If you plan to carry bikes on the road, on rough terrain, or on the back of an RV, most racks aren't rated for all three. The HoldUp is, so you can take your bikes wherever you go with one rack instead of switching racks between trips.
This 4-bike setup is made from a 2-bike base rack with a removable 2-bike extension. Pulling the add-on off leaves you with just the front trays, reducing overall length and weight on the hitch. This configuration is useful when you are only carrying one or two bikes and want less rack hanging off the back of the vehicle. Reinstalling the extension brings it back to full 4-bike capacity using the same connection point.
Weekend rides or group trips come down to how weight is distributed across the rack. The front two trays support bikes up to 60 lbs each for road use, while the rear two trays carry up to 50 lbs each. For off-road and RV use, capacity drops to 40 lbs per bike in the front and 33 lbs per bike in the rear, where added movement from the road changes how weight is handled. This setup covers a mix of standard bikes and e-bikes, with lower limits on the rear positions and during RV travel. This matters most when loading heavier bikes, where placement affects how the rack handles the load.
Frame shapes vary, and accessories like fenders or battery packs can get in the way. The StrongArm hook presses down on the front tire while the rear wheel strap holds the back in place. Contact stays at the wheels, so frame shape and add-ons do not affect how the bike mounts. There's no frame contact, which is especially important for carbon frames, custom paint, or bikes with mounted accessories.
Four bikes side-by-side increases the chance of handlebars and pedals running into each other during loading and transport. The trays shift side to side, letting you offset each bike's position across all four trays. This spacing reduces overlap and keeps components from pressing into each other while driving. This helps avoid reloading bikes multiple times to keep them from making contact.
Accessing the rear of your vehicle often gets blocked once bikes are loaded. The 3-position tilt lowers the rack away from the vehicle, even with bikes in place, so you can open a hatch or trunk. When unloaded, the rack folds up to reduce how far it extends from the vehicle. So you don't have to unload your bikes to reach tools, groceries, or other gear in the back.
Different bikes bring different wheel sizes, tire widths, and wheelbase lengths. The HoldUp fits 20" to 29"/700c wheels, tires up to 4-13/16" wide, and wheelbases from 34" to 50". This range covers most adult bikes, including many mountain and gravel setups.
Alternate Instructions
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi, I'm Matt with etrailer. Today we're we're talking about the Yakima Holdup Bike Rack. We have the full version today, and we're gonna have this on our 2021 Ram Pro Master 2500. So this is gonna be a great rack if you're looking for something to hold your e-bikes. Now what's also cool about it is you can easily detach the two bike add-on here on and off of the rack. So that's pretty unique about this.
But right now let's focus on how it's interacting with the vehicle with the bike on. So with the bike on here, we do have a more lower road bike, so we're gonna have complete clearance out of our back window. Now if this was a pretty large bike, you might notice it a little bit, but that's something I do like about this design. It does have your bike sit a little bit lower. And if you're on any bumpy roads, we're not gonna make contact with anything on the back of our vehicle.
But keep in mind, if you have a mountain bike, that might change up a little bit. Now when it comes to the tilt away on here, it is not gonna be that impressive. And I'll show you what I mean real quick. So we're gonna have two pins. The best way I think to do it is to kind of lift up on the rack, hold this first pin all the way out.
The second pin you just gotta pull on and it stays in place. And this is gonna be a tilt here. Now in the four by configuration, this isn't too bad at all. It is nice because if it went down any further, it might make contact with the ground. But this will tilt back enough where if you need to get back here, grab anything smaller, like your shoes, anything that's gonna be at the edge by the door, this is gonna be a good spot for it.
Now to put it back up, we just gotta lift on it until it clicks. Once it clicks, we'll go to put that other pin back into place. You won't lose it 'cause it does have a cable attached to it, so that's nice. If you have a frame for this process, it makes it way easier. Now I do wanna say the weight capacity of this, for the first two trays, it is gonna be 60 pounds if you're on road. Offroad is gonna drop down to 40 pounds. And for these two back trays, it's gonna be 50 pounds if you're on road. And if you're doing some offroading, it's going to drop down to 33 pounds. So I'd recommend putting your bikes on here, but thinking about what type of bikes you have, if some of them are e-bikes or if some of them are just standard bikes. But let's go over how to take off the bike. So we're gonna have two touch points. One's gonna be on the back tire with this strap here. Easy to remove, tuck it away. And the front one is just gonna be a trigger on this hook. Squeeze that in and push it out of our way. That's it. Now I can just pick it up and take it out for a ride. Now when we're looking at the cradles, we're gonna have that one on the backside. And what's nice about that is that pivot so it can accommodate a wider range of wheel bases. And the one on the front is gonna be more of this open style. So that allows your tire to sit deeper in there and it gives it a really good hold. Well, let's put everything back up, make it look pretty. And that doesn't take very long. Just put that hook down, push this strap up. And from here we can get a couple measurements. So the first measurement I'm gonna get, there's gonna be ground clearance, and that's gonna be about 22 inches. So when you have a lot of weight down here, it's gonna drop down maybe by two inches. But if even if you're going up a steep incline like a driveway or a hill, you're not gonna bottom out. And then the total distance away, this is gonna be a little bit further out. That is gonna be sitting at about 53 and a half inches. So it does take up a little bit of room on here, but we can save space in two ways. The first way is just gonna be tilting it up. So the way I do that is just like how we tilted it down before, pull that first pin, pull that second one and pull up on it. And this here would be a little bit easier if you have two people, but it's fine too just by yourself. Now I'm gonna put that pin back up. And now it only sits just about 13 inches. So that'll save you a lot of room. The second way you can save space, this is what I'd recommend if you know you're about to take a trip and you know only two people going with you to go bike riding, there's gonna be this anti riding bolt here. Just remove clip on one side, loosen it up, and this just slides right out of there. So it'll probably take you maybe three to five minutes. But the way it installs is gonna be a two inch shank that goes into two inch hitch receiver, you'll then have an anti-rattle bolt right here that goes through, since it's down and you can hold, it'll connect to a lock core on the other side to give you that security. Now overall, I do think this is gonna be a solid option if you're looking for something that's gonna look pretty sleek back here, it's gonna block a few things, like a little bit of your back window if you have into the four bike configuration and a little bit of your license plate, but it is pretty light for a four bike carrier. Now another good option that has a similar feature to this is gonna be the Benton Shifts&Grins, because that's one where you can take that two bike out on and off. I will say the downside to that one is it's gonna be much heavier, even when you are working with the add-ons. And that's why I like this one because it is just gonna be lighter and just easy to handle than that one. And if you do decide to go with this, let us know how it's working for you in either a comment or a review. And if you have any other questions, let us know here at etrailer. And again, I'm Matt and thanks for watching.
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