hitch/drawbar stabilizer

[brainpause]

Well, we finally bit the bullet and bought a nice Swagman 3-bike towing rack. We haven't gone on a trip with it yet, but I have driven around the neighborhood with a loaded rack, and the bikes are surprisingly secure and stable in their patented design.

My question is this: The hitch/drawbar (nothing to do with the bike rack) has always had a lot of play in it. Our old bike rack eventually bent a little, because there was so much play and movement when we hit a bump. For towing purposes, it has never been a problem. But the bikes rattle around a lot.

My research on the net shows that Swagman also offers a Hitch Stabilizer, but there are a couple of other options out there.

Hitch Rider's Hitch-Vise seems like a good option. They have a statement that says it is better than "threaded designs," which is what the other two I present are. Be sure and look at their installation video.

The third design is the C.R. Brophy Receiver Stabilizer Bracket, which looks like a good design as well, except that it is threaded. So is the threaded design a truly inferior design?

I cannot recall a discussion about this in a long time, if ever. So I'm interested in hearing opinions about which ones are used, if any. We need one bad. The bikes take a lot of shaking.

Larry

[SkipP]

Larry, I had the first one, the Hitch Stabilizer and it is basically nothing more than an "anti-rattle" device...offering very little in the way of stability. The threaded knob also limits the way it can be mounted too. No clue about the others.

[mike4947]

To tell you the truth, over the years I've used everything from anti rattle springs, to all the ones you listed, to drilling and taping the receiver for bolt to screw against the drawbar, but what worked the best was cedar shakes.

Since I had a rubber maid tote full of them for kindling that always went with us, if any one's receiver rattled we just jammed a piece of shake between the drawbar and receiver. The taper on the shake was like it was make for it.