Every ride starts with the puzzle phase of fitting bikes on the rack. Most racks force a specific order, especially with non-standard bike frames, but the Shifts&Grins adjusts to your setup so you spend less time swapping spots and more time riding.
No more swapping bikes around to make them fit. The Shifts&Grins adapts to any setup, so you don't have to force a perfect order. The ratcheting hooks adjust to grab your bikes by the wheel or frame, while the sliding wheel cradles move independently to match any combination of sizes and styles. Just set, secure, and go.
Reaching your gear shouldn't mean unloading your bikes or wrestling with a clunky mechanism. With the push-button tilt, just tap it with your leg and keep both hands on the rack as it smoothly lowers out of the way. No awkward balancing, no hassle - just quick, easy access to your trunk so you can grab what you need and get back on the road.
Bumpy roads, tight turns, high speeds all test how well a rack holds its ground. The no-wobble design works with the anti-rattle hitch pin to help reduce movement while you drive. The pin pulls the rack snug into the receiver and uses a threaded design that can be tightened by hand or with a wrench. This takes a little more time during setup, but it pays off with a steadier, more controlled ride once you're on the road.
Installing a bike rack can be a pain, especially since higher-quality racks tend to carry a bit more weight. Balancing that while lining up the hitch isn't exactly fun. The hitch alignment collar on the Shifts&Grins guides the shank into place, so you can secure the rack easily and get on with your ride.
When the ride's over, the Shifts&Grins practically disappears. The shank folds up flat against the rack, allowing it to stand upright on its own - no extra stands, no awkward angles, just a rack that knows when to step aside. That means no more tripping over a bulky rack in your garage or wrestling to find space for it.
Sometimes you're bringing friends along or gearing up for a family ride, and room for two just isn't enough. Adding more bikes shouldn't turn into an all-day project. The 2-bike add-on (B34FR - sold separately) slides into place and tightens down with a hand knob, so expanding your setup stays quick and tool-free. Adjust your setup in seconds and head out.
No matter how many bikes you bring, a keyed-alike lock set (e88RV - sold separately) adds a layer of security for both your rack and your bikes. The D-shaped hitch lock replaces your standard pin while helping reduce movement in the connection, and the 10-foot cable threads through your bikes to help deter theft without complicating your setup.
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hey, how's it going My name is Evan. Welcome to etrailer. So you've got a 2018 Toyota Highlander. Every time I see this car it looks like a van to me. So my guess is you've probably got a lot of people in the back of it, and if those people like to ride bikes, you're going to want a hitch-mounted bike carrier to go with it. That's where this I think is going to help you out.
This is the Benton Shifts&Grins. It's a two-bike carrier with the capacity to grow. I'm going to tell you about it. Now I don't know what type of bike you have, and I kind of don't need to, that's sort of the thing that makes this special. It's a very versatile bike rack, so a lot of the features here are going to make it so that no matter what bike you have, it'll fit.
The wheel bases are very wide, so if you've got very wide wheels, it will still fit, but you've also got kind of a little divot in the center for your road bikes, if you've got like very narrow tires. The main thing that is really nice about this is it is not a wheel-mount or a frame-mount, it's both. And all you gotta do is swap them. Got this little button right there, you press that, you take it off, you move, and then you put it back on. There you go.
Now it's a frame-mount. And it's just as easy to swap it back and forth. So no matter what your bike has in terms of, you know, fenders or if it's a carbon frame bike, this will be able to cover that bike for you, so long as it's under 55 pounds. That's the only sort of qualifier that we've got for that. So if you've got a very heavy electric e-bike, it may not be the one for you.
