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Loading 4 bikes shouldn't be a puzzle. Most racks force a specific order, but the Shifts&Grins lets you load your way. Plans change? Drop to 2 bikes in seconds - just loosen the knob and slide off the add-on. No tools, no hassle, just ride.
Some days, it's a full group ride. Other days, it's just you and your bike chasing the sunrise. Wherever the ride takes you, this rack keeps up. Go from 4 to 2 bikes in seconds - just loosen the knob, remove the add-on, and hit the road. No tools, no extra hassle - just seamless adjustments for whatever kind of ride you're on.
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. Ratcheting hooks grab your bikes by the wheel or frame, while 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
Wrestling a full 4-bike rack can be a pain, especially since higher-quality racks tend to carry a bit more weight. Instead of lifting and lining up the whole setup at once, Shifts&Grins lets you install the 2-bike base first, then slide on the add-on when you need the extra capacity. And the hitch alignment collar makes things even easier by helping guide the shank into place, so you can secure the rack without fighting for position and get on with your ride.
After you get all your bikes loaded, 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.
When the ride's over, the Shifts & Grins practically disappears. Keep the 2-bike base on your hitch and store the add-on separately or remove the entire rack and store it as one piece or two. The shank folds against the base, letting it stand upright, while the add-on's flat design keeps it stable 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 4-bike setup in your garage or wrestling to find space for it.
Alternate Instructions
Ratings & Reviews
I bought the two bike extension and it works great. Same good quality and easy installation as the stand alone two bike rack.
We out this rack to work right away, hauling 4 bikes all over Wisconsin this Memorial Day weekend. It worked great
Fast shipping and easy assembly
Well built
We use it a lot
This is a very good bike rack for the price. The only thing I would suggest is to have a better hitch for the wheel strap. Also a YouTube video assembly I think would be helpful to prevent mistakes when putting together.
It is a very heavy rack and is rusting within 3 months of use (and not just where it goes into the hitch), Think it would have a better paint job, and knobs losen and come off if not kept tight. Bikes go on and off quickly.
I've been using this rack all spring, and it's working perfectly! I'm able to get 4 full sized bikes to fit on it.
The only issue I've had is it's a little undersized for XXL mountain bike frames (Specialized S6 or equivalent). I had to fabricate a new wheel cradle to get it to seat properly. Still giving 5 stars however because it's an edge case. If you have that size bike consider other options
Quick delivery, and everything was packaged well and I was missing nothing. Pretty easy to put together and did not take up a lot of my time. Very heavy duty and holds our bikes in place as it should. I will say, due to being heavy duty and well designed it is a little heavy, but I'm 59 and in fairly good shape and had no issues.
Everything is great! Can’t wait to get it on the road.
The quality is okay but in packagingwas missing some parts.
It is easy to install, and keeps our bikes secure during our long distance road trip. I love how easy it is to get the bikes on and off the rack and how easy it is to tilt the rack with the bikes back so we can still access the trunk. The rack is heavy, but not more than the other platform bike racks that we had been considering. I highly recommend this rack.
Every year my family picks a place for all of us to road trip for an adventure. This year was mountain biking in Bentonville Arkansas!
I have been biking for 30 years now and because I work at etrailer have used all the racks. For 4 bikes, or as a 2 bike this one is the one. Let’s be real, getting a family of 5 and extended family of 23 on a road trip is a shift show. The loading, unloading, pee breaks getting in and out is work.
This rack made a difference. The 2 bike extension attachment is far and away the easiest and simplest I have used. I was so surprised how easy it was I had my son try, and stopped a neighbor to try. Same result it took them about 20 seconds to get from 2 to 4 bike attachment.
Loading the bikes was easy not too much interference between seats and handlebars. Had to slide one set of cradles. Pretty easy stuff.
Then the tilting, fully loaded. The button and handle was easy. I’m not a spring chicken and didn’t have any trouble getting it tilted and back up.
For storage. It’s so easy to remove the extension I got to carry it in 2 pieces. So light enough to handle it. Normally carrying a 4 bike rack, that is 100+ pounds and an awkward shape to the garage is very challenging. 2 pieces of this rack was easy.
And it folds flat, game changer for the garage. Finally my rack doesn’t have to stick out for the whole family to trip over.
Excellent quality. Bikes fit well and are sturdy. The company has been very easy to work with. My only area of improvement would be that the tire supports while adjustable are very stiff so can take effort to move if needing to fit a different bike. It would also be nice to have a lock for the pin
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.
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.
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.
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.
Great addition to the 2 bike hitch rack I purchased with it. I like that I don’t have to have attach a full 4 bike rack when I need to transport 1 or 2 bikes only.
Came with a missing bolt and knob but etrailer’s customer service was on point and quickly sent me the missing parts. 5 stars to etrailer as well.
Attaches easily to the 2 bike rack. When attached, it feels like a single 4 bike hitch rack. So far, very happy with it.
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.
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
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.
Kate F.
4/9/2026
Thank you for taking the time for such a detailed review Kris! This will be most helpful to someone considering this rack. Benton is an excellent rack, especially for the price point! It looks like all the bikes are the same size, just make sure the heaviest one is closest to the truck, that will help with some of the bouncing. As for the lights, you could always add the Curt Auxiliary LED Indicator Lights # C53201 to make your lights more visible.
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Heather A.
6/2/2025
Heck yeah, where did you ride in Wisconsin? Sounds like a blast.