Reviews for Quadratec Spare Wheel Mounting Bike Rack

I've been using the rack for about six months now about 2 to 3 times a week. Two things to note: 1) the anti-wobble bolt works but can vibrate out while driving. Keep tightened even when a bike isn't on it. 2) The 2\4 bike adapters (the U shaped things that the bike tube sits on) come to you with them being pretty close together. I loosened up the adapters and moved them as far apart as I could and now I can load two bikes without them rubbing. There is a screw on the upper tube behind the back 2 adapters that prevents you from moving those back two adapters (closest to the Jeep) so if you take that screw out first, then you can move the back two adapters closer toward your spare tire thus creating a bigger gap so the bikes can load without rubbing on each other. There is room to move the front 2 adapters toward you too.
There are two pins with spring clips: one for to raise and lower the upper bike arm and the lower one to drop the rack away from the Jeep. They are pretty stiff and do not slide easy in and out of their holes. To make that easier, you can add a little 3 in 1 oil to both pins and then they slide much easier and make it less of a hassle to remove them and put them back. It feels like a hassle to remove the lower pin to tilt the rack away to get to your rear door. But it actually takes only 7 seconds to remove the spring bale, then remove the pin, and tilt down the rack. No big.
The cable lock that comes free with the rack is super cool. It allows you to reprogram the lock so it fits your car key. I was skeptical at first, but the dang thing works awesomely.
Lastly, the pin that comes with the rack that fits into your hitch receiver is a joke really. It screws in which provides the anti-wobble, but there is no lock that comes with it. And the hole at the end of the pin is so small that when you find a lock that fits through it, that dude could be cut off in no time. I bought a screw-type pin with lock on Amazon for about $25.00 and replaced the one that came with.

Easy install, solid construction. If you're using it for two bikes, be aware they fit pretty tightly together. You may need to put something between them to avoid scratching.

I have 35x12.5 tires on my 2013 4 door Unlimited...the rack wouldn’t fit on the spare even with the longest adapter. The spacer that I needed on the tire carrier to fit the tire had to be removed then the rack fit perfectly.

Decent rack. Problem loading women’s bike without it being up too high and making everything out of balance. Mine moves side to side and loosened up my spare tire. Used shortest extender on stock spare. Maybe show it after a 700 mile trip

This barely qualifies as a 2 bike rack. Love everything about this rack, until we tried to put the second bike on. Had to remove one tire from each bike (not really a problem); but then had to wrap and tape in place rags in multiple locations to prevent scratching. It took about 30 minutes to get the second bike in place and it did not fit well! We even purchased the adaptor for our women's frame and radar didn't work that well. Not sure what our next move is. Maybe see if the 4 bike carrier might hold two bikes decently...

This bike rack is NOT suitable for two (2) Townie Step-Through bikes. They do NOT fit! Extremely disappointed.

Does not work well with 2 bikes. The racks are too close to each other. Ended up damaging one of my new beach cruiser bikes. Not recommended!

Major disappointment.

For reference: I have a 2013 JKU, and am looking to transport a Specialized Allez, and Specialized Dolce (normal/average/standard) road bikes. I previously purchased the Thule 963PRO SpareMe 2 carrier (from another vendor). The Thule’s frame mount arms were too wide to accommodate any of the 4 bikes I own and would necessitate additional purchases of adapters and additional time to load/unload. This was a letdown.

I came across this product, Quadratec’s house brand spare tire carrier and verified the arms could accommodate my bikes. Additionally, Quadratec’s customer service did confirm that the bike carrier is intended to work with the stock JK tire carrier and tailgate hinge hardware. I received the product timely and it was well-packaged and noticeably more stout than the chintzy Thule SpareMe (the Thule is plastic and aluminum, while Q-tec’s is all steel construction). Installation is very straightforward and brief. This is when my experience went south - fast.

Upon the first test fit of my Specialized Allez, the rubber straps used to hold the bike frame to the frame cradles were covered in (what assume to be) glue or residue from the manufacturing process. This marred the hell out of my frame. I spent 20 minutes inside attempting to scrub this glue-like residue from the straps using mechanics hand cleaner. It seemed to get most of it off.

This brings us to what I will characterize as 1 of 2 glaring omissions in the design of this carrier. Instead of using something similar to the Thule carrier to stabilize the bike vertically (which is a dual-function cradle that accommodates the top tube, and seat tube), the Q-tec carrier makes use of an archaic nylon strap method that spider webs around the bike and carrier. For what I can assume is an extra buck or two in plastic, I can’t believe Q-tec didn’t include this into the design. The nylon strap method is remarkably cumbersome and completely unnecessary.

The second design issue, and I am completely dumbfounded at how this could even occur, is the carrier cannot reasonably accommodate a second bike. The cradle tubes on the carrier are a few inches too short to allow enough spacing between the first and second bike t0 hold a second bike without intertwining components from both bikes into each other (this was even with the mech on each bike facing outward, away from the other bike). It took about 30 minutes of finagling to get both bike top tubes to sit on the cradles - and again - that is with some very risky intertwining of bike components. I have no idea how Q-tec went through the entire design and development process without testing, or ignoring test results of, two average road bikes. I now have my doubts about other in-house Q-tec products as I can’t believe this doesn’t work as advertised.

In summary, this is almost a great carrier for a single bike, but you are faced with a very (unnecessarily) cumbersome vertical stabilization method (I am going to see if I can get parts from the Thule and incorporate them to this carrier). This is absolutely not able to accommodate two average road bikes - this product simply does not do what it is advertised to do. I am so very disappointed. I would normally return the product, but my city recycling picked up the box earlier today, so I am stuck with this.