# First time rear-ended with a hitch rack



## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

I've been rear-ended when hauling a bike before. Back when I had a pickup truck and the bike was in the bed. Bike was fine then.

Wife got rear-ended earlier this week when heading home from a ride. Her bike was on the rack. She stopped for a loose dog and pedestrians in the middle of the road. Pickup truck behind her hauling a riding lawnmower on a trailer wasn't paying attention, and hit her. A couple other cars further back also got into it. She didn't brake THAT hard. Wasn't even fully stopped yet. No squawking of tires, or ABS activation, or anything like that.

Our Kuat NV 1.0 is trashed. Can't get it off the car without cutting it. Wouldn't really matter, as then I don't think it'd be possible to remove the remaining piece from the hitch. So the Torklift hitch might be done, too. Her bike was more or less fine. It needed a wheel true, but the shop found nothing else after inspecting it. Bumper cover on the car is damaged and will be replaced. I don't think the bumper itself was damaged. Drive side pedal of my wife's bike punched a hole in the rear hatch of the car, so that'll get replaced, too. Nobody got hurt, so that's good.

One thing I'm curious about is how replacement of aftermarket bits and bike racks has gone for others who have been in a similar situation. Have you received depreciated value of the rack, or replacement value? What about things like hitch receivers? With mine being a Torklift Ecohitch, I am wondering if the body shop will try to get me to put something else on because it's easier to get AND install. And my trailer wiring - the wiring itself appears fine, but the body shop will have to cut a hole in the brand new bumper cover for it. I don't imagine anyone else has had anything similar to deal with?


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## evenslower (Sep 26, 2005)

Happened to me once and it was pretty easy to get replacement cost for the rack and total cost to repair bike/car. In a straight up rear ender like yours the at fault party’s adjuster is likely more concerned with an injury claim from your wife than the cost of the rack. Small potatoes by comparison. Keep that in mind when working to settle your claim.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

evenslower said:


> Happened to me once and it was pretty easy to get replacement cost for the rack and total cost to repair bike/car. In a straight up rear ender like yours the at fault party's adjuster is likely more concerned with an injury claim from your wife than the cost of the rack. Small potatoes by comparison. Keep that in mind when working to settle your claim.


I am less concerned with the insurance company paying. It is likely to wind up being covered by my own uninsured motorist coverage. Driver stayed behind and we have info for both the driver and vehicle owner. But ins policy was expired. Hopefully the updated card just wasn't in the vehicle. But right now it is looking like uninsured motorist.

My main concern is with the body shop being a PITA to work with regarding my aftermarket work.

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## Rockadile (Jun 27, 2005)

Harold said:


> My main concern is with the body shop being a PITA to work with regarding my aftermarket work.


Talk to the body shop. If it is a problem, find a new body shop.


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## bachman1961 (Oct 9, 2013)

Glad to hear nobody was hurt.

I'd just be assertive and hold to the thought that your top quality rack or most racks for that matter don't really wear out. They are more a functional piece of equipment. Hopefully nobody plays the depreciation card much if at all. Just tell them any car with a 'hit' on carfax is already counting against your future resale value. They'd be slapping you up twice !! 

May not hurt to remind anyone involved in the claims process, your quality rack very likely saved someone a bunch of money by saving the bike. 
Some companies are really great to deal with but it's always good to put on your game face though !


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## Mr Pig (Jun 25, 2008)

The pedal punched a hole in the car. That's a lot of energy going into that crank. There is no way I'd be reusing it. I'd be replacing the crank-set at the very least and it's possible the frame is compromised. 

When you got the bike checked did you tell them that it was punched through the car?


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

Mr Pig said:


> The pedal punched a hole in the car. That's a lot of energy going into that crank. There is no way I'd be reusing it. I'd be replacing the crank-set at the very least and it's possible the frame is compromised.
> 
> When you got the bike checked did you tell them that it was punched through the car?


My wife was about a mile from the shop when it happened. She went straight there afterwards, and an employee helped her get the bike off the rack/car. So they saw it. Honestly, the pedal is barely even scratched. It just so happened to line up to a seam between two metal panels near the release button. I don't have a great pic of the spot on the car where it happened, but it's to the left and just slightly above the Subaru badge on the hatch. Right behind the Kuat logo on the arm that didn't break off in the first pic.

USAA is our insurance company, and they've been really easy to work with in the past. We've had a couple of minor claims in the past and they've not been trouble at all. Good to hear that replacement value of racks is generally standard. Will probably replace this one with the Kuat NV 2.0. I really like my 1Up roof trays, but with the hitch receiver we have (and the small bumper cutout), neither version of the 1up hitch rack will play very nice.

