Yakima Hitch Bike Racks Review - 2021 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 3500

Products Featured in this Video

Yakima EXO Swing Away 2 Bike Rack w/ Cargo Carrier - 2" Hitches

263 reviews

Code: Y54ZR

Price:  $2,045.80

• Hitch Bike Racks
• Platform Rack
• Platform Rack with Cargo Basket
• Swing-Away Rack
• Wheel Mount
• Hitch Lock

• 2 Bikes
• Class 3
• Fits 2 Inch Hitch
• Fat Bikes
• Yakima

This EXO system is perfect for your biking adventure. Bike rack secures your bikes by the wheels, and cargo carrier holds coolers, luggage, firewood, and other large, bulky gear. System swings away to provide cargo area access.

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Review of the Yakima Hitch Bike Racks on a 2021 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 3500

What's up everybody It's AJ with etrailer.com. Today, we're gonna be checking out the Yakima Swing Away EXO system on our 2021 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 3,500. Now, right away, it is an EXO system. So that means you can use this in a bunch of different combinations. So if you don't want the basket and the bike rack you can do two baskets. There's a box that goes with it.

There's ski and snowboard carriers that you can actually mix match in there. So it's just a complete system that you have to work with on the back of your Sprinter. So it's gonna be handy. You don't have to haul anything on the inside. It saves all that room so you can carry everything out here.

We have this setup where it's a two tier system. Up top we got the platform style, bike rack. They hold two bikes, it's able to hold 40 pounds per bike. So keep that in mind with what bikes you wanna throw up there. It holds it by the wheel and not the frame.

So that's really nice and opens it up to hold a bunch of different style bikes. That way you don't have to worry about the frame being damaged at all. On the bottom level, we've got the cargo carrier set up and it has a weight capacity of 110 pounds. So also think about what kind of gear you wanna store in here. Don't exceed that.

One of the major features to the EXO system is it can actually swing away with that base. So you can get access to the back of your van without having to unload everything that you already have loaded up. So how you do that If you come back here, there's gonna be a big hand knob. Use that to loosen it. And you know, when it falls down like that, you know it's done, it's loosened enough. Now it doesn't come completely out. So you don't have to worry about it detaching and you losing it or leaving it somewhere. We'll pull on this hand knob and then you can push out, then swing it away. Now at a certain point, it's gonna snap and you'll see this go into place, letting you know it's locked in. So I'll try and stay outta your way and push it all the way out here. And now it's locked into place. So then let's open up the back door. We'll see if it's gonna clear this. We're gonna be careful of that. Looks like it's just fine there. Now we can't completely open the door, but we can get it pretty far open, about here. So it's gonna be really helpful to not unload everything and be able to get to the back of the van. You can also swing away the top portion. So what we're gonna do here, there's a lock in place. We'll remove that. Then I'll go around to the backside. Got another hand knob and just twist to remove that pin. And then we have a hand knob down here. With all those removed you can twist the top independently up and out of the way to get full access to the cargo carrier. So if I wanted to remove this box I could lift it up and out of the way without having to move the bike rack or the bike. Now let's get some measurements while it's out in this position and see how close the tire is to the back of the van. So just get a measurement, looks like it's one and a half inches away. So there is a little bit of space, but not a whole lot. And that's also gonna depend on what kind of bike you put on here. This is a mountain bike, so it might be a little bit more aggressive than a road bike tire that's gonna be a little smaller. Ideally it would've been far easier to remove the bike with this completely swung out and the top portion spun around too. That way it'd be facing me and away from the vehicle. But just to give you an idea if you wanna remove your bike quickly and you just wanna do it in this position I'll show you how that's done too. So come back to the back strap first, undo that. Just push on the lever. Push the strap up, loosening it and getting it outta the way. We'll come over here to the wheel hook and keep one hand on the bike to keep it in place. Lift up on the hook. Now, remove that. And then I'll just walk over towards the bike. Get a good hold on it, lift it up and out of the way. One of the nice things about the EXO system is how easy it is to swap out the accessories when you do want to swap out. So let's say we don't need the bike rack anymore. I wanna put something else up top. Just come right down here to the hand knobs with them unlocked, they are lockable, each one of them can have a lock or can be locked. We'll back this up. You'll see this red block slide out a little bit like to let you know that side is loose. We're gonna do the same thing on the other side. And I can lift this up and get it out of the way. I like that. There's no tools involved for this. So you don't have to get out the screwdriver or anything like that, or the toolbox. You just back this up, it slides up and out and you can remove it. It's easy just to drop in the other accessories. Now these face this way instead of side to side, but same premise. Drop them in. Turn the knobs. And tighten them up. Now a closer look at how the knobs work, there is a button you push on the side, see this one, lets you know that you can tighten or loosen it when you push this in and it pops out on the other side has an X, which means it can't be turned or it can't be tightened or loosened. Lock bars also go by the same key system. So why that's nice is, they can all lock with one key. So every one of these hand knobs you can use the same key for and even the lock on the hitch too. Now let's go and get some measurements, go from the bumper. The furthest out point here at the end of the hand knobs about 34 and a half inches. So it's gonna add quite a bit, but the nice thing is if you're only gonna be using the top, let's say you got rid of the cargo carrier and you kept the bike rack up here. For whatever reason, you can pull the hand knobs on the side and fold the arms away. Like that, and that's gonna be less space down here. Now you still have this up here but this whole portion can be removed as well and getting out of the way that way. Looking down here at the hitch it's a two-inch by two-inch hitch with an anti rattle bolt and a lock on the other side. Again, that's key to life, to the knobs. You can stand and shake it back and forth. Shake the whole van. There's not any rattling or anything in the EXO system. Another accessory you can get is using these four pole adapters. You can actually extend your license plate out towards the front. So if it's covered up by all the cargo you're carrying you can extend it out here with an extra kit on our website. That brings the lights and the license plate out here. Overall, the EXO system's really nice with this van. I think it really complements it, just being able to swing away, get complete access to the back of the van if you're loaded up. Not to mention all the different accessories you can mix and match. So if you're already somebody that's doing all that stuff anyway, you have the same mount for it and just get the different accessories. You saw how easy it was to pop those out and replace 'em. I really like that. Since you're probably not gonna be climbing up on your roof or throw up anything there. And you don't wanna take up any more space up on the inside. You can keep some of your cargo out here and out of the way. Well, I think that does it. Thanks for hanging out. I hope this helped..