Product Expert Matthew S's Opinion
Carry 2 or 4 bikes with this platform-style, hitch-mounted bike rack. The 2+2 has a detachable 2-bike add-on, and its ratcheting cushioned frame hooks and sliding wheel trays hold most bike styles. Includes lock for rack.
Features:
Specs:
The Swagman Quad 2+2 is a 2-bike carrier when you need a 2-bike carrier and a 4-bike carrier when you need a little more. The rack includes a 2-bike add-on that installs easily onto the base rack with 2 bolts. When it's not needed, simply remove the add-on with the included special tool and throw it in your trunk or leave it at home.
With the Quad's low loading height and the ratcheting hooks on the upright masts, your bikes will be mounted and ready for transport in seconds flat. The ratcheting hooks adjust independently of one another to hold 4 bikes of different - or identical - styles and sizes, and they eliminate bike-to-bike contact during travel. The upright masts fold down with a simple pull of the release levers at the bases, allowing for easier bike loading and unloading while also providing unobstructed access to your vehicle's rear cargo area.
With its extra-wide, sliding wheel trays, the Quad accommodates 4 bikes of different lengths. These trays release with hand knobs to slide along the bike carrier frame and adjust for your specific bike lengths. Each tray has a ratcheting strap so you can secure your bikes' wheels during transport.
The Quad has a locking hitch pin that secures the rack to your hitch receiver. The threaded pin also serves as an anti-wobble device to eliminate rattling in the receiver. The ratcheting hooks have lock cores in the release buttons so you can secure your bikes to the rack. Simply slide the arms over your bikes' top tubes and lock them in place.
When you're not carrying bikes, the Quad is easy to store. Just fold down the upright masts, pull the tethered bail pin at the base, and fold the rack flat against the rear of your vehicle.
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Speaker 1: Today we're going to be taking a look at the Swagman Quad 2+2 2-bike and 4-bike platform style rack. This is for 2" hitches, part number S64692. The Swagman Quad is the perfect bike rack for getting your family and friends to the trails. It's going to carry a wide variety of bikes, regardless of their frame, style, or suspension. You can see here we've got a road bike, a mountain bike, a bike with an alternative frame style, and an older style road bike.Not only can the Swagman Quad be used with your vehicles, but it can also be used with your RVs or motorhomes. This is step up compared to other bike racks.
Not all bike racks are RV or motorhome approved. This way you can take your bikes with you on your long trips.Here on our test course, we'll first go into our slalom. This is going to show side to side action, such as going around corners, or evasive maneuvering. Then onto some speed bumps. This is going to simulate pulling in and out of a driveway, driving over pot holes, or driving over rough terrain.It holds our bikes with three points of contact.
We have a frame hook that goes over our top two, putting down pressure into our front and rear cradles. Then we have a strap for each. The frame hooks themselves are adjustable along the center mast, to work with bikes of different sizes. You can see here, they can be locked. This is going to prevent anyone from removing our bikes from our bike rack.Up here the hook is rubber coated, so it won't harm or scratch our bikes.
Each wheel cradle has a ratchet strap, so we can anchor our wheels in place. They're going to work with wheel widths up to 3" wide. If you're interested in carrying fat bikes with your Swagman Quad, you can pick up the adapter kit for one fat bike, part number S64694. Pick up as many as you need. This will hold a fat tire of up to 5" wide.All of the wheel cradles are adjustable along the platform to accommodate bikes with wheel bases between 15 and 51 inches.
