Safety pin for Yakima Swingdaddy enough?

[Kodachrome]

I just picked up a Yakima Swingdaddy bike rack for my 05 Tacoma and 09 Bobcat. It fits great and did not need the 8" hitch extension I thought it would.

But one thing I am a bit suspicious of is the included saftey pin that goes into the hitch, it seems inadequate. First off, it is a short pin that only goes into one side of the rack's tube, there is no hole on the outside for a longer pin. Secondly, the pin and the hole in the rack are a good bit smaller diameter than the hole in the hitch which means there is potential for play if the rack's tension anchor were to come loose or fail.

I'm just not feeling the love for this pin in terms of safety and I am strongly considering drilling the hole through on the rack's tube so I can use a proper through pin and cotter pin affair like one would for towing a trailer. One issue might be that a longer pin might not properly clear the long shaft that goes from the handle that tightens the expansion anchor on the hitch end, I will have to take a closer look at it and see.

Am I being paranoid or is my desire to upgrade this sensible?

 

[ntsqd]

I've designed & built two of what you'd end up with if it is possible for you to do so. I did it for the anti-wobble effect on both the bike rack and the swing-away NATO fuel can carrier. Getting the draw-bar past the pin takes a little thought and adds a complication. I wouldn't have done it on the second unit except that I found with the first that the wedging action tends to bind up the pin tight enough that no mere mortal is going to pull the pin while the draw-bar is tight.

 

[Kodachrome]

I wouldn't have done it on the second unit except that I found with the first that the wedging action tends to bind up the pin tight enough that no mere mortal is going to pull the pin while the draw-bar is tight.

I noticed that on mine as well.

So did you find that a structural red flag or is that something that Yakima purposely designed? Even though I have very little space to fab things, but I am open to ideas. I wish the way it mounted were more robust, I might figure out a way to prevent the orange handle for the draw bar from rotating.

It's a good design overall, but I am skeptical of the design for off road use.

 

[Vic]

I picked up a 2nd hand one and have the same question. I haven't used it yet but on a test fit I was scratching my head just like you. Figured I was just missing some hardware but haven't consulted them yet.

That's said everything else I've used from Yakima is smartly engineered so this one is a puzzle. Maybe I'm just missing a piece?

Did you get yours new?

 

[Kodachrome]

Yep, new.

At the very minimum I will modify it somewhat and see how I feel about.

 

[ntsqd]

I noticed that on mine as well.

So did you find that a structural red flag or is that something that Yakima purposely designed? Even though I have very little space to fab things, but I am open to ideas. I wish the way it mounted were more robust, I might figure out a way to prevent the orange handle for the draw bar from rotating.

It's a good design overall, but I am skeptical of the design for off road use.

No idea about Yakima's design intent. I view it as a happy coincidence that in retrospect I should have predicted. With the draw bolt tight in either unit there is NO wiggle. That is with a full size hitch pin. No idea if Yakima's smaller pin will do this, but if it is significantly smaller than the pin hole I expect that it won't.

 

[Kodachrome]

No idea about Yakima's design intent. I view it as a happy coincidence that in retrospect I should have predicted. With the draw bolt tight in either unit there is NO wiggle. That is with a full size hitch pin. No idea if Yakima's smaller pin will do this, but if it is significantly smaller than the pin hole I expect that it won't.

So I assume you drilled it through and put the full size pin in? Ideally that is what I would do in addition to putting a safety wire-like lanyard on the orange handle on end of the draw bolt.

 

[fuzzymarindave]

My Yakima pin has a bolt head and draws the rack securely up against the side of the receiver tube for no side to side wobble. However It did not help the up/down wobble so I added an anti-tilt bracket (pic below). Had up to four bikes on it many times on some bumpy trails too.

 

[ntsqd]

So I assume you drilled it through and put the full size pin in? Ideally that is what I would do in addition to putting a safety wire-like lanyard on the orange handle on end of the draw bolt.

I built both from scratch, I've not seen the Yakima assembly. Thinking about this just a bit ago it occurred to me that there isn't much force pulling out on the assembly. The safety pin is probably perfectly fine as long as the wedge is drawn up tight. Would make me squeamish too, but I've run my fuel carrier, with 2 full NATO cans in it, over a ~1500 mile trip of mixed tarmac and dirt without the pin - only the draw bolt pulled up tight. It didn't move.