Harbor Freight Cargo Carrier - 92655 - Experience?

[DerbyDad03]

Jumping in a little late, eh?

I already addressed that point.

[mm]

That's not enough to be sure. You need to find one that is very negative about something important, a rating that if believed to be true much of the time, one wouldn't buy it. Or maybe worse.

[Pete C.]

I haven't seen any of this type of cargo carrier come with safety chains. The center tube on the AL carrier is in fact a heavy wall steel tube that fits within an aluminum extrusion. The steel tube is secured in the vehicle's receiver with a standard 5/8" pin which is plenty strong. The steel tube is secured in the aluminum extrusion by several decent sized bolts. There is little chance of any sort of catastrophic failure without a lot of advance warning.

[JoeSpareBedroom]

For the most part, I agree with your sentiments.

However, given the option of a $50 carrier with improper, illegible instructions versus $80, $90 or more for one with a pretty manual, I'll live with the bad instructions - especially if the manual is easily available on-line.

Am I wimping out and letting them get away with poor service? Yep. Was I able to purchase the carrier *and* the nylon cover for less than the price of the carrier alone? Yep.

For that, I'm willing to sacrifice my principles.

========

I almost dumped Levolor into this category. Ordered 6 blinds and found no instructions in the first box. Got pissed, downloaded the PDF instructions. (The mounting procedure for these particular blinds was not at all obvious). Installed the first two, got to box #3, and voila. There they were. It wasn't the box with the packing slip & shipping label on the outside, either. They just randomly picked a box.

[mm]

No, but this is not like a trailer that can come off the hitch. This goes into the hitch receiver, like a big drawbar. If you put the pin in the receiver hole and the clip through the end of the pin, it's not going to fall off unless the whole hitch does.

[DerbyDad03]

Safety chain? Why would I want that?

If this thing falls off and all my stuff goes tumbling down the highway, I don't want the evidence still attached to my car. ;-)

On a related note...

My buddy had his motor home hit by a drunk driver - a hit and run while he was parked and sleeping. He woke up when the guy hit the camper head on and watched as the driver backed up, turned the wheel slightly and then drove down the side of the motor home, wiping out his awning, grill, tables and chairs.

He climbed out of the motor home, surveyed the damage and called 911.

Buddy: "A guy just crashed into my parked motor home and took off. I have his license plate.

911 operator: "You were able to get his license plate number? That's good." Buddy: "I said...I have his *license plate*. He left his bumper lying in front of my motor home."

The drunk's insurance company didn't put up much of a fight.

[mm]

On second thought, a weak point might be the aquare center pipe. Someone might violate the 500? pound weight limit, especially he might put the extra weight at the rear of the carrier, where it would have more leverage on the center pipe at the front where it enters the receiver. Or he might load it to capacity and then lean on it while tying a rope. Or he might think it's a chair. Or it might be defective. I can see it bending, so far that the rear of the carrier drags on the ground. I guess after writing this, I still can't see it breaking there, so still no need for safety chains. I drive a convertible, but surely even with a closed car and the radio playing, one could hear the carrier dragging on the ground before it broke off, which I think would take hundreds of miles.

I had a pair of cast safety stands, from Western Auto, but sold elsewhere too, rated at 6000 pounds a pair I think. All that was on them was a compact car, about 2000 pounds, when one of them collapsd, sort of slowly but nowhere near slow enough to get out if someone were under the car. Things don't always meet spec.

[DerbyDad03]

You brought up a number of good points - standing on it, using it as a chair, etc. but you left off one of the items mentioned in the instructions:

"14. Be aware of dynamic loading! Suddenly dropping or bouncing a load on the Cargo Carrier may create, for a brief instant, an excess load, which may result in damage to the product and/or personal injury. Additionally, if the vehicle hits a bump, a slight play in the receiving hitch or a movement in the load could result in a momentary dynamic loading effect that could dramatically increase the actual weight load. Check the hitch-to-Carrier connection for any looseness. This momentary dynamic loading effect could result in damage to the Cargo Carrier, the load and possible personal injury."

[Jay Hanig]

OK, here's one I didn't write but is on their website with just one out of five possible stars awarded:

I'll quote them:

===> cut begins cut ends

[mm]

A well written warning.

Yes I left them out but fwiw, I do know about them.

I lay the sod down gently on the rack or the previous piece of sod. I lay the file cabinet on the rack gently.

When driving I took smooth streets.

And I didn't call it dymanmic loading but I know about bumps: About 30 years ago, I moved, in two consecutive weeks, two spinet pianos on the back of my car, a full-size Pontica Catalina convertible. I only drove about 10 MPH then, except when I saw a bump or hole coming, when I slowed to 3 or 4 (they were small bumps), and except on smooth streets when i got up to 20 or 25, and kept my eye peeled for holes in the pavement. I put a full-size mattress on the trunk and lay the spinet piano on that, with part of the piano overhanging where the top folds into storage. Then tied it in with

100 feet of cotton clothesline, knotted frequently. One isn't supposed to move an upright (including a spinet) on its back or front, and isn't supposed to move a grand in normal position, anyhow, because it's dangerous to the sound board, which if broken ruins the piano. Pianos should always be moved with the sound board vertical.

I moved one half-way across Brooklyn, and the other from the middle of Brooklyn to West 85th St. in NYC, 15 miles of city streets, with no damage.

[mm]

That one meets my standards. Very good.

If I had read the ratings on a radio shack cell phone headset, on the radios shack site, I wouldn't have bought that either, but it was a cheaper item, 15 dollars, and I had never looked at it on the computer at all. They weren't as bad as the one above, but the four together averaged out bad. -- Volume with the thing plugged in and stuck in my ear is lower than without it.

[HeyBub]

On the OP's part or the guy following?

[HeyBub]

Don't drink much beer, do you?

[DerbyDad03]

re: "A well written warning"

...and pretty surprising for a Harbor Freight manual!

My favorites are the "standard disclaimers" sometimes included with products - not just HF products, but they do it too.

Do I really need to wear ANSI approved impact safety googles while loading and unloading the Cargo Carrier?

The instructions say I do.

[JoeSpareBedroom]

I stop before doing permanent damage. You, on the other hand, went over the line long ago.

[Oren]

I read the reviews on your link. One guy put a 302 V8 engine on the carrier, which caused the frame to bend. Well duh!

I'm sure the engine exceeded to stated capacity.

[Larry W]

Speaking as someone who regularly uses both the carrier and a 1200 lb GW trailer, I say he _can_ be sure. At least on a Jeep Cherokee size vehicle, handling is certainly affected more by a loaded trailer than a loaded carrier.

[JohnnyD]

Put 4 or 500 pounds of weight on the carrier and get back to us after running a slalom course.

[DerbyDad03]

Larry:

How tight is your carrier bar in the receiver?

I just assembled the carrier and installed it on my vehicle's Class 3 hitch.

There is a lot of play in the receiver. At the farthest back end of the carrier, I've got almost 2.5 inches of vertical motion and about the same side to side.

Is yours that loose?

[mm]

YOu're sure you're not moving the car?

The bar is not as big as other draw bars?

I needed a spine for mine, and I found one at Home Depot. Of course I don't know it's spec compared to the specs of teh one that came with it, but it looked even heavier, though the home depot one has 4 holes every 2 inches. I wonder if that will ruin the 500 pound capacity??????????