Rola 59109 Adventure System with Swing Away

I purchased the unit with the swing away arm. Its bulk requires two people to move safely when empty, though I have moved it myself, and I see no point in getting this for more space if you cannot get to the space you already have.

The unit requires some assembly of the metal hitch mounted carrier to the plastic tray. The instructions recommend you mount the hitch into your car receiver and I echo that. During assembly, I ran into a problem. The washers that came with the unit were not correct. They sent eight ½ inch fender washers which could not be used. They sent four 3/8 inch washers which I actually needed 12 of. I had to purchase 8 more 3/8 washers to finish the assembly. Not a big deal, but inconvenient. It looks like they sent me a tilting hardware pack with the swing away model.

I also purchased the license plate kit. This involved drilling a 1" hole in the tray. I was not thrilled about drilling the hole in my new tray. The other problem is that drilling the hole is not trivial. A 1" twist drill is probably not in everyone's tool kit. I used a hole saw with no center tap. I drilled a piece of wood and used that to guide the saw into the tray where I wanted it. Other than that, the installation was straight forward.

During the install, I made the following observations. The shell of the pod is adequate. Its single walled. I plan to use the pod for Ski trips and I hope that the plastic does not get to brittle in the cold weather. A cracked shell will render the unit worthless.

I would like to have seen a better attempt at waterproofing the lid, although there is a gasket between the lid and pod body. Also, the pod drain in the literature is a hole drilled in the bottom of the unit and a small friction fit plug you push into it. If the plug pops out, water could enter the unit.

The clips that hold the lid down and keep the pod in the tray look light to me. I have seen these types of brackets on my hardshell golf case and had a problem with one breaking. From experience I will have to be careful in using them. Be carefule when removing the pod from the tray. Be sure to close the clips on the pod near the bottom before putting the unit on the ground or you could break them.

Don't consider the clip's locks as security locks. The locks will keep the clips from opening unexpectedly, but won't keep a determined thief out for even a minute.

I initially thought the removable pod and tray might be an asset. I now feel it might be a liability. I doubt I will ever use the tray without the pod, and now have a potential point of failure between the pod and tray. It does help to be able to remove the pod when mounting the hitch bracket as it is heavy and awkward.

When purchasing the unit, I also considered the Thule 684 Terrapin Hitch Mount Luggage Box and StowAway2 Max Sport Plus Carrier. I did not like the Thule because the lid lip was too high. While I have never seen it, it seemed that filling the top ½ with luggage might require some work to get the lid down. I prefer the flat top design of the other products.

If I had it to do over again, I think I would have considered the StowAway2 MAX over the Rola solely for their attention to weather stripping and permanent mounted pod to the hitch bracket. The StowAway2 does come with the license plate holder and a rattle free hitch pin, both of which I purchased with this unit at extra cost. Total price was still less than the StowAway2. But it's important to note, I have not seen the StowAway2 unit.

In all, I think this unit will meet all my needs. It comes with a 5 year warranty for the shell, so if I do have problems, I am covered.

This is a great product, very roomy and the swing-away is quick and easy, you just pull two pins. The only negative - it is not watertight, so while driving in the rain water will get in. I understand the company separately sells a nylon waterproof bag to go over the plastic carrier; still, it seems this is a problem that could easily be remedied by having the carrier lid come with a rubber gasket.

This particular item is fantastic! Functionality is awesome! The box itself is a little hard to handle by a single person, but can easily be handled by two. For security, go ahead and order the locking hitch pin, for stability reasons, order the hitch tightener, and for legality reasons, go ahead and order the license plate relocation kit with light. Unfortunately, I was awaiting the item for an upcoming trip, and when it arrived, the hardware and swingaway was not part of the shipment. The customer service that I received following that initial call was atrocious, and each process and escalation procedure that was, or wasn't followed needs to be looked at and corrected accordingly. I am in the customer service industry, and was extremely disappointed, not only in the ways that my issue was handled, but the number of times that I was lied to by representitives of the company. If one more persons reads me a script of how they are the supervisor on duty, and that a manager is not available, I'm going to scream, and insist yet AGAIN to speak to someone in the US. Overall a very sad, disappointing customer service experience, and I will make sure that hundreds and potentially thousands of people hear about it.

This is a wonderful way to add extra cargo carrying capacity. The whole thing swings out of the way to allow you access to the back of the vehicle. It is easy to mount. It appears to be water tight, but I have not yet driven it in the rain, so I do not know for sure about that.

There is a good deal of room inside.

I only have 2 complaints. First, it needed some assembly; that was not a big problem, but I did not see anywhere in the product description that assembly was required. Second, it obscures the rear license plate; there is a note in the instructions that the license plate may need to be mounted to the back of the cargo carrier, but the instructions did not state which states required this; instead, the instructions said to contact your state officials to see what the state requirements were. But, there is no way to mount a license plate to the back of the cargo carrier; I suppose you could use self-tapping screws, but that would cause a defect in the shell that would allow rain to enter the interior.