Thule

Insta-Gater Pro Truck Tailgate Mount

MODIFIED

Familiarity:

I've used it several times

Size Bought:

only one size

Needed something to use in my Ridgeline to carry my MTB. The Ridgeline bed is about a foot to short with the tailgate closed and I did not want to take a wheel off so I made a bracket to hold the ratchet straps and pop riveted the bracket to the tailgate, With the gate down and the bed extender rails in place the bike is secure and the anti theft strap keeps it safe and sound. The Insta gator is very well made and makes a great bike stand when in the garage and for washing the bike. If you have a standard bed truck it mounts in a minute or so.

Locking Feature Failure

I like the way it holds my bike in the truck bed, but featured locking cable doesn’t extend long enough to lock bike.

Easy to use and great unit.

I have been using the insta gater pro for several weeks. I like the ingenuity of it. Simple but effective, the stability of this is pretty good when tailgates closed. Easy to adjust and overall, I'm very happy with it.

Great concept but slightly unsturdy

I have a mountain bike. The tires are at 29x2.8, so the tires are slightly fat. They don’t fit well within the tire holder. Even with the tire pressed against the tailgate the bike wobbles in turns and along bumps. I don’t think the bike will will fall, but it stresses me out watching it wobble. I think it’s good for the short ride to the local trail but, having a hard time convincing myself to do it on longer drives. I wish the holder would be longer/higher with an extra strap higher up to provide more security. It probably also doesn’t help I have a shorter truck bed and am having to put in the rear tire and having front tire turned, as it’s easier for the bike to sway. Great concept I want to trust it but it hard to.

Secure-ish Rack

Familiarity:

I've put it through the wringer

It's a smart design but in practice it never feels like the bike is truly stable. In terms of security (e.g., theft prevention) any idiot could crack this; I also use a cable lock but even that gives me so-so confidence. That said, this rack is up to Thule standards ("we're your least bad option"), and kudos to them for designing a mtn/road bike rack speshly for us rednecks ;-)

Superior Bike Rack

Installed the Insta Water Pro on my truck bed and it works fantastic. The security and stability of the clamp is very stable. The bike are easily able to be moved in and out of truck with no issue. My Thule bike rack makes things a lot easier to transport mountain bikes. I highly recommend this purchase.

Great product

User friendly and very well built. I would suggest this product for anyone who doesn't want hitch style system. Thank you for another good product.

Best solution for full size truck but not perfect

The installation is simple but, it requires that the tire is against the tailgate to be most stable. When you tighten the rack against the tailgate with a 29" or 27.5" tire it pulls the rack forward so the tire is not seated entirely in the tire track, reducing stability. Because the track support is so narrow, the bike is secure but not stable. What I mean by that is, once the bike is secured in the rack it is not going to fall over but, it does move from side to side a great deal when going over speed bumps or on rough roads. I purchased three of these for my truck (the most you can fit in a full size bed) and because you can install the bikes forward or backwards, they shouldn't hit each other when rocking back and forth. If they had a way to connect multiple Insta-gaters together it would help a great deal with the stability issue. I settled on the insta-gater because I needed a solution where the bikes are in the bed of the truck and out of the way when I am towing our camper. As well something that is easy to install and remove while not taking up a lot of room when not in use. I had the Apex 4 bike rack for many years and the bikes would frequently get loose in the rack and fall into each other. When my carbon fiber road bike got damaged beyond repair in that rack I decided it was time to finally get rid of it. The insta-gater is a much better solution than that rack. There is a way to lock the rack to your bed by looping your own lock through the rack and attaching it to your truck bed but, if you have multiple racks, you would need multiple cables. Overall, this is a very good solution for truck bed racks BUT you should be aware that your bikes are going to wobble side to side a great deal when on rough roads.

Great Product

Very high quality.. Heavy gauge metal and good coating..good design although the release mechanism is close to the derailleur on my two bikes, if it was higher up the arm it wouldn't hit anything. Other than that it's a great product