Best 1997 Ford Explorer Bike Racks

I received my bike rack quickly and as promised. It was easily installed, no issues there. Only a couple of comments- There were extra clips/clamps in the bag, but no clear instructions on how to use them or what they are for. I'm very mechanical, but couldn't figure out what to do with them. I also noticed that after driving a while, the clips on the tubes start slipping. With the wind, the bikes seem to move a bit. When you stop, the bikes aren't in the same position as when you started your trip. In any case, I think the price paid is certainly suitable for the unit. I would recommend it.

I needed a bike rack for my Ford Explorer that could carry 4 downhill bikes. This certainly met all my expectations and the price was awesome. I was a little bit worried about the durability of this rack, but it is built solid. No joke, this thing is rugged and built really well. No more throwing bikes in the back of my truck. I will definitely save money on fuel!

When we bought our 2013 Explorer, there was no bike rack available that would fit it. We were thrilled to find this rack for our car. The instructions were easy to follow and the rack performed as expected. During the 100 miles from home to college, we could see our child's bike out that back window sitting solidly in place.

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One of the bolts where the numbers are would only screw in half way. Everything else was easy to put together. The hooks that are on the side are not very stable on my Ford Explorer. They tend to slide up on to the glass back window. I tied the loose ends of those straps across and down lower to hold the hooks in lower position off the back window.

I bought the 3 bike carrier last minute for a trip we were taking from Mass to North Carolina. The bikes were secure the whole way and definiltey would recommend this product.

When we bought our 2013 Explorer, there was no bike rack available that would fit it. We were thrilled to find this rack for our car. The instructions were easy to follow and the rack performed as expected. During the 100 miles from home to college, we could see our child's bike out that back window sitting solidly in place.

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After reading several reviews I went with the Swagman for my 2014 Ford Explorer. It worked best for my family, as we have varying sizes of bicycles. Being able to adjust the wheel holders is nice and keeps the bikes secure on the rack. Let me say this is one of the easiest racks to load. Although my kids bikes have the foot pegs on front and back wheels we were still able to load all 4 bikes (2 adults/2 kids) with not much trouble. We did have to put the kids bikes on the outmost mounts due to the foot pegs, but other than that it was no trouble. I have a family of 6 so, we still had to rent two beach bikes when we reached out destination. The bike shop owner commented on the rack and said it was the easiest he had seen to load and unload. Now this is a guy that rents more than 200 bikes out at a time, so he has probably seen his share of bike racks. Overall I would give this rack 5 stars for ease of loading and unloading. If getting in and out of the back of your SUV is must with bikes loaded then this is NOT the rack for you. However, once the bikes are unloaded it is easy to raise and lower the rack to get access to the back hatch. etrailer.com did a great job delivering the rack and answer my questions. I would give them 5 stars!!

Exactly as expected, got it a day early! So far, 2 out of 2 things I have purchased from etrailer.com have been early and very good products. I recommend getting a rubber mallet or hammer and block of wood to assemble the horizontal cross members. It seems that the powder coating made the fit kinda tight (better tight than loose). Other than that assembles pretty easy. Took me about 20 minutes. I love how it holds 4 bikes! It folds up nicely on a 2014 Ford Explorer and is out of the way.

Carrier was fairly easy to assemble and holds 2 bikes nicely! Have not tried yet while traveling with our Explorer to see if any 'wobbling' issue as some other brand bike carriers seem to have but looks like it should be no problem as hitch has clamp that securely holds carrier in place. Overall like product very much so far and it is really nice quality & design!!

EASY TO ASSEMBLE, FIT PERFRECT ON MY FORD EXPLORER, GREAT PRODUCT

Great product. Easy to install. Went camping with the bikes on top of the vehicle. Travel approx 150 miles on State Roads and Interstate. No noise, no problems, no worries.

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Planning on bringing bikes while camping. I mounted 2 of the Swagman bike racks to my new Sportrack on my pop-up camper. The bikes fit perfectly. The racks seem sturdy enough. Not heavy duty, but for my needs they should be fine. Assembly was relatively fast and easy.

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Great Experience! Fast Shipping! Rack fits perfectly on my car. Only thing, they could have mentioned that there is an adapter bar needed for lady bikes.

