A well-built, feature-rich wheel-mount bike rack for the price of a frame-mount rack? We couldn't believe it either. And one of our favorite features is how quickly and easily it converts into a 2-bike rack. No tools required!
Features:
Specs:
Only need to carry 2 bikes? Cool. Think you'll have trouble lifting a 100-pound rack to install or remove it from your vehicle? You don't have to. Struggle to load 4 bikes on a 4-bike rack? Benton's got you covered there too. It's so easy to convert the 4-bike Shifts&Grins to a 2-bike rack that you won't think twice about removing the front end, it just slides right off. And the best part is, unlike most other racks, you won't need any tools to get the job done.
Most platform racks grip your bikes by either the front wheel or the frame. A wheel-mount rack usually doesn't accommodate bikes with fenders, and a frame mount rack might scratch your valuable carbon bike. Benton took notice and built the Shifts&Grins with hooks that grab your bikes by either the front wheel or the frame. Now you don't have to be concerned about what type of bike you're loading. Just set your bike on the rack, rotate the hook over your front wheel or frame, and push it down until snug.
The rack tilts down with your bikes loaded. So whether you're at the trail, in a parking lot, or pulled over on the side of the road while on a road trip, you won't have to remove your bikes to access your cargo area. It also folds up when you aren't carrying bikes, so you can keep the rack on your vehicle to park in your garage, or remove it and set it in your garage for storage.
The Shifts&Grins is easier to tilt than many standard bike racks. Simply press the front-mounted button with one hand and grab the built-in handle with your other hand to tilt it down and lift it back up. Since the rack is pretty heavy, and it's even heavier with your bikes loaded, the handle gives you more leverage so you won't get hurt handling all that weight.
Sure, other bike racks fold for storage, but the shank sticks out and you have to be careful that you don't trip over it while the rack is leaning against the wall in your garage. Benton built the Shifts&Grins to be more compact than those other racks. Just pull the release knob and fold the shank up against the rack. And in this configuration, the rack will stand upright on its own so it takes up even less space.
Alternate Instructions
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi everyone, it's Evangeline here at etrailer. Today we're taking a look at the Benton 4-bike platform rack. This is the Shifts&Grins with the add-on. And we're gonna take a look at how it fits right here on our 2023 GMC Terrain. This is gonna be a little different compared to your other platform racks. It has unique features like how it can fold up flat to make it easier to soar inside your garage.
And because this carrier uses a button instead of a lever, it's very easy to add as well as detach the add-on and to tilt the rack away if you wanna access into your hatch. So we're gonna take a look at some of those features focusing here on our vehicle. One of my favorite things is even though the hitch is really low on our vehicle here because of how the bike rack is shaped, we have a good amount of ground clearance off the ground. And because we have some protection here, even when we tilt the whole rack away, we don't have to worry about it too much. To tilt a rack away there's some different functions here.
There is a stopper on the bottom with a rubber pad and then there's a handle up top. So you can either press the button in with your hand, it's actually low enough where I can press the button in with my knee and that keeps my hands free. And once that button is pressed in, you can then lower the rack to the ground and you'll see it will sit on there. That's partly because the Terrain has a hitch that's low, which means you don't have far to go down. But also most four bike platform racks, no matter which vehicle you have, have contact with the ground.
But you'll tilt your rack away if you want access to your hatch. So you can see here on our Terrain that while we can open up our hatch door, we can't go all the way where the handle bars are. So this is still pretty good in order to get in there and grab our groceries or helmets real quick. But the reason we can't get full tilt away access is because of that contact with the ground. When you take off the two bike add-on and you only have the two bike carrier, it does have a much deeper tilt.
