CURT 18050 61-Inch Bike Rack Support Strap, black

Bought and had delivered while I was on away from home trip. Extra hundreds of miles than normal made me a little nervous, so bought these. Quick delivery. Am using with EBike so they are heavy. Will use from now onto give extra stability, peace of mind. Very Easy to use with my back hatch.

I purchased the CURT 18050 61-Inch Bike Rack Support Strap as added piece of mind on a 1,000 mile (one way) trip carrying 5 mountain bikes on our new Allen Sports 5 Bike Hitch Mount Rack. This was used on a 2015 Yukon XL (aka Chevy Suburban). Since the spoiler is plastic on this vehicle, I popped the rear glass and fed the metal strap hook through the top of the glass. I slid the hook in from the left side onto the edge of the sheet metal for the lift gate. I slid the hook to the center of the lift gate so the strap went over the center support for the rear wiper. The strap itself was easy to install. Just make sure you feed it through the teeth the correct way, and lift the bike rack a little as you tighten the strap to properly support the top of your bike rack. We drove over 2,000 miles in this configuration and the strap performed well and didn't loosen up, even with the slight wobble of the bike rack from the tilt features. Our vehicle set-up is a bit tricky, but I just made sure not to use the rear wiper since the strap was running over the top of the support.

So apparently you're supposed to use one of these with a hitch mounted bike rack. Who knew? I'd been using mine for over a year until I read a review that said I should get one of these.One thing that had always concerned me about that was how much flex there is in the bike rack, especially going over large bumps. I'm happy to say that with this installed, I feel much more comfortable now. That rack doesn't even move anymore.For those who aren't familiar with what this is, it's a simple strap that you loop over your bike rack and run it to your trunk lid to take some of the stress off of the hitch/rack. It's a simple, cheap, device that just might save you a few hundred bucks in the case of a failing hitch/rack (not to mention damage to the bikes!).Installation was a breeze, although the strap that comes with this is VERY long. I suppose it has to be, since you might be using it on a van or something. For a small passenger car, there is easily three feet of extra strap here. I just wrapped it up and zip-tied it to itself. The (vinyl?) coated buckle was a nice touch. I've also used a lot of cargo straps and this one is one of the best I've seen, very thick.I can't really think of a bad thing to write about this. I wish I had known about it earlier, I would have gotten one a year ago.

Used on a 4 bike hitch rack. Easy to install. Helps to have another person lift the rack a bit while you tighten this down for maximum sturdiness.Did seem to want to slip a small amount to a spot that I had previously tightened it to instead of staying tighter to a slightly higher point.It's certainly pricier than it should be for a single strap, but works well. Anyone with a hitch mount bike rack should be using one of these!

Good

This strap works great for our bike rack attached to my Honda CRV. I had previously used our bike rack that attaches to the hitch without the strap and the rack would bounce/move quite a bit. The strap helps to reduce any movement of the rack and provide additional piece of mind that everything is secure. It is really easy to attach and take off once you get used to using the strap.

A good idea and a required accessory for the Curt 18084 bike rack. We returned it as it clips onto the edge of the hatch. Our hatch like many has a composite spoiler at the roofline. The strap would put force on the spoiler and I didn't want to risk damaging the car. We returned the unit and are using a strap that wraps around the hatch body. With the strap installed the rack is very stable. Our strap also wraps around the bike's upper tubes and provides a second means of securing them to the rack.

I would recommend them.