there are a lot of different splitters on the market that will give you a lower position that will get you the clearance you need for the tailgate, but they will give you a somewhat perilous departure angle, so you’ll need to very much keep that in mind. If you scroll up to my other post with pics of my solution, you can see it really doesn’t hang down far and yet I can say for sure that I’ve seen it get fairly close to the ground at times. I have a splitter that gave me about a 6” lower situation and that worked, but it ends up putting everything a couple inches lower than my solution above, so you do need to be careful with it.

The other problem with that solution was that there’s no way to do that and not *also* be extending your rack further from the back of the truck. That means you’re that much longer when you try to park and it also means when you do lower the tailgate that the rack is still sticking pretty far out behind it, making it still not terribly useful as a place to sit and change shoes and whatnot. It’s still a better option than not being able to open your tailgate flat, IMHO, but just something to know.

No worries, hard to read people’s tone online sometimes. I’ll take some measurements at some point to figure out what will work best, but this is how it fits for now.

 

[djb_rh]

No worries, hard to read people’s tone online sometimes. I’ll take some measurements at some point to figure out what will work best, but this is how it fits for now.

Having gone through his already, I think you’re gonna find that you’d need to lower it way too much. And given that any lowering solution *also* extends it (there’s no other way) by some, I think you might be better served by just getting an extension so that you put it far enough back to let the tailgate nestle inside it. I think that’ll be less problematic, but I’ll be interested to see what you find. You may honestly be better off just living with it just like it is unless you have a tonneau and need to be able to get stuff out of there when biking and can’t just open the tonneau instead.

 

[LDProductions]

Having gone through his already, I think you’re gonna find that you’d need to lower it way too much. And given that any lowering solution *also* extends it (there’s no other way) by some, I think you might be better served by just getting an extension so that you put it far enough back to let the tailgate nestle inside it. I think that’ll be less problematic, but I’ll be interested to see what you find. You may honestly be better off just living with it just like it is unless you have a tonneau and need to be able to get stuff out of there when biking and can’t just open the tonneau instead.

Day to day, I’ll probably use the “official” 2x6 bike rack I put together, or grab a tailgate pad. We were traveling this weekend and needed the bed for bags and supplies so I threw the hitch rack on to make life easier.

 

[brnpttmn]

Thick moving blankets are also a quick solution for a tailgate pad

Or an old therma rest...

 

[dedMann]

This thread reminded me to do work. I took my single OneUp rack slightly apart to flip the hitch part. With that I can fully open the tail gate with the rack in the completely rolled away position and the leaves open. At least I can now sit and change shoes or chug beer!

 

[This Guy]

Or an old therma rest...

Or your wife's yoga mat used once and put away

 

[nunucello]

Why not in the bed?

very nice setup

 

[djb_rh]

This thread reminded me to do work. I took my single OneUp rack slightly apart to flip the hitch part. With that I can fully open the tail gate with the rack in the completely rolled away position and the leaves open. At least I can now sit and change shoes or chug beer!

Nice catch! I think that only works on the singles, though, because it’s a different hitch piece that you flipped. I’ll have to look at my double and see, but obviously the double even folded down would still be sticking out in the way some. But if it works on the double it’s still an improvement for getting stuff in and out of the bed if you have a cover or topper.

It’s more complicated, but having new side plates for your rack (the piece with the 1up sticker on it) that didn’t angle up like that would be possible at any decent machine shop. It’s just a more complicated piece than what I did. Would be a couple hundred bucks for them one-off, though, so not cheap. I submitted what I did to 1up via email but never heard anything. In an ideal world if all us Maverick guys with 1up racks complained they might take the hint and make a version of the rack that doesn’t have so much lift. If they did it just with side plates then they’d probably sell those separately, too, since they already sell other mods (like the fat tire spacer kits, the receiver piece to use add-on trays as a rack, etc).


—Donnie

 

[NJ Pinelands]

Or your wife's yoga mat used once and put away

Or just an old towel or torn blanket

 

[dedMann]

Nice catch! I think that only works on the singles, though, because it’s a different hitch piece that you flipped. I’ll have to look at my double and see, but obviously the double even folded down would still be sticking out in the way some. But if it works on the double it’s still an improvement for getting stuff in and out of the bed if you have a cover or topper.

It’s more complicated, but having new side plates for your rack (the piece with the 1up sticker on it) that didn’t angle up like that would be possible at any decent machine shop. It’s just a more complicated piece than what I did. Would be a couple hundred bucks for them one-off, though, so not cheap. I submitted what I did to 1up via email but never heard anything. In an ideal world if all us Maverick guys with 1up racks complained they might take the hint and make a version of the rack that doesn’t have so much lift. If they did it just with side plates then they’d probably sell those separately, too, since they already sell other mods (like the fat tire spacer kits, the receiver piece to use add-on trays as a rack, etc).


—Donnie

Then I will email them also! I have sold more of their racks than any other rack I can source from the catalog. Customers always want to know what I use. I tell them I could have any rack at whole sale, but choose to pay retail for this one. I advise they can buy it direct. Almost every single time they have insisted I buy it and they will pay what ever it costs to put it on. Lol!

 

[djb_rh]

Then I will email them also! I have sold more of their racks than any other rack I can source from the catalog. Customers always want to know what I use. I tell them I could have any rack at whole sale, but choose to pay retail for this one. I advise they can buy it direct. Almost every single time they have insisted I buy it and they will pay what ever it costs to put it on. Lol!

Yeah, not surprised. I can have any rack I want and I own several 1ups and nothing else. I ride a lot and with a lot of other people and the only other rack I’d even *consider* is the Kuat. It’s prettier and will probably last just as long (or at least way closer than anything else), but I like the more utilitarian nature of the 1up plus the fact that you can more easily modify it and whatnot. If I were the type to be driving around in a Mercedes or Audi SUV then I’d probably have a Kuat on that, but I’m not.


—Donnie

 

[This Guy]

Or just an old towel or torn blanket

Need some type of padding to prevent any possible damage to the bike frame or the tail gate.

 

[NJ Pinelands]

Need some type of padding to prevent any possible damage to the bike frame or the tail gate.

Yup, either an old towel or blanket does the trick. Used both over the years when I used to take the bicycle somewhere.

 

[skadizzle]

Put on my 1up bike rack and went on my first MTB ride with the Maverick

It was only a matter of time before you would see a Maverick towing a Santa Cruz. That was faster than I thought.

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