There are only 2 body shops that work directly with our insurance company even vaguely in our area. One is so far out of the way it's not even in consideration. The other had a 2wk wait JUST to get the car looked at. Meh. Turns out, a neighbor's father owns a body shop that's more or less next door to where my wife works. We're going to try to at least get it looked at there.

In a few weeks, my wife starts a program where she'll be mentoring young girls on mtb's and she's going to NEED to ferry her bike around for that. Doing so in the rental the insurance company is going to provide will be problematic. And my wife can't drive my car (manual transmission). Timing of getting the rack replaced isn't a big deal, since we have a couple of roof carriers on the Subie, also. HOPEFULLY, she can get the car in to be looked at and the shop can order parts, allowing her to take the car until everything is ready for installation. And then, hopefully it'll only take a few days at most to get it all on, minimizing rental car time and all that. None of my previous insurance claims have involved such significant repairs as this one.


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## Rockadile (Jun 27, 2005)

Harold said:


> There are only 2 body shops that work directly with our insurance company even vaguely in our area. One is so far out of the way it's not even in consideration. The other had a 2wk wait JUST to get the car looked at. Meh. Turns out, a neighbor's father owns a body shop that's more or less next door to where my wife works. We're going to try to at least get it looked at there.


In my state, you are not required to go to the insurance company's body shop. Not sure how your state is but I would be surprised if it wasn't the same.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

Rockadile said:


> In my state, you are not required to go to the insurance company's body shop. Not sure how your state is but I would be surprised if it wasn't the same.


no, we can go where we want. If we go to the shop the ins co recommends, there's a lifetime guarantee on all work done (from the ins co). Not sure what sort of guarantee this other shop offers, but with the crappy scheduling, I think it's worth looking at. Name dropping the owner's daughter as a neighbor might help, too. Especially if we can speak directly with him.


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## kosulin (Apr 18, 2017)

This might depend on insurance company, but when our rear end was hit by a reckless teen, I brought a copy of my aftermarket hitch receiver invoice to the body shop, and the insurance covered 100% of identical replacement cost. Fortunately, there was no rack when this happened. One of main reasons why I always remove the rack when do not need it. It takes a minute to do, but brings a piece of mind.
By the way, I slightly hit a high curb once when slowly backing up with 1UP installed, and thanks to expander ball, there was no damage at all, the whole rack just moved deeper into the receiver. I still use it with no issues. Just imagine what would happen with conventional pin lock!


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

kosulin said:


> This might depend on insurance company, but when our rear end was hit by a reckless teen, I brought a copy of my aftermarket hitch receiver invoice to the body shop, and the insurance covered 100% of identical replacement cost.


Yeah, we had this hitch installed somewhere around 5yrs ago after we bought the car. Paid one of the mechanics at the Subie dealership to install it on the side. No invoices left from any of that.

I won't use either of the 1up hitch racks on this car. The "new" one would require me to cut an ugly, irregular hole in the bumper for the pin. The "old" style would fit, but couldn't easily be locked to the car. Not messing with it.


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## Rockadile (Jun 27, 2005)

Harold said:


> no, we can go where we want. If we go to the shop the ins co recommends, there's a lifetime guarantee on all work done (from the ins co). Not sure what sort of guarantee this other shop offers, but with the crappy scheduling, I think it's worth looking at. Name dropping the owner's daughter as a neighbor might help, too. Especially if we can speak directly with him.


The body shops I've dealt with in the past also offer lifetime warranties on their work.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

welp, the recommended body shop can't even make an appointment to look at the car until July. Ha, that's not gonna happen. Guess we're going with the one the insurance co sends us to next week. Gonna make it tough for my wife to do her mtb mentoring program, but I think we can make things work. The wife and I have talked about the logistics in a worst case scenario where she can't put her bike in the rental car. HOPEFULLY the rental car she gets is a hatchback where she can at least put the bike inside with the front wheel off. On a tarp to keep things clean, at least.


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## twodownzero (Dec 27, 2017)

You should have no problem getting full replacement value for your rack and the hitch receiver. I would have the insurance company do an estimate and cut me a check and replace those two myself, and have them fix the body later.

I'd be more concerned that the bike rack and hitch receiver have bent the attachment points on the car, which is going to be hell to fix, if so.


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## Mudguard (Apr 14, 2009)

To play devil's advocate, how visible are the brake lights when the bike is on the rack (normally)?
We can get pinged for obscuring a number plate here, but it's unusual. My main concern with a rack is something rear ending me, and damaging the bike! I couldn't care less about the car!