Now with that out of the way, we'll kind of look at how it works on the back here. You can see there's a lot of space. I'm going to shake this harder than it will ever be shaken on the back of your car just to show you it's not going to hit your back window. I am very, very confident about that, even if you've got some wire handlebars. The other main thing when it comes to looking how it interacts with your car is does it tilt away And I'm pleased to report that it does. You've got this button here that you press down in on, and then that activates the tilt function here. So just let your bike down. I'm gonna hit this button and I'm gonna walk away because I'm not worried about it at all in terms of clearing the bike. You got plenty of space then once this is open. To get in the back, grab your helmet, put some groceries in the back, sit down, relax after the trail, whatever you need to do, and then when you're ready to get back in, you just close it up and there you go. It's pretty easy to do, and the other nice thing that I like, and it's not always the case, but when I push back up on this, (rack clicks) you hear that That was a click that tells me that it's locked in place and I don't have to worry about it coming back undone. So now we'll go ahead and take the bike off just to show you how easy it is to do. So you've got two wheel straps on the front and the back. Pretty easy, just press the little tab there and kind of swing it under. These are mainly auxiliary support, but they are helpful to have, and you want to make sure that when you're loading it up, you put them on tight. Again, the main support structure is this beam right here. Press that up and push it down. Now, I'll go over measurements here in just a second, but keep in mind the Highlander's going to keep this up pretty high, so if you've got a 55-pound bike, this is a pretty hefty motion to lift up and pull. This being just a regular old mountain bike, I'm not too worried about it, but again, just keep that in mind when you're looking at your options. So once you've got that off, I like to use this strap to hold this down while you're driving, just to kind of keep rattling down. Like I said, there's a lot of space in between the Highlander and that first tray, but it does sit out pretty far. You're going to be looking at from the bumper to the furthest point, about 33 inches. Now if you're worried about the 33 inches that I brought up earlier, in terms of like backing into a parking spot or whatever, I have another solution for you. That button we pressed earlier to get the tilt away also has a fold-up function here, and that saves you not an insignificant amount of space. That puts it at about 20 inches, which is a foot off of what it was when it was down. So you still have to worry, you kind of keep it in your mind when you're backing up, you don't want to, you know, have an accident, but it makes it a lot easier to navigate, and I have another magic trick for you. Now I'm not going to look at it, 'cause it does freak me out a little bit, 'cause it's very, very close, but you just saw it. It does clear when it's in this stow position, which is pretty cool. Not a lot of folding bike racks do that, actually. But on your Highlander, that'll be a pretty cool feature. Now like I said earlier, this is a pretty big car. I always think it looks like a van, so if you've got a lot of people who like to bike in your family or immediate friend group, the two-bike is nice. There is an extension you can buy that turns us into a four-bike carrier, and it works very, it's very simple to get on. That's my main gripe with four-bike carriers, is a lot of times you have to make a really big install change. With this one, it's pretty easy. You just slide it on the end of there and it has the button at the end of the four-bike and it works just the same way. Me, personally, I am the only person in my immediate circle that bikes, so the weight is pretty hard for me to overcome when there is a product like the Benton LittleShift out there that suits my needs a lot better. If you have a Highlander, but you are the only person in your family that bikes, I'd tell you to check out the LittleShift. But that's about all I have to tell you about this. I hope this was helpful. If you do have any other questions or anything like that, just give us a call, we're happy to help you out. And again, my name's Evan, and thank you for stopping by.
Customer Satisfaction Score:
90% were satisfied with this product
10% of customers were not satisfied
Ratings & Reviews
The sleds that move back and forth to adjust for frame size tend to get stuck. But the move easily with a little inspiration from a rubber mallet.
The bike rack had a dent when it arrived and the paint was also removed in a 1 inch area. Apart from that it works perfectly as described and has a solid construction.
Heavy duty rack! Assembly instructions were good and easy to follow and assembly was pretty straightforward. All the parts seem like high quality and everything fit together. I got all my bikes on it and drove around a bit and I think it will work well for us. I put on a medium 26" bike, a medium 29er, a small 29er and a small 26" all at the same time and everything fit. Rack sits pretty high so I can get out of the driveway with a few inches to spare so that is nice. I used an Allen socket with ratchet wrench to make assembly easier instead of provided Allen wrench and recommend that.
I found placing the bar hook on the bike frame holds the bike steady better than just pushing it down on the wheel if your going to drive much distance I would do that. We will see how it performs but at least out of the box it seems good.
Came well packaged in perfect condition which I was a little worried about with shipping something so heavy across the country, but even though the box was a little beat up every thing inside was fine.
The rack works well. The rotation to the various positions is fairly stiff. Hopefully this will loosen over time.
One set of connecting rods had the black coating on the inside threads. This made it very challenging to insert the screws and assemble the unit.
The item arrived in good time, it was very easy to install, has been working fine. I am worried that there are no ways to secure the lockdowns from someone just taking them off. But other than that, no complaints!
