24x60 etrailer Curt Cargo Carrier with Enclosed Cage for 2" Hitches - Steel - 440 lbs

Video Transcript for A Closer Look at the etrailer Curt 24x60 Cargo Carrier with Enclosed Cage for 2" Hitches

Hi, everyone. Aiden here with etrailer. Today, we're gonna be taking a look at the CURT Cargo Carrier with the etrailer Enclosed Cage. This is gonna be a complete kit to give you an enclosed cargo carrier on the back of your two-inch hitch receiver. So let's check it out. Now, why get an enclosed cargo carrier of any kind Well, for a number of reasons.

If you're finding yourself going on trips where you've got a wide variety of different stuff that you're carrying with you and you don't want to have to worry about strapping things down perfectly every time, an enclosed carrier is a great way to get all that stuff secured because there's really nowhere for it to go. Smaller items like we have down in the front, these camp chairs, I would still recommend strapping them down so that they don't shift around or potentially escape out the gaps in the carrier here. Or if we don't have it fully packed tight and we don't want something to tip over, say like a generator, then yeah, still tie it down. But for something like this where it's pretty tightly packed edge to edge, you're not gonna have to worry about your stuff as much. Not to mention, if we leave our stuff in here, say at a campsite with our cooler or our electric battery bank there, and we don't want people messing with it, they're gonna be enclosed in this cage.

And with the included lock, no one's gonna be able to open this up and get to it. So your stuff is gonna be safe when you're not around. And this cage, like I said before, is gonna be kitted with this CURT Cargo Carrier on the bottom. We offer a number of different kits with different cargo carriers, if that's more what you're looking for. We've got one for Reese that also comes with a light kit, which is pretty neat, and we've got one for our own cargo carrier, the etrailer Tilting and Folding Carrier.

There's gonna be different draws to each of them. If you just like CURT's stuff because you're familiar with their products and their brand and you trust them, then cool, this is probably gonna be the kit for you. But personally, I would recommend looking into the etrailer carrier because it has that tilting feature. You're gonna need probably an extra set of hands to help you do it, but it'd be a really good way to gain hash access in your vehicle while still leaving the cage attached. It could be really helpful for those longer road trips if you find yourself in that situation where you need to access the back of your car.

