# Isi vs Thule vs gripsport carrier?



## Blindside (Jan 12, 2013)

I posted this on the carrier forum, but then thought I should post here, given that gripsport and isi are aural ian companies! Any ideas:



'So has anyone got any preferences of one over another of these 3 top end hitch mounted platform style carriers?

Gripsport: $658aud for 2+2 bikes extension
Products | GripSport

Isi: $1200aud for a 2 and a 4 bike carrier, or $7-800 for 2 bike alone
iSi Advanced 4x4 Bicycle Carrier and Bike Rack Systems

Thule: $720 (+$430 aud for extra 2 bikes)
Thule Australia » Products » Bike Carriers » Thule 916XTR T2 2 Bike

We generally carry 2-3 carbon ht or dually, 26-29ers. We will hopefully be adding a kiddy bike in the next year or so.

We drive a 105series landcruiser with a drop tailgate, and generally drive down gravel tracks to light 4wd (but nothing major) for the start of rides. So the current hanging rack moves a lot in the hitch and the bikes swing leading to frame wear.
We want to be able to get into the back of the car with the carrier mounted, ideally with bikes on....

Any thoughts?'


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## mattnz (Jun 4, 2014)

HI

What did you end up with?


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## TheJesusfreak (Feb 21, 2014)

mattnz said:


> HI
> 
> What did you end up with?


Hey mate, are you just curious or are you looking for input before you buy? I can help with the latter...


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## mattnz (Jun 4, 2014)

TheJesusfreak said:


> Hey mate, are you just curious or are you looking for input before you buy? I can help with the latter...


I need to buy one that will work for some off roading. Cant find an isi dealer in New Zealand, so keen to get some feedback if you ended up with one.


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## jonathan_k (Jun 19, 2016)

If you really want a rack to last long term for serious off road, the isi carrier is in a league of its own.

For light off road duties the grip sport looks good, wouldn't trust the Thule I've seen.

I put an isi two bike carrier on a Patrol for a 9 month, 40,000km trip around Australia. Probably 20,000km of dirt and many thousands of km's of actual 4x4 tracks. We lived out of the back of the car every day so I can vouch for the convenience of access .

Exit angle is hardly affected, the hitch is bomb proof so when you bottom out it just drags anyway.

It's my every day rack now, love how easy it is to use.

The rack survived, the bikes didn't!


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## TheJesusfreak (Feb 21, 2014)

I can definitely second that, the ISI carrier is in an absolute league of it's own. After a lot of research and consideration I got the ISI 4 bike rack over the Gripsport (I wouldn't dream of taking a Thule on anything worse than a graded dirt road). 
The angled main beam and hinge mech are a step above in terms of strength and quality and it has already saved our bikes from one salty mudbath...





Just a note, I modified it to add the LED tail lights... Neither the GS or ISI come with tail lights (Although GS do a numberplate holder taillight combo for extra $$) ... If you get one I am happy to give u the details of the mod, it is pretty straight forward if you are a bit handy and have basic electrical skills...

Also, it hangs up nicely and takes very little space to store... It actually fits between the bikes and the wall in our garage...



Finally, ISI don't have any dealers to my knowledge, they sell direct. The reason they don't have a phone number listed is due to unwanted sales calls from China (they are committed to using all Australian produced top grade steel). If you email them, they are great to deal with and are happy to speak on the phone once you have made contact. They ship all over the world so NZ won't be a problem.

I hope this helps 

@ Jonathan k, I'm heading on my big lap come January it is encouraging to hear more positive feedback from a trip of the same sort of length...

Finally, I have no association with ISI, other than being a very satisfied customer...


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## jonathan_k (Jun 19, 2016)

Whereabouts are you heading off from?

To handle the dusty roads I put quick links on the chains so they can be removed and always kept dry lube handy to keep the pins lubed, otherwise the missus won't be able to remove them to drop the rack 😉.

It's hard to imagine putting the rack through worse than what we did. There are a lot of people out there these days and even if you're headed for remote secret places you have to use the shitful dirt highways like the Gibb to get between them. The 4x4 terrain is the easiest, it's the corrugations that kill things.

The only place I didn't take it was down the Munja Track because there was some talk about how tough the track was and I didn't need the bikes, it turns out the rack would have made it easily. 

In fact I reckon the Munja Track on mountain bikes would be a great adventure ride!


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## TheJesusfreak (Feb 21, 2014)

Heading off from Perth, no firm plans yet for routes but I only have 4 months so I am going to have to be a bit selective...the basic plan i across the south, down to Tassie, up the east as far as possible (due to the timing I have no expectations of making it up the Cape) across to Darwin, down to Alice and back west along the Great Central Road... Not fussed with north or south WA as they have been the subject of shorter "build up" trips... 

The quick links are a good idea  and I never travel without rock&roll gold

As far as dropping the the rack down, I am having a custom swing away built for it by a local mob who specialise in tough as nails rear bars and wheel carriers... I have found that with 4 bikes on, it drops enough to get the tailgate down, but not enough to pull our double length fridge slide all the way out without removing the bikes...it is also a little tricky as we use the back left corner of the truck as our kitchen/living area so having all the bikes in there takes up valuable space under the awning... Swinging them to the right quickly will move them completely out of the way... Only downside is it's going to cost more than twice what the rack did...


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## gcouyant (Sep 23, 2010)

jonathan_k said:


> The only place I didn't take it was down the Munja Track because there was some talk about how tough the track was and I didn't need the bikes, it turns out the rack would have made it easily.
> 
> In fact I reckon the Munja Track on mountain bikes would be a great adventure ride!


MTB along Munja Track through to Bastion Camp is an awesome gig. Tough track though. Emma George took five fat bikes on iSi bicycle carriers front and rear on their Track Trailer. A short video here:






A few photographs as well: https://www.isi-carriers.com/customers/eg/tvan-4x4-rack.html

and

https://www.isi-carriers.com/customers/mission/mission-bike-rack.html


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