A Rack Apart

WHAT: DraftMaster Hitch Rack WHERE: www.draftmaster.com HOW MUCH: $589.48

The DraftMaster Hitch Rack is a unique product. It’s a hitch rack with a very different mounting system. An uppers crossarm carries up to four fork mounts while the lower crossarm carries the corresponding wheeltrays. This enables each bike to be carried vertically, in the draft of your vehicle. Once mounted each bike is locked in its individual position—no rubbing bikes, dented frames or scratched paint jobs.

Flip this lever and the rack folds out of the way.

Of course, all this would be just a fancy pain in the ass if you couldn’t access the trunk or tailgate of your car or truck once the bikes were mounted. The DraftMaster, however, folds outwards with the flip of a lever—granting you access to the rear of your car even when fully loaded. DraftMaster’s parent company, ATOC offers a range of accessories that allow you to mount up to 4 bikes on the rack, lock your rack to the hitch and clear a spare tire.

Theory aside, here’s how the rack performed. For starters, installation is a breeze. In typical man-style, I assembled the thing without using the directions (I wouldn’t recommend this…I just didn’t find the directions `till I was finished). The DraftMasteris composed of several modular pieces that slide on and are secured to one another via quick releases. The rack slides into your receiver hitch and is secured with two massive bolts. Total installation time was about 15 minutes.

The DraftMaster easily and quickly folds out to allow you access to your tailgate. Nice.

The optional Topper Lok Skewer enables you to lock your bike to the rack.

I’ve put 1,300 miles of daily driving use on this rack and so far, have encountered no serious problems. Though the bikes wobble disconcertingly (even with the stabilizer straps cinched down) but have proven plenty secure. Another perk? My gas mileage didn’t suffer in the least as the bikes are carried in a way that minimizes wind resistance.

What didn’t I like? Well, the standard 9-millimeter quick releases that come with the rack are secure enough, but aren’t quite on the level with the self-adjusting models available from company’s like Yakima. Having to fiddle with the QR adjustment every time you mount the bikes is a significant pain in the ass because you are also fighting gravity when twiddling that QR knob (one hand gamely trying to hold the bike up, keep the fork drop-outs positioned correctly, and the other hand adjusting the QR). Not a huge complaint, but something that I haven’t had to deal with most other rack systems.

By the way, if you’re a fan of locking fork mounts, ATOC also sells a locking version called the Topper Lok Skewer for $34.99 apiece. The GT i-Drive 5 that I’m currently testing came equipped with a thru-axle Pike, so I had to resort to using a Hurricane adapter to make it work with this rack. The Lok Skewer made me feel far more confident in my half-assed set up.

The wheel trays are also a bit narrow for modern mountain bike applications. Road tires and narrow 1.9-inch mountain bike tires fit in there nice and snug, but my 2.3 rear tire (pictured here) was too wide to fit securely in the tray. More and more mountain bikers are utilizing larger-volume tires these days, so a wider tray is certainly in order.

Not enough room for this 2.3-inch tire.

All in all, the DraftMaster is a fine hitch rack. It’s secure, it easily folds out of the way, it doesn’t kill your gas mileage (very important these days), and at just under $600 (for the 4-bike model), its pricing is on a par with the competition. I can’t say that it’s my favorite hitch rack model (others are easier to load), but it is definitely a solid, safe bet.