I'm happy with the product itself and quality, however the delivery company sucks, one box was ripped and a corner of the bike rack was scratched/minor dameged, seems they were just throwing it around careless.
So far, very satisfied with ease of assembly. Will be using it for the first time in the next couple of weeks. etrailer's customer service has been excellent!
Exactly what I imagined, heavy duty, simple to install, quick, solid. I highly recommend this accessory.
One of the connecting bars has missing thread in one of the bolt holes. I sent an Email to the customer service and I'm waiting for their response. I also called and left a voice message and my phone number. They haven't called me back yet. I hope I can get this fixed before Father's Day.
The bike rack is well made, is easy to use and holds the bikes very well. It folds up pretty well when not in use. the only thing some people may not like is that it is heavy.
Built well but much too heavy to put on and take off regularly. It weighs more than 70 pounds BEFORE you put a bike on it. Because it interferes with the backup sensors on today’s cars, I don’t leave it on when not toasting a bike. However, this rack is too heavy to put on and take off regularly. It’s too heavy for my wife to use at all. It weighs more than twice what our older one weighs, so we’ve gone back to using IT and this one sits idly in the garage. Disappointed. I should have checked the weight BEFORE wasting nearly $400 on this rack.
This rack is a solidly built beast! It has every feature I was looking for at a reasonable price. It is easy to adjust the tire spacing, has great locking straps for the tires and an easy adjustable padded grip for the crossbars. As a bonus it also tilts down so I can open the rear hatch on my vehicle without having to remove the bikes. I also bought the locking kit so the rack and bikes are secure if I go into a store or something.
etrailer was easy to order from and kept me informed of all purchase and delivery details, and they were fast!
Great product and company!
This is my first bike rack and it's perfect. It was a little heavier than I expected, but it's also very sturdy and makes me feel comfortable driving around with four bikes on the back.
I took the family out for a ride this weekend and had a great time! Looking forward to many more weekend rides and trail exploring.
Bikes only weigh about 25 lbs. This is an industrial strength bike rack. In fact, it’s so heavy my fit and healthy wife can’t install or remove it from the hitch without assistance. Is it possible to make this from aluminum? I’d be a repeat customer if you did.
Very well built, easy to use, and quick to load. Got it on a Saturday and then took a vacation the following week with 4 bikes of various sizes. Was very easy to load and unload and adjust. And often we lowered it to get access to the trunk (2019 Honda Pilot) and it worked well. Only downfall is that it's VERY heavy. I can handle it, but my wife couldn't.
This is a very solidly built, versatile rack. It's the only one of its build quality that I could find that would simultaneously carry my road bike, my MTB, and my wife's Townie cruiser. Her's was the hard one due to the fenders that have very little clearance to the tire and do not flex, so I cannot use the swing arm on her tires. With this rack, I can still fasten her bike in the step-through with the swing arm.
I also bought an anti-rattle pin and lock set from etrailer to go with this and while they are adequate, there is still a lot of vertical bounce in this rack when going over bumps. I fixed that by NOT using the shaft collar on this rack and instead installing a standard anti-rattle d-ring bracket. Bounce gone, all three bikes transported nicely.
The photo shows 2 commuter bikes, a cruiser, and a road bike all mounted simultaneously and the cruiser is the only one on which the swing arm is touching the frame, all the others have the swing arm on their tires.
The BS&G bike rack performed well on our 100 mile highway roadtrip from Cincinnati to Columbus, Ohio. The bikes were stable the entire trip and easy to load and unload.
Great rack but I had to make a few modifications . The hitch pin was to short so I had to grind it down away from the threads to slide it through to create enough threads opposite side for the nut and locking mechanism. Over all directions were lacking.
Great bike rack for the price.
Pros
Spacing between bikes is Larger than standard 4 platform rack so they minimize touching other bikes.
Modula, can utilize either 2 or 4 bikes
Super rugged, good paint job to mitigate scraps/rust
the anti-sway mechanism is fool proof and does a good job
Cons
Very heavy, 80#+ for entire rack
Harder to fit larger wheelbase bikes, have to remove bottom screw to accommodate, will need additional modification to fit my xl trail bike.
