One bolt, and it was ready use! I've had three bikes on this rack, and it was rock solid. The mounting points are adjustable, so no one has to remove their bags or other gear before we load up. The Zipstrips hold the bikes so solidly that we only use bungee cords when traveling long distances to trail heads. Yakima was kind enough to include a few extra Zipstrips, just in case. Nice touch. I read some reviews that questioned the locking system into the hitch receiver: it works great. It uses a wedge to lock the rack into the receiver. A reasonable person with a working knowledge of how the physical world operates should have no problem securing this rack to their vehicle. If the wedge gets stuck in place when you try to remove the rack from your receiver, I suggest bumping the red locking knob with the pad of your palm after you've turned the knob counter-clockwise a few times -- that shoves the wedge back, so the rack can slide out. Yes, it's a heavy rack. That's why it's "rock solid" and durable. Frankly, with the swing feature, I had no reason to remove it from my vehicle all Summer. Life is full of compromises. If you want the weight of plastic and aluminum, you'll have to accept the compliance and tensile strength of plastic and aluminum. I prefer "rock solid" when I'm transporting over $1500 worth of equipment. The integrated cable locking system is suitable for a quick trip into a convenience store to grab ice and Gatorade. It's fast, convenient, and reasonably sturdy. It's not intended to secure your valuable bikes overnight in a hotel parking lot. I phoned Yakima customer service more out of orneriness than a genuine issue. It was a slow Friday afternoon at work. I won't tell you the pretext I used, because I don't want to instigate a flood of calls looking for "freebies." But, the woman at Yakima was cheerful, sweet, and I felt bad for pulling her leg and pretending to be an unhappy customer. After I told her the real reason I phoned -- that I was just genuinely blown away by the quality of my new FullSwing -- she sent me a small package with a few goodies inside. Who does that? She even took something off of her desk to send me... something they don't offer anymore! When the employees have fun at their jobs, that says something to this ornery cuss. I'm happy to have given my hard-earned cash to an American company that treats its employees right. Read more
This was the lowest price anywhere for this rack. After installing it I am so glad we purchased this particular rack. It tightens up and locks into the hitch so there’s limited sway, it locks the bikes down well and has spacing adjustable ratcheting tie downs, opens up to fully clear the cargo area of a car or truck- I have a full size Yukon, and this rack will swing all the way around the side of the truck so I can access the hatch and gate! Everything locks in place including a built in lock for the bike frames. I added a lock cable that also goes through the wheels. The only downside is the weight, this thing is heavy! But there’s a plus side to that as well - this rack can easily be taken apart into two pieces of someone needed it to be lighter or to stow in smaller spaces. It’s a great quality rack. Read more
This bike rack holds adult bikes fine. Kids bikes are a little tricky because bike mounts on the rails get in the way. Kids bikes had to remove water bottle mounts and still had rack arm under front of frame instead of through frame. Either way, the rack is heavy, strong and fits the back of my full size truck perfect. I can swing the fully loaded four bikes to the side and drop the tailgate. Exactly what I wanted. Expensive but worth it. Bikes are secured and no fear of them falling off. The cable lock is a nice touch Read more
I am a female and fairly strong enough. I bought this bike rack because I need to access the back of my compact suv easily. There are not many options out there that have the feature I want for the bike rack, and look good on my car too. Yes, I knew this rack was heavy before I purchased it. But the video seemed so easy that the two pieces were assembled together with the one bolt that I figured I can handle the total weight but when removing each piece. I didn't want to leave the bike rack on the car all the time. The manual also says to remove it when not in use, anyways. (By the way, the bolt that came with my rack was wrong. They did send me a replacement bolt right away though and said I was one of two people this happened to.) ABOUT THE RACK REMOVAL: - DEDUCT ONE STAR - The Yakima video doesn't show how they managed to remove this bike rack in one piece. Because the bolt doesn't come out easy at all after it is tightened. The rack is not only very very heavy all in one piece, but it is really awkward to handle by one person that is not super strong. There is no really easy way to hold onto this thing in one piece and store it at the same time if you are by yourself. Yakima should have made some kind of recessed handled or something where someone can hold not it easily. I finally removed the entire rack in one piece and laid it on the ground so I could try to remove the bolt. The bolt finally removed when I hit it out with a rubber mallet really hard (encouraged by Yakima also do hit it out with a rubber mallet). Yakima should have created some kind of storage rack on wheels (not overpriced) where it could be be set on in one piece to help align with the hitch to install and remove it, and also a place to store it in the garage. For this price of the bike rack, further thought should have gone into helping people handle this rack if they are single and not overly strong. ABOUT INSERTING IT INTO THE HITCH AFTER AS A ONE-PIECE UNIT: DEDUCT ONE STAR - The video shows the guy easily putting the rack into the hitch. The small silvery piece that is connected to the large red knob shows flush in the video and slides in easily. Not with mine and I even called Yakima about this. It pops out just enough to not make it flush and catch on the hitch so it doesn't slide in easily. Yakima told me to then hold on to the big red knob and move the silvery piece just enough to make it flush and then slide it in. I guess they think I have three arms (yes, I am using this rack by myself). So now I am suppose to support this rack with all the weight in two places and somehow level out the silvery piece. The worse part is inserting this whole rack in the hitch. I have come up with a system to have a plastic bin just the same height as my hitch where I can rest the rack on it for a moment as I then try to insert it in the hitch. That worked better for me. Also… after tightening up the rack as much as possible into the hitch and locking it into place, the mast leans a little to the right. It is not completely centered. I noticed that after returning from my trip that it leaned further to the right. I am concerned about this and if it is normal? USING IT FOR THE FIRST TIME: I took a long road trip for a couple of days with three bikes loaded. Did many pit stops, open and closed the back hatch, highway use, loading and unloading and it all worked great getting into my stuff from the back. I really tested this rack out with the swing feature. many times This is the only part that is great - but the rack will only be used once in a while. (I even used the bottle opener once.) I don't mind the doing the two-step process to swing it away (unscrew and pop up the red pin). It is safer this way. (I am concerned that another review said that they second time they used the rack that it moved in the hitch. I hope that won't happen.) Also, I like the locking cable feature. One night I just used a second locking cable for added protection. No big deal. I thought my three bikes sat on it well and noticed normal movement/bounce (not sure if it is normal) when driving over uneven surfaces. And the little tiny metal piece that is suppose to prevent the rack from popping out of the hitch is very small. I wish it would be a little longer to go into the hole of the hitch more. LOADING BIKES: The zip straps go on easily with normal adult height seats. But I have two youth bikes and the seats are lower closer to the frame. Then the zip straps that go in under the seat area is difficult and your fingers get a little sore trying to pry the straps that are stiffer into the two catches. AFTER RETURNING FROM THE TRIP!!! - DEDUCT ONE STARS - I went ahead and tried to remove the rack right when I got home from the trip. BUT it won't remove from the hitch at all - after the trip. Before the trip, I removed it a few times and managed it. (Yes, I totally unscrewed the red knob and I was depressing the gray button, while at the same time pulling towards me and really trying to giggle it loose. I did it before.). It is exhausting work because I have been trying to giggle it loose and it won't come out now. I don't want to leave this on the car all the time. I am just angry with this very heavy and difficult to remove bike rack. You think for the amount of money this rack goes for (I just noticed it is now $100 cheaper suddenly on Amazon) that Yakima could have put some more thought in an easy removal system too - which they don't show in their "simple-to-use" video. BUT the next morning I attempted it one more time. It came out on the first try. I now think it was maybe heat metal expansion from the long car ride because it would not budge right after I got home. But the next morning it was cool out and I think that helped. THEY SHOULD HAVE MADE AN EASY WAY TO DETACH THE TWO PIECES FOR AN EASY REMOVAL OF THE WHOLE RACK. THE ONE BOLT ATTACHMENT SYSTEM SHOULD HAVE BEEN REDESIGNED LIKE THE RED KNOBS WHERE IT CAN BE EASILY DETACHED AS TWO PIECES AND LOCKED INTO PLACE ALSO LIKE THE OTHER BIG RED KNOB. UPDATE 8-22-16............ From 2 stars to 4 stars. (The reason it is not 5 stars because I want to make sure it will last into a few more years.) About a year later, I now love this bike rack. I developed a system to remove it and put in on by myself. It is awesome when I load three bikes on (and I can see how a fourth can easily be loaded also) and then can get in the back of my small SUV while the bikes are loaded. I can't live without this bike rack now for trips, and the ability to just get into the back of my SUV whenever I want. It was a learning curve at first (all by myself), but I got used to it. I did a lot of research before buying this last year and there was no other option I liked better than the others at the time for various features. By the way, this is my system I use by myself: Put on - I have it on a floor mat propped straight up near the garage door so I don't have to carry it more than a few feet to my hitch. I have a heavy duty box/container that is the same exact height as the bottom of my hitch, which helps me tremendously while I rest the bottom of the rack on it and it lines up with the hitch perfectly. Then, I don't have to exert too much effort of lining it up and pushing it in to the hitch because it is resting on the box which takes on a lot of the weight which I don't have to maneuver. Once it is in all the way, the box is removed. The rest is super easy with this bike rack. To Take off - After I return from my trip the first time, I found I couldn't remove this from my hitch easy enough right away (I don't prefer to always leave a bike rack attached to my car, only when I need it). Then a few hours later or the next day, it came out easily. I could understand it right away. I then figured out it must have been the metal which couldn't have expanded during the trip from the heat. (Maybe a stronger person could have done it, possibly.) So when I need to remove this large, I make sure again to back up my SUV really close to my garage door where it is near its resting location I have set up for it. After I unlock the bike rack at the bottom, I slide in my box again under it. Give the rack a few giggles while pressing the release button at the bottom, then it comes out while being supported on my box to take on most of the weight. I am still holding it so it doesn't topple over, but that is not too much of a problem. Then I hold it just right and lift it off the box over a few feet to where I have it rest upright in my garage. Not too far away because it is heavy. Read more
Heavy to heavy for me and my bad back, a bit bulky. Definitely heavy duty, works well returning going different route. Read more
