Video Transcript for Fit Verified Yakima StepUp 2 Bike Rack- 2011 Ford Escape

Hello, neighbor, this is Curt with Etrailer. Today we're taking a look at the Yakima StepUp bike rack for your 1 1/4-inch hitch, and we're gonna see how it works with our 2011 Ford Escape. Now, the StepUp is gonna be a wheel-mounted bike rack. So if your bike has fenders, you're gonna wanna look for something that is going to be frame mounted, but wheel mounted tends to be the style that most people like. It's gonna attach through this arm and rubber-padded hook right here. Our rear wheel is gonna be attached by a ratcheting wheel strap.

We're gonna get a weight capacity on this bike rack of 65 pounds per tray, so it is gonna be able to accommodate a lot of the e-bikes that are out there on the market as well. It can also accommodate tires up to 4 1/2 inches wide. Now that we know a little bit about the rack, let's take a look at how it fits against the Ford Escape specifically. And just for reference, the bike we have on here today has an extra large frame with 30-inch handlebars. So you can use that to scale against the bikes that you have at home.

But even with this larger bike on here, you could see, there is a ton of space between the bike and the back of the Escape. Even if you end up on a rougher patch of road, I'm pretty confident these aren't gonna come into any kind of contact with each other. But like with any hitch bike rack, we are gonna have some obstruction when it comes to our visibility outta the back. First and foremost, when it comes to other drivers, your license plate and your taillights are gonna be partially obscured, but important for you, the driver is how high the bike sits up. Now, one of the great things about this bike rack is that it has a really good ground clearance.

But what that also means is the bike is gonna be propped up well within visibility of your rear window. So it's a good idea to know exactly what kind of footprint you're leaving behind your bumper. So if I measure from the middle of the bumper out to the furthest point on the bike rack, which is going to be right there, we're gonna come up with a measurement of about 32 1/2 inches. So keep that in mind, you're just a few inches shy of an extra three feet coming off of your bumper in the back that you're gonna have to be able to account for whenever you're backing into a tighter space or trying to parallel park. Now, I had mentioned before too, what's great about this bike rack is the amount of ground clearance you get.