Still this is something that's gonna be very common for four by carriers on your Terrain. So it is nice to see it has a little bit of clearance. To bring the carrier back up, grab the handle and lift up on the rack. It'll snap into place and that's how you know you are now ready to drive. So have a tilt away function is great if you have a quick and easy need to get into your hatch of your Terrain. But once you have this fully loaded up with bikes, that could be a lot of weight that you're tilting down and lifting up. It does have a weight capacity of 55 pounds per bike, which is pretty imp impressive once you have it fully loaded up. The types of bikes you can carry with this is gonna be pretty versatile with it being designed for those heavier bikes. But also, let's say you have a mountain bike or a road bike, you have three points of contact. So one and two are gonna be the straps and the third is gonna be this wheel mount that can also be turned into a frame mount. So if I kept the straps on, release this mount up here and I put our frame mounts and hook over, we can then secure it by the bottom points or the lowest point of our frame. This is gonna be helpful if you have a bike with fenders, but to take the bike off, you start with the straps and not the hook. So the straps you just press this lever, it releases a strap, then you can lift this up and swing it out to this side. Once the back and the rear straps are off, you can then press the button for the hook, bring the hook out and now you can grab your bike and go. It does add a little bit of link to the back of our Terrain. So measuring from our bumper to the end of the rack, this sits at 53-1/2 inches, so almost five feet, which is a lot of space if you have a small garage or a small parking spot that you may need to get into. Another measurement is gonna be ground clearance. So end of the rack to the ground, let's go over to the button, that's gonna be 18 inches. And then where you have to load your bikes up to the ground, that is gonna be 21-1/2 inches. So compare that to your shank, which is about 8-1/2 inches off the ground. We do have a decent shank rise here giving us extra clearance when we need to go up steep inclines like driveways or hills or go over speed bumps. We're gonna be less likely for our bikes to hit the ground whenever we go over those. And if we need to take the add on off, well, we have a knob as well as a pin and clip here in the center. So the first thing I'm gonna do is I'm actually gonna loosen this knob. This helps reduce the movement of the add-on and keeps it secure to the rack. Then once it's loose, I then to be able to remove our pin and clip. So this is secured around, I'm gonna remove that and take that out. So with those two things detached or loose, I then should be able to just grab the add-on by its handle, pivot it around and just slide it off of our rack. And now our two bike platform rack is completely usable on its own. The button is now visible and we can then store this add-on away in our garage. And when do you need to carry around multiple bikes you are gonna do the exact same thing but in reverse, slide the add-on, on double check that the hole is clear so that you can put your pin in just like that. Make sure that's clipped and then tighten down the knob that's underneath. So compared to other racks where it is legitimate, a couple of minutes that you need to get everything in place plus you may need other tools. This is gonna be a very quick and simple option to turn your two bike into a four bike. And if you do wanna drive around without your bikes, but you don't wanna take your rack off, since it does weigh about 64 pounds, this does fold up to be more compact. So you press that button at the end, then you lift up on the rack and it secures in the compact position. Plenty of space between our bike rack and our Terrain. I'm not concerned at all about this making contact with our car and for the length, this now adds to the back of our Terrain. It's gonna be from the bumper end of the rack, 19 inches. So big difference compared to the 4-1/2 feet this was adding earlier. With it in this position we also do have to consider things like visibility. If I was looking around for a platform rack and I was either carrying around two bikes or four bikes, but not all at the same time potentially, this is gonna be a great rack where it works great in its two configurations and it's very easy to add on and take off that expansion. This right here was a look at the Benton 4-bike platform rack the Shifts&Grins with the included expansion here on our 2023 GMC Terrain.
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (7 Customer Reviews)
A well-built, feature-rich wheel-mount bike rack for the price of a frame-mount rack? We couldn't believe it either. And one of our favorite features is how quickly and easily it converts into a 2-bike rack. No tools required!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.
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.
I am an etrailer employee that tested out the rack. This is a solid rack for the price. I did have a small issue with the hitch aligner working with my OEM ford explorer hitch but I was able to loosen the screws and move the hitch aligner to make it work.
Excellent design and quite strong. Should last years.
Received yesterday, pretty simple to assemble. Like how compact it folds up for storage, like the flexibility to place the arms on the wheel or frame to secure the bike. It is heavy, but I was able to lift and attach it by myself. I was initially excited that it cleared my 2015 Jeep Wrangler JK's stock spare tire when folded up. But, my bike's pedal hits the spare tire (XL-sized MTB with 29" tires) so I had to use my hitch extension (already owned). No horizontal sway, but has some vertical sway at the hitch (with and without the extender) - but test drove it (bumps and hard braking) with no issues - but this is just my day 1 test. Thanks etrailer for all of the detailed videos on your bike racks - really helped me with the decision!
Everything about this product feels rock solid. So far, my assessment is that this is great value for price!
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