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## JACKL (Sep 18, 2011)

I think it is worthwhile to consider installing trailer lights on the rack. Amazon has kits for pretty cheap. Admittedly it can be challenging to mount them.

I'm not a safety nut, but in my case with 1 to 3 bikes out behind the car, the brake lights were not always clearly visible. I was not comfortable with that. I'd like to see the rack manufacturers start offering lights as an option.


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## sam-eye-am (Jun 30, 2004)

Recognize this diverges slightly from topic, but we have had a 1up rack and torklift eco hitch on our 2014 hybrid crosstrek for about 3 years now. 99% of the time just one tray, but the rack only comes off in very infrequent circumstances.

I installed the hitch myself, not hard at all. And I didn’t need to cut anything...though ours is solely for bike racks. I have a Ram 3500 for towing. 


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

JACKL said:


> I think it is worthwhile to consider installing trailer lights on the rack. Amazon has kits for pretty cheap. Admittedly it can be challenging to mount them.
> 
> I'm not a safety nut, but in my case with 1 to 3 bikes out behind the car, the brake lights were not always clearly visible. I was not comfortable with that. I'd like to see the rack manufacturers start offering lights as an option.
> 
> View attachment 1201384


Has been on my radar, but I would want the lights to pivot so they would be visible with the rack up or down.


sam-eye-am said:


> Recognize this diverges slightly from topic, but we have had a 1up rack and torklift eco hitch on our 2014 hybrid crosstrek for about 3 years now. 99% of the time just one tray, but the rack only comes off in very infrequent circumstances.
> 
> I installed the hitch myself, not hard at all. And I didn't need to cut anything...though ours is solely for bike racks. I have a Ram 3500 for towing.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


The "new" one would require cutting to accommodate the pin. I am not comfortable with the way the old style works without a pin from a security standpoint.

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## askibum02 (Jul 7, 2005)

You don't have anything to worry about with USAA. I've been a member for over twenty years, and they have yet to try to do anything but make me whole again. My auto and homeowners policies both cover replacement value. I'm not even sure that they offer a depreciated value policy to be honest.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

Wife dropped her car off the other day. I am glad I didn't cut her bike rack off myself. The body shop is going to replace the bike rack and the hitch receiver. No word on how the body shop feels about my trailer wiring, though the possibility exists that they will trim up the new bumper even better than I did on the old one - even though I did a pretty good job of making it look good. Even finished the cut edge with rubber trim.

It is a good thing her bike was more or less fine, though we did find the derailleur hanger was bent a touch on her first ride after the wreck. Just enough to totally screw up shifting while riding. But not enough to totally destroy shifting on the workstand. Replaced it on the trail and finished our ride.

At any rate, our auto policy only covers 250 for personal property, which means any claim on bike damage over that would be homeowner's, and our deductible for our homeowner's policy is 10x that of our uninsured motorist coverage. A $1,000 cash outlay to replace bikes totaled in a wreck like this would suck badly (though not nearly as much as spending 10k to replace both of our mtb's without insurance). We are reviewing our policies to ensure that we don't get caught by that in the future.

Not sure yet if that will mean tweaking our auto policy or homeowners or both.


askibum02 said:


> You don't have anything to worry about with USAA. I've been a member for over twenty years, and they have yet to try to do anything but make me whole again. My auto and homeowners policies both cover replacement value. I'm not even sure that they offer a depreciated value policy to be honest.


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## askibum02 (Jul 7, 2005)

Harold said:


> Wife dropped her car off the other day. I am glad I didn't cut her bike rack off myself. The body shop is going to replace the bike rack and the hitch receiver. No word on how the body shop feels about my trailer wiring, though the possibility exists that they will trim up the new bumper even better than I did on the old one - even though I did a pretty good job of making it look good. Even finished the cut edge with rubber trim.
> 
> It is a good thing her bike was more or less fine, though we did find the derailleur hanger was bent a touch on her first ride after the wreck. Just enough to totally screw up shifting while riding. But not enough to totally destroy shifting on the workstand. Replaced it on the trail and finished our ride.
> 
> ...


$250 for personal property? Have you adjusted that since you moved to NC? I know different states have different laws and max coverages, but my NC uninsured property coverage is QUITE a bit higher than that with a minimal deductible, and the cost is minimal.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

No, we haven't actually modified our auto coverage since moving to NC. Part of what we are in the process of looking at now.


askibum02 said:


> $250 for personal property? Have you adjusted that since you moved to NC? I know different states have different laws and max coverages, but my NC uninsured property coverage is QUITE a bit higher than that with a minimal deductible, and the cost is minimal.


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