And that's because the wheel trays are tiered, they get a little higher as they go back from the vehicle. And even with the hitch on this being located where it is, we're still gonna come up with a ground clearance of just under 25 inches. And that's a really good amount. I'm not really too worried about this bottoming out anywhere at all, but it is something that you always wanna keep in mind. Now, the other thing as far as how high these bikes are kept up is the weight capacity of 65 pounds per tray. If you have a bike that's heavier, whatever it weighs, make sure you're comfortable getting it up and down from a height of about 26 1/2 inches for the nearest tray, and about 28 3/4 inches for the further tray. Now, if that is higher than you can lift the bike, your bike, whatever it weighs, there is a ramp available from Yakima. It attaches right here, right behind the rear wheel on your tray. And that's gonna be a huge assistance in getting those heavier bikes up and down from this rack. Now, when it comes to a hitch bike rack, one of the most common questions that people have is, with bikes loaded on the rack, can you still get access into your cargo space And in this case, we certainly can, although there are some nuances. First, to operate the tilt away, there's a little latch here underneath the stem of the bike rack. All you gotta do is go ahead and brace the bike that's closest to you so it doesn't drop too quickly, bring that latch back, and we're gonna lower it away from the vehicle. Now, as I do that, I can go ahead, come around and get my lift gate open. And here's where the nuance comes in. Even with these wider pedals, we still clear it by about an inch or so, but when it comes to these wider handlebars, when we get up here, they're gonna come into contact. Now, the arm and hook on the bike rack has a little bit of flex to it, so you are able to bring this back and get it up and outta the way. So it's not that you can't really do it, it's just you gotta be careful if you have a bike with these wider handles, if these handles we inchesre a couple inches shorter, this wouldn't even be any issue at all. But the point is that you can get the bike rack tilted away from your cargo space, get your lift gate up, and now you've got access back here. So you can grab that extra equipment, shoes, water, snacks, whatever it may be, or maybe just on the way home from the trail, you wanna stop and grab some groceries. Now, you can get all of that done without removing the bike from the rack. And if you're somebody that likes to use your glass here, that, you're gonna have plenty of space no matter what size your bike is. So if it's something, you know, not too heavy that you could just lift in and out, that's gonna be really convenient for you as well. But when it does come time to get back out on the road, when you get this up into the riding position, it's really simple. You do not need to engage the latch again, you could just lift up against it until it clicks into place and you're ready to get back on the road. When it comes to getting the bike on and off the rack, it's a really simple process. Again, we only have those two points of contact. And when we're taking a bike off, we're gonna start with the rear wheel strap. And the reason for that is we wanna keep that arm and hook in place to keep the bike upright so it doesn't fall down on anything. But to get this wheel strap off, we're gonna simply depress this tab. It's gonna release it, we're gonna feed it through the other side, just like so. When it comes to the arm and hook on the front wheel, the hook has this little button on the front right here. We're just gonna depress that, it's gonna release our hook, we'll get it up outta the way and clear the wheel. Now, at this point, if this was a heavier bike, we'd be using our ramp, it would ramp this way off of the back of it. And the trays that we have here are V-shaped, and that's gonna really help keep the bike on track as you roll it back and forth. But since we don't have that heavier bike, I'm just gonna be able to lift this down and get it outta the way. And once you get it down, you're ready to either store it away or hit the trail. Now, when it comes to the actual hitch pin itself, on this hitch here, it's a really, really tight fit. It is a threaded hitch pin, so it makes it anti-rattle. So as you can see, there's no slop in there at all. And it's also locking, there's a lock and key with it as well. Now, the trick though is that because of the location of the hitch pin hole and the size of that bold head, it was a little bit difficult getting it through. So you can actually flex this back a little bit, it's gonna give you better access. So it's not gonna damage anything to do that either. So if you put it in and it looks like a tight fit, just move this back with your knee or something like that and get better access as you thread that through. When it comes to the lock itself, it still fits on fine. It's just you gotta kind of point it in a specific direction. If I take the key out and put the dust cover on, you're gonna have a little bit more movement with it. But like I said, it's just some little nuances things with this bumper that you're gonna have to pay attention to. Now, when it comes to this lock, it's also gonna be key to like to your included cable lock. And that cable lock has an iron loop right here that's welded on for you to run it through. So you're gonna have the ability right outta the box to keep your bike secured to the rack and your rack secured to your hitch. Now, when you don't have a bike on here at all, you don't wanna be driving around with this extra coming off. Remember, we got just shy of three feet, 32, 33 inches hanging off back here that we don't need. We do have a stowaway position however, though. And in order to engage that, we're gonna just use that latch that we use for the tilt away. It's just instead of letting it fall away, we're gonna lift up against it this time, and into the back of the vehicle just like so. But now we've significantly reduced that footprint. We got it all the way down to about 14 inches now. So you still got a little bit more than a foot back here, but that's gonna be a lot easier to maneuver into those tight spaces when you're reversing than it would be for that 32 or 33 inches we have when it's deployed. And when it comes to your visibility, your taillights are still gonna be partially blocked, but they're gonna be a lot more visible than they we inchesre with the bikes on 'em. Your license plate is also gonna still be partially blocked. But you're gonna regain complete visibility out of your rear window. That's gonna help you out when you're backing into those spaces. But that's pretty much it as far as the Yakima StepUp and how it fits with our Ford Escape. And if after watching this video you've still got some questions about the rack or the fit, go ahead and drop those in the comments below. We would love to share those and those answers with other neighbors just like you so they can make the best decision for themselves. Once again, this is Curt with etrailer. Thanks for stopping by.