Zip-A-Racks are available

The Geezer

The Geezer

Senior Member
Hi All,
I just received a "Zip-A-Rack" from Bert's Auto Store. They are reproducing them which most folks don't know. They are very well made and easy to install. I like the idea that it folds away under my car when not in use, and is said to hold up to 700 lbs.!
 
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Great product. About 15 minutes to install - even with my bad back.........
 

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There is NO WAY I would try putting 700 lb on a rack like that. My tow bar is mounted in a similar way to that and the trailer puts about 200 lb on it. I recently had a rear shock absorber break a mount and while fixing it, I found that the rear cross member was very badly cracked. When I say very badly, it was close to separating. Clearly, the back section of the chassis is not up to the task at even 200lb. I wouldn't try 700 or even 200 again without strengthening it. Can you imagine what that much weight hanging off the back of the car will do to the handling. Scary!
I can however see value as a trunk carrier for light weight items when we are on tour..
 
10-12 years ago I fixed a Tudor that had a frame problem in the rear.It had a trunk,and between spare parts,tools,and camping equipment the trunk weighed in at about 200 pounds.Where the forward most bumper brackets bolted to the frame it ripped out little U-shaped pieces of the frame.It also cracked around the bolts through the rear crosmember.The rear body crossmember was cracking around the body stands,but not bad so we left that alone.When you take the weight of the brackets,the bumpers,the rack,the trunk,and whatever you put in it,that is a lot of weight to be cantilevered out there bouncing that far behind the axle.I had to pick the body up a foot to weld everything back in place.
 
Geezer and ModelA29: Does it look like there will be enough room to remove the spare tire with a trunk installed? How about with a 16" spare?
 
JayJay said:
Geezer and ModelA29: Does it look like there will be enough room to remove the spare tire with a trunk installed? How about with a 16" spare?
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I haven't put a trunk on it yet. It does appear to be a little longer and a lot lower than the "standard" rack.
I know on our Coupe I'll be pulling the trunk to get to the spare (6.50x16).
 

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ModelA29 said:
I haven't put a trunk on it yet. It does appear to be a little longer and a lot lower than the "standard" rack.
I know on our Coupe I'll be pulling the trunk to get to the spare (6.50x16).
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That looks like a folding rack, not the Zip-a-Rack.
 
JayJay said:
That looks like a folding rack, not the Zip-a-Rack.
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I think that's his folding rack on a different car to show the height difference, trying to answering your question about spare tire access.

The Zip rack base is below the spare tire (see pic in post #3).

Pic in post #10 shows a typical folding rack on his coupe - notice the rack base is about 1/3 the way up from the bottom of the spare.

FWIW
 
Didn't say I would put 700 lbs. on this rack! Only stated it was advertised as having a 700lb. capacity.
 
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The Geezer said:
Didn't say I would put 700 lbs. on this rack! Only stated it was advertised as having a 700lb. capacity.
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I realise that. My comment was about the absurdity of putting 700lb on it. Things were different back then but these days, at least here, there are laws against false or misleading advertising and they are used. A company caught doing it can expect very large fines.
 
Haha, not sure anyone said you would, but that would be a LOT of weight hanging that far off the back. Talk about light steering!!
 
Y-Blockhead said:
Haha, not sure anyone said you would, but that would be a LOT of weight hanging that far off the back. Talk about light steering!!
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I suspect that the defense to a claim of "700 lb capacity" would be that it won't bend until you put that much on it. Doesn't say anything about it being safe to load up an installed rack with that much.

I remember one time in my misspent youth when I way way overloaded a pickup truck with firewood. Wasn't paying any attention to where in the bed the wood was stacked, just kept stacking it until the logs fell off. Boy was that a light front end! Ended up breaking the bias ply belts in the rear tires it was so overloaded.

Not too terribly difficult to do the same thing with an overloaded forklift.
 
If you blow up (and manage to read) the above posted .pdf file showing an original ad it states:

"The rack is tested to hold 700 pounds, whearas the normal load carried is only 125 to 150 pounds, thus providing an ample margin of safety"

The rack could easily have been attached to some kind of heavy holding assembly to test the 700 lb strength of the assembly itself as stated (?).
 
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