New Car - New Hitch - New Rack.... Rack is not level.

[gt eunuch]

Picked up a very nice 2015 VW Golf Sportwagen TDI and decided to put a Kuat Sherpa 2.0 on it. Picked up a Draw-tite hitch, pulled the bumper off, installed hitch, and put it all back togehter. Threw the hitch on the car, everything tightened up as it should aaaaaand..... it's crooked. Probably an inch or so lower on the drivers side of the car vs the passenger side. As I tighten the anti-rattle mechanism, the rack goes from straight, to un-level. The rack feels very secure, so I am not too worried about the safety of it, but I would rather it be level.

I contacted Kuat and they said it SHOULD be level, have not heard back from Draw tite but, in an effort to resolve this myself, I took the bumper back off, loosened all the bolts to the hitch and tried to correct this tilt by lifting one side up while tightening the hitch. this did NOT even remotely help, but it was worth a shot.

The only thing that I did find that helped was putting 2 spokes (:banana:) into the hitch receiver, under the rack's stinger on the drivers side, and then tightening the anti-rattle mechanism with these in. This did help but.... eh.

Thoughts?

Pic for funsies:

https://i.imgur.com/s3T4Rk8.jpg

[Birddog]

Receiver 1 1/4" or 2"? Kuat 1 1/4" or 2"? I have a 1 1/4" Kuat going into a 2" receiver and it sits a little crooked. The adapter is not the finest piece of close tolerance work. You said the car was used, maybe it has been hit in a previous life.

[gt eunuch]

Receiver 1 1/4" or 2"? Kuat 1 1/4" or 2"? I have a 1 1/4" Kuat going into a 2" receiver and it sits a little crooked. The adapter is not the finest piece of close tolerance work. You said the car was used, maybe it has been hit in a previous life.

1 1/4" receiver with a 1 1/4" Kuat

Having been under the car and under the bumper skin for a few hours at this point i can definitely say that the car has never been involved in a collision (atleast in the rear, carfax is clean as well)

[Birddog]

Is it tilted when only one bike is loaded? If so have you put a bike in the other slot to see if it tilts the other way? Might just be a balance issue.

[Mikej]

Check the hitch height from the ground on both sides where it is bolted to the frame, and check at the hitch frame corners (the point of the angles furthest back) , if it is all even, check the height of the cars frame at near where you just measured the hitch, if that all checks out look at the receiver from the rear, is it welded crooked? Is there extra paint inside the hitch? Or an extra washer somewhere?

[Black Dog]

Maybe it is sloped for drainage...;)

If the hitch is what is out of level then put some washers between the hitch and the mount points on the car to lower the hitch on the side that sits to high. One or two washers will make a big difference.

If it is the rack then spokes it is.

[p nut]

Make sure the hitch receiver wasn't damaged at shipping. I ordered one for our van from etrailer. I tried to install it, but the drive side would not line up right. I then found that it had apparently been dropped during shipping and the left side was totally off alignment. They promptly sent out a new one.

Hitches are heavy and only "protected" by a thin layer of cardboard. One little drop could bend it and throw it off alignment.