But one thing I'd advise keeping in mind with any of the kits is the weight. This cage is gonna be pretty heavy and it will take away from the overall cargo carrier capacity. This kit has a 442 pound weight capacity, so make sure that you're not overloading it with gear. But more importantly, I think you should probably be checking your hitch in your vehicle because you wanna make sure that both of those things have a tongue weight capable of supporting something this large. In total, it's gonna be weighing around 500 pounds, if not maybe a little bit more, depending on the carrier weight. So it's just something to watch out for because if you do have this thing maxed out in your vehicle or your hitch isn't up to spec, then you're gonna run the risk of damaging something. So always check those components and go by the lowest rated one. And the last thing I'd say you need to think about before getting this is how big it's gonna be. It will block things in the back of your vehicle. Pretty much guaranteed to block your backup camera. It's probably guaranteed to block your license plate, and depending on your vehicle, it will likely obstruct the taillights a bit, although with larger SUVs that are a bit wider, you might find that that's not too bad. The thing I'd recommend picking up though is a license plate relocation bracket. We offer one to etrailer that would just clamp around these square tubes on the cargo carrier and put it on an outer face so that your license plate is visible. And I'd strongly recommend that if you are taking your car on road trips, traveling between multiple states, because you never know what local laws and regulations you'll run into. It's very likely that you'll enter a state where it's required that that license plate be visible. Now, getting this opened up is pretty straightforward. There's gonna be two latches, one at the bottom, which is just held in by a simple pin and clip. We'll just pop that out. And then at the top there's gonna be the actual lock, which is one of our coupler latch locks that's just kind of been repurposed to fit this carrier. So that lock core threads on and unthreads off for a nice, tight fit. So it's also gonna keep things a little bit more secure. And when you've got that removed, there we go, the doors can open up. Now, depending on what kind of ground you're parked on, how level it is, you might find that these just want to naturally swing open a bit. You might find that if you're parked on a weird incline, they want to swing themselves closed, so your experience there will vary. But these do open up really wide, and the actual opening is also quite wide, coming in at 49 inches wide and 23 inches tall. So even for some of these larger items, say like our big cooler here, we've got enough room that we can get this out if we wanted to just get this one thing out. If you wanted to leave everything else packed in there, you don't have to fully undo everything just to get something loaded back in. Of course, things might fall and kind of change the way they're set up if you've got it packed super tightly. But having the wider opening does make things really helpful and it helps you get the most out of the carrier, which is gonna be inside 24 inches deep and 60 inches wide. So you've got a lot of real estate to work with. One thing I'd say when you're setting this up is just try to keep the weight evenly distributed. So if you've got something pretty heavy like a cooler or this big battery bank, try to keep that closer to the center so that you're not putting so much stress on the outer edges of the carrier. Now, because this also has a lid, you gotta keep in mind your usable height. Your height from the floor of the cargo carrier to the bottom edge of the ceiling is gonna be about 30 1/2 inches. So I'd say you've got a comfortable 30 inches of usable space height-wise. That should be good for even some bigger, taller coolers. And if you wanted to slide a suitcase on top of this, you probably still could. Now, on the base of the carrier, you're gonna get this wire mesh all throughout. Really, you're not gonna have to worry about any openings there where things could fall through. And it's nice because if you have anything that's leaking like a cooler or a generator, it's not gonna pool up. It'll be able to drain out and be very easy to clean. But like we mentioned before, the larger gaps on both the carrier and the cage are gonna serve as points where smaller items could slip out, or maybe someone who's trying to take your things could slip things out. So around the cargo carrier, these large gaps are about five inches tall, more than enough for our lawn chairs here. And then around the cage, they're gonna be about six inches wide. Again, more than enough room for smaller items like a chair to be slipped out from either the top or the bottom, whether someone's just trying to take it, or if your things aren't secured properly, going down the road for something to maybe slip out and escape. Now, the cage and the cargo carrier together are really solid for just clamping around the bars of the cargo carrier. It's a really nice fit and everything really just moves as one unit, so you don't have to worry about any weird fitment issues there. It is a little bit tight to get all the panels put together, but not too bad overall. The one thing I'll say is that the entire kit does move in the hitch a fair bit, because there's no included anti-rattle device. I'd strongly recommend picking one up. You can get a collar style anti-rattle that'll wrap around the collar of your hitch receiver, or you can get the type that'll go inside the shank of your cargo carrier and thread through with a bolt and have a lock on the other side If you're worried about security in the hitch. And picking up that anti-rattle that goes inside the shank of the carrier could be a good investment because this doesn't come with any pin and clip at all. So even if you just wanted to get a standard pin and clip, you'll have to provide your own. So if you don't already have one, I think it's a worthwhile investment to get one that will act as a lock and an anti-rattle device. But aside from all that, I think this is gonna be a really solid option for an enclosed cargo carrier. One, because it's just so large, you've got a lot of room to store things, it's got included locks out of the gate, and the weight capacity is very capable. Other enclosed cargo carriers that are more of like a roof box style material, or even just a roof box on your roof, typically don't have very good weight capacities and they're much more limited on space. So if you're carrying something heavy, like large coolers, a bunch of suitcases for your family, or a generator, then I think this is a great way to go. The one downside is the size. It's really good for the size, but it's also kind of a pain because you're gonna have to store somewhere. Of course, you have the option to break the cage down and take apart all the panels, but that's gonna be time consuming. And while it will save you space, it means you're gonna have to do a lot more setup the next time you want to use it. So for me, it's gonna really shine if you've got the room to store it in your garage fully assembled. The whole kit is going to be very heavy. So definitely get an extra set of hands to help you get it in and out of the hitch. But if you can just slide this out, leave it stored in the corner of your garage somewhere, and pop it in when you're ready to take another road trip, then I think the experience is going to be much more smooth and easy to set up, and you get a lot of benefits for the security. But today, this is just our look at the CURT Cargo Carrier with the etrailer Enclosed Cage. My name's Aiden, and thank you so much for watching.