When not in use, the center mast folds down to the left. Not only is this a good storage position for it, but it's going to make it way easier to load and unload our first set of bikes.One of my favorite features is, if we're just carrying two bikes for the day, we can remove the rear set, making it a 2-bike rack. It comes with all the tools you need to do so. You'll simply remove the large bolt on the side and the smaller bolt underneath. With the bolts removed, it simply just slides right out. To keep dirt and debris from getting inside, it includes a cap. As you can see, with it removed, we're going to have an even easier time getting out our bikes. We've got more clearance at the back, and it's less weight to carry. But let's go ahead and take our bikes off.It's a good idea to undo the front and rear wheel straps first. Simply press in the button and guide the strap out. Then we'll lift up our frame hook. Press in on the button, and raise it up out of the way. Then we can remove our bikes. I've gone ahead and reassembled the full rack. Now I'll show you the last few features.Now as I mentioned before, the center mast does fold down when not in use. This is a great opportunity for you to get into your rear hatch to remove any cargo, gear, groceries, anything you might have with you on your trip. It doesn't have the ability to tilt away like some platform racks, but it does have the ability to fold up against our vehicle for compact storage. You'll want to pull the two pins down here. Then you can come up behind the rack, lift it up, realigning the holes, and reinsert those two pins and clips.As you can see, with it folded up, we've got more clearance. This is going to be ideal for pulling into your garage, or in a tight parking spot. It's also a great storage option for driving around without your bikes. Now it's going to work with your 2"x2" receiver only. The anti-rattle bolt and lock are included. The nice thing about the anti-rattle bolt, it's going to help reduce all that play and rattle within our hitch receiver and our bike rack, to make a nice solid ride for our bikes. The lock is going to prevent anyone from removing the bike rack from our hitch. It is keyed alike to our frame hooks. That way we can carry around less keys, and there are four keys included.The Swagman Quad has a weight capacity of 45 pounds per bike, so you can rest assured you're going to be able to carry most bikes when you're on your adventures. It also has a sturdy steel construction, with a silver powder coat finish, so it's going to be resistant to rust and corrosion. It features a limited lifetime warranty.Now we'll give you some dimensions. From the center of the hitch pinhole to the end of the bike rack is about 17 1/4". With it folded down, from the center of the hitch pinhole to end of the rack is about 51 1/2". To the end of the 2-bike, it's about 30 1/2". With it folded down, the closest point from the center of the hitch pinhole is about 9 1/4". With it folded up, the distance from the center of the hitch pinhole to the closest part of the rack is about 7 3/4".Customers on our site are comparing this to the Yakima Four Timer, part number Y02469. One of the main differences is that the Four Timer tilts away with bikes loading, gaining you access to your rear hatch, whereas the Swagman does not tilt away. Where the Swagman Quad takes the lead, if you're an RV owner, it will work with RVs, whereas the Four Timer will not.All in all, these bike racks are very similar. They both use locks, and they can both be taken apart for a 2-bike setup. That's going to complete our look at the Swagman 2+2 platform style 2-bike and 4-bike rack, part number S64692.
Average Customer Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (30 Customer Reviews)
Carry 2 or 4 bikes with this platform-style, hitch-mounted bike rack. The 2+2 has a detachable 2-bike add-on, and its ratcheting cushioned frame hooks and sliding wheel trays hold most bike styles. Includes lock for rack.Only used once but shipping and customers care was good as it was with the hitch purchased a few months back. Carrier is heavy but since not a hanging bike rack it is to be expected. More versatile for very small kids bikes that cannot hang. 100513
Easy to install and really like the locking feature for each bike. Easily accommodates various bike sizes. Only complaint is the locking hitch bolt comes slightly loose after each use so I bring a socket wrench with me to tighten as necessary. 528317
Disclaimer: I have not used the rack yet Pros: Heavy and well made frame, the heft should help dampen vibration. Easy assembly. Seems easy to use. Con: The slide locking arms seem to work well but I would not depend on them as your sole anti-theft measure. 509866
Been looking at the product for sometime after seeing in a retail setting. Wasn't ready to buy but searched the web found Etrailer. When got ready to buy I chose Etrailer more on customer service reviews than price, though price very competitive. Ordered on line Monday AM, updated quickly by email and received Thursday by noon, wow! Friday was assembly/test time. Assembly took about an hour, mostly due to no parts index and some ambiguity in written instructions. But it did go together nicely. After the fact, Etrailer video cleared up the use of lock/cable vice the hitch bolt. bthanks Etrailer. As grandkids' bikes needed sent back home and a load of yard waste had to be disposed of I got to test the utility of the carrier. Mounting the bikes was straight forward and quite easy. Did find that 26" girl's bike would have benefited from a top bar adapter. Ordered one from Etrailer to have one. Extremely stable platform over homemade one that was using. Bikes delivered, folded up carrier and headed to collection point. Once there dropped the carrier, tailgate ( have a topper) came down flat, easy access to the bed. 16 bags later closed all up, brought carrier back up and headed home. Great results in this little test. At home did a test load with 26" Bacchetta recumbent and 26" Townie. Mounting was simple and secure. Exactly what I wanted and will carry me and grand kids to some great rides. 116061
Doug T - 02/08/2015 Doug T - 02/20/2015I love, love, love this bike rack. What I like best is the bikes sit nicely in the tire cradles taking all hanging weight off the frame. I have a carbon fiber bike. My wife's is Aluminum with carbon fork. We purchased the 4 bike carrier but mostly use it for 2 bikes. It is very easy to adjust for different bikes. We have 2 road bikes and 2 cruisers with different lengths. I stripped out the hitch mounting nut. I should have hand tightened first then used the ratchet. I called customer service and explained what I did and wanted to purchase another hitch bar. They sent it to me at no charge. Even though I explained it was MY fault and I should pay for it. Way exceeded my expectations!! 423796