Bulky and takes up more storage space
Great bike rack. It was easy to assemble. Very sturdy, carried our bikes on a 500 mile trip over spring break with nominal movement. You do need to lift your bikes to load and unload as there is no ramp, so consider that if you have heavy bikes. Prefer this over frame mounted hitch rack that it replaced.
When it rains, water can sometimes get trapped in the retaining arms. Slight concern on rust resistance as water drained out orange-ish color. Will have to wait and see on that. Other than this, very happy with purchase.
Looks great, very solid, not sure about the hitch interface. So this took me longer than it should have since I used the long screws in steps 3 and 5 and had to back everything out. But the problem i had (and still have) is that in step 6, the anti-rattle hitch pin does not completely seat into my hitch (C94WR Curt class III 2-inch). I have tightened it down with a ratchet and while there is absolutely no side-to-side shifting, there is definitely up and down shifting of the rack inside the reciever. If i take the rack out of the hitch, the pin does go all the way in, so i don’t think it is a problem with the hitch, i think the shoulder on the pin is too long, or the pin acceptor inside the rack does not allow the shoulder to completely enter the shank. I went as far as taking the etrailer Hitch Pin Alignment Collar (Part Number: e98942) off my old bike rack and tighten it down between the receiver end and the rack’s built-in alignment collar but it had no effect. I am concerned that this might cause some torquing on my hitch install, so I’m going to ride around without bikes and see how much movement happens. That said, it looks great and the fold-up is very nice. It is very heavy, but that means it is very solid. I will update this review if Benton or etrailer gets back to me regarding the pin and I put some bikes on this rack. Maybe I am doing something very wrong.
Package came on time. 2 boxes that were beat and torn during shipping, (to be expected) however, superbly packaged and protected internally from the factory. No unit damage whatsoever. Directions were mehh but they always are. I figured it out. This thing is a tank! Yeah, it’s heavy, but manageable if you separate the two pieces. The finish is strong, clean and very nice aesthetically. I love that it tilts back allowing access with a down tailgate, but I had to remove the front bike and it’s cradles so the gate wouldn’t hit them. Installed it with the locking D pin, loaded bikes and took off to Florida. A thousand miles each way. It handled it Like a boss, with my only issue being the bounce. It could really use either a hard brace type mount of some sort while in transit or a shock absorber. I was afraid it was going to bounce out of the notch and release to the (tilt back position.) I’ll fab something up to give it more support in the 4 bike mode. Overall, I’m very impressed with the rack itself. I went back-and-forth on which ones to buy. I think I’d prefer an upright bike rack where the bikes are vertical due to ease of removal and tail light visibility, but this one still allowed rear view mirror usage. It did made me a little nervous that my tail lights couldn’t be seen because of the 29er bike tires with this rack. I have it on a 26 Ram 2500. Which also means I had to use a 2 inch adapter sleeve. This thing was a lifesaver, and did it’s job well. I’m looking forward to using the two bike set up locally. I appreciate the thorough details on the product from etrailer.
I purchased the Benton Shifts&Grins Bike Rack for 2 Bikes (B54FR) 5 months ago. I have had nothing but a great experience with the bike rack. I can now check the box and remove "get a good bike rack" from my bucket list. Assembly was not a problem; I looked at photos of the rack and illustration - laid out the parts and assembled. Is it a little heavier - yes. Items that are built sturdier tend to have more and thicker metal - hence the additional weight. Is it a concern or issue - absolutely not. The locking bolt does a great job of removing play between the rack and the hitch. My Jeep has less than a plush ride and I was surprised with the limited movement of the rack or bikes in transport. Loading and unloading bikes is a quick and easy process. The tilt function works well when digging through contents of bike bags and it increases the swing of the rear gate, more than any other rack I have used. Storage space is minimalized with the ability to flip the cradle assembly and hitch up. Cradle adjustment is easy to accommodate the various bikes we ride. I have purchased products for personal and work from etrailer going on 5 years. The only thing that is better than the products is the customer service provided by their team. Quality product, good pricing combined with great customer service has made it a great experience every purchase.
The rack was everything I expected. Good quality,easy to assemble,and reasonably priced.
Its a little heavy but it is also nice and solid. Super easy to load and the bikes are very secure. Easy to assemble too. I would buy again.
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