Excellent product, couldn't be happier with the choice of rack. Fits my explorer well and is easy to put on/take off. Protects bikes and vehicle well

It was obvious that we received a product that was returned by someone else when the box was overly taped shut, a support collar was broken, and most of the pieces were out of their ripped plastic bags. However, it was a great price to hold 5, 26" and/or 27" Trek bikes. I used a piece of the broken collar and went ahead and assembled the rack. Due to the weight of the 5 bikes it did not wobble that much when driving, as one of the bike tires was up against my car. I can only imagine that if we received an untampered product that this review would have been 5 stars. The picture is a little hard to see, but there are 5 Trek bikes on the rack on my 2020 Toyota Seinna.

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We received a damaged box, damaged items, no instructions, the nuts and bolts are completely stripped and not inside a bag. This was obviously used, returned, not checked for quality and sent out. We are extremely upset.

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Great Experience! Fast Shipping! Rack fits perfectly on my car. Only thing, they could have mentioned that there is an adapter bar needed for lady bikes.

Excellent product, couldn't be happier with the choice of rack. Fits my explorer well and is easy to put on/take off. Protects bikes and vehicle well

Excellent product. Very sturdy. Met my needs perfectly. I had a particular need for a single bike rack that I could use at different times for two different vehicles. One with a 1 1/4" receiver, and the other a 2" receiver. Also, ground clearance was a concern with the lower receiver level of my Mazda 3. The other vehicle is a Ford Explorer and both are hatchback models. Preston, the customer service rep, did a great job making sure that the rack would fit both vehicles, and that ground clearances, and bumper and hatchback door clearances would not be a problem. Fine job and Quality product!

Very sturdy built bike rack. Assembles to the 1 1/4 " hitch on my Explorer quickly. I would recommend for any SUV.

Works well for transporting two 29" wheeled mountain bikes. However, after one year it's starting to rust in several areas (see attached photos), and the front wheel arms are becoming increasingly difficult to raise and lower. Finally the locking cable is extremely rusty as you can see in the attached photo. I'm not sure how durable this rack will be long term.

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We have had this bike rack for one year and use it every week-end. My wife has a Trek e-bike (52 lbs) and I have a regular Trek hybrid (23 lbs). The rack is very sturdy and I have no issues driving at highway speeds, there is no movement of the bikes. Very easy to load and unload.

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Looks great, appreciative of all of the videos for the various parts I purchased.

I purchased this bike rack a year ago and I use it A LOT. I had to buy and install a stabilizer because without it, the unit would sway back and forth even without a bike on it (very noisy). This makes removal more cumbersome but since I keep the hitch on year round it doesn't matter to me. The tilting function is fabulous allowing easy use of my RAV4 hatchback. I can even tilt it down with a bike on it. I got the 2 bike hitch. Plenty of room for two bikes to fit without rubbing. Lastly, the hitch has a sizable through-hole on the bottom to thread a good sized cable so I can lock my bike up. Sturdy. I highly recommend.

i received my bike rack last night and tried it out for the first time. I think that so far it is great.. i was even able to get a girls bike to work without using the adapter. shipping was pretty fast also. overall very happy with my experience and the products i ordered. i won't hesitate to order from etrailer again. thank you for the pleasant transaction.

Wow. This bike rack is solid. I have it installed on my truck for now and will move it to the back of our Jayco 1207 before our trip.

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Decent 4-bike rack for the price. Stable side-to-side with the screw-in hitch pin (2 inch receiver version). Gets some fore-aft rocking over bumps at speed (inherent to the tilting design). Bikes need bungee cords to keep them from swinging (typical for this style of rack). I used this with two bikes, and really struggle to see how four full-size bikes could be added. Maybe if seats were removed? I added bumpers and some padding for the vertical post, and will probably relocate the retainer pin lanyard so the rack can be completely collapsed for storage. A few design improvements for 5 star rating would be: 1 - Add some bumpers for the fully lowered position, 2 -Add some padding on the vertical post for bike contact or accidental vehicle hatch lifting when in the raised position, 3 - Mount the retainer pin lanyard to one of the through-bolts or move the lanyard hole - collapsing this rack chews up the retaining lanyard. etrailer.com service was great - well packaged, and quickly shipped!

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Excellent service and fast shipping by etrailer. Bike rack itself was easy to put together and install. It came in with a few scratches. It works well with large bikes. Slight problems started with the smaller bikes. The rack's arms are wide enough to accommodate the bikes, but the slides are not designed for smaller frames. If you have smaller bikes you might have to purchase the bike frame adapter bar for each bike. It's not a huge problem for us since the kids are growing up fast and soon they will have to graduate to the large frame bikes. In the mean time I will have to use extra straps to hold them together.

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