The rack is perfect! Firmly held in place, the bikes do not move while going down the road. Love the convenience of having the bikes with us and safe from thieves. Every aspect works better than the other better know products that we returned. Bottom of the box was destroyed in transit though. It is too heavy not to be sent in TWO separate boxes. Absolutely NO instructions to speak of, but so easy to put together we just figured it out. Women at Etrailer were brilliant , friendly and knowledgeable. Thanks for a great experience! LSW 135812
Larry S - 06/16/2015Very sturdy and easy to assemble. A very quick process to get the bikes loaded and ready to go. Plus, it is easy to remove and store. The bikes don't bounce around one bit. E Trailer was so quick in processing the order and I had the bike rack in 3 days. Best price around. 171004
Overall good rack. Sturdily built. Able to fit adult bikes as well as kid's 20" and 24" wheel bikes. Fits pretty well on my 2005 Honda CR-V with spare wheel on back door. When folded rack does press on wheel cover so I inserted a sponge pad in between to protect cover. One could also simply remove wheel cover as well. Drawbacks - Rack is large and heavy at 89 lbs total for both modules together. Assembly took me about 2-3 hours. Instructions could be better. One of the bolt holes was too small and I had to ream it with a drill. 100888
As others have said the instructions are worthless. It is not difficult to figure out how to build the rack, which will take 3+ hours, but the process is made much more difficult because the manufacturer did not seem to care about it's customers! The rack itself is very substantive and well constructed, but do not expect your wife to be able to put it on or take it off when both halves are attached. Be aware that small childrens bikes (<20 inches) will NOT fit well, if at all, because the cross bar will be too low for the hooks to be of use. The hook system in general is flawed because they cannot be moved around to adapt when necessary. Overall a pretty good rack for the money. 144335
Entire process on etrailer was excellent. I loved the videos showing the rack on multiple vehicles and these videos really helped me put it together. Rack took me about an hour by myself and then I removed the +2 and stored it until I need it. Rack seems very sturdy and is going on it's first 2 hour trip this weekend. I'll edit review if warranted. 133219
Pros: - Heavy duty, not flimsy. - Rock solid attachment to reciever. - Easy to install bikes on unit and they ride solid on unit during transport. Cons: - Instructions not easy to follow, finished install on my own. - Product does "bottom out" on 2015 Subaru Legacy with 2" Hidden Hitch when turning or going across low areas. - When hauling with no bikes on unit, there was noise caused by road bounce. 229161
Finally took it camping. Pretty nifty. Did not hinder access to trunk when bikes unloaded. Folded away when not in use. Did not notice it while driving at speed on interstate. Big improvement over the 3-bike, trunk mount Saris I had before. It is very heavy though. I would guess each piece at 40 lbs. It works because I can assemble it on the vehicle. I put L-shaped hooks in the garage to hange the pieces on the wall and they nearly bent under the weight. The piece that goes into the hitch sticks out, so it needs to be in an out of the way place. 702813
I just received this last night and put it together. After a couple of hitches, it went together nicely. Have yet to use it, but put a bike on to test it and so far very happy with the product. As set forth in other reviews, the directions are not so awesome, but using the picture on the box and a little trial and error, it went fine. There is no need to post a picture of mine as it is the same as the box picture. I was worried about the durability of this rack, but everything is pretty beefy, so I am optimistic. 660648
This bike rack is the best. Love that you can use it just for 2 bikes, or add the extension for 4 adult bikes. These bikes easily fit on the rack without effort like some bike racks take. It does stick out a little farther than some racks, but I’d much rather have the ease of putting bikes on and off, which this rack offers. 658566
Our family had the need to transport four bicycles of all sizes on a budget. This rack was the solution. At first, putting it together seemed like it was going to be a chore. Build it while it's attached to the vehicle and just look at the photos for guidance. I only had to take a section apart once to fix the placement of a bolt. We will enjoy this product for years to come. 615383
The swagman rack us a great bike rack. Bikes sit in it nice, easy to set bikes in after you configure where each bike goes. Easy to adjust if hauling a different bike than normal. One thing is for sure, this thing is built like a tank. And it weighs like a tank. It is very heavy to take on and off after each ride. If I know we will have nice weather, it stays on the truck. Just beware of weight. I can handle, but it could be a challenge for some. 615381
towed 4 bikes cross country with the rack mounted on the back of my camper with no problems. Good solid rack and secure. 605906
Andrew - 02/18/2020I Really love the design and functionality. But just one year in and it is very rusted. 602428
Love the design 2 + 2 is the great. Locking. Heavy design. 560214
Gary - 08/31/2019This bike rack is fantastic. Top notch and easy to use. The folks at etrailer had it to me lighting fast and at a great price. etrailer is great. Thanks guys. 514349
Was a bit cumbersome to put together, but now it is easy to use and much queiter than an overhead rack 420924
The hitch and the bike rack I ordered to use on it are both working great. 287207
Product works great. I would buy another one. 241982
Love the product, great quality. Only wish it would tilt down to get in to the back of my SUV, Otherwise great quality easy use. Follow the pictures when putting together, the written instructions are poor. It took me 30min. 218784
Fast shipping. Timely emails about arrival date. Rack went together pretty easily, although the instructions are hard to read. I just looked at the photo on the box and it was no problem. Rack seems better quality than I had imagined, especially considering the price point. 216990
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