Yakima DoubleDown 4 Bike Rack Review - etrailer.com

http://www.etrailer.com/tv-demo-yakima-double-down-4-bike-carrier-Y02424.aspx Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information. Today we are going to cover part number Y02424 from Yakima. This is their hitch-mounted bicycle carrier. This is their DoubleDown 4 Bike Carrier. We will cover some of the features of this bicycle rack. First off, this is a four-bike bicycle rack, and it does come standard with anti-sway cradles, and it does tilt down out of the way to get in the back of your SUV. And also, is is convertible between the 2-inch receiver and the 1-1/4 inch receiver. And we will show you how you do that, next. It is pretty simple. You have this bushing right here that works in a 2-inch receiver, and to convert it back down to 1-1/4 inches for a Class II receiver, you undo this bolt right here. And there you have it, it is ready for a Class II receiver hitch. In our application, we are going to use it on a Class III receiver hitch, so we will reinstall the bushing. Also included in the bicycle rack are these three tools here. They help you assemble the bicycle rack, which is really easy. There are like, two or three bolts that you have to put together. And then it comes with a tool here, that you can use to tighten down the hitch bolt on the bicycle rack - plus the Allen wrench for the bushing. We will go ahead and install this bicycle rack in a typical 2-inch receiver hitch, and we will cover all the features of this rack in more detail. Line up the hitch pin holes. You can install the hitch pin bolt from either side. Just thread it in to get it started. You can use the provided tool to tighten it down. Sometimes the hitch combinations do not allow you for a tool to work on there, so what you can use in its place is a 7/8-inch wrench or socket. All right, once you have it tightened down, you can go ahead and install the safety clip. All right, next we will show you the tilt feature of this bicycle rack. It is really easy to use. You simply pull up on this red button here and it allows the bicycle rack to fold back. And that way, you have easy access to the back of your minivan or SUV. Next we will go ahead and show you the tilt feature of the arms. It helps to make a lower profile for easy storage. Pull toward you on this button, and the arms just fold down. And do the same thing to fold the arms back up. Next we will go ahead and install a bike and show you how it gets fitted onto the rack and you can see how it gets tied down to the rack. First, what you want to do is take off the straps on the cradle that you want to lift the bike on. We will use this one here. Now we will go ahead and install a bike and show you how to tie it back down. And on the anti-sway cradle, just push down until it meets the downtube and then just pull the strap around it. And the same thing applies to the other straps on the bike. All right, we will go ahead and show you more detail of the cradles. First off, we will talk about this cradle here. This one does not have the anti-sway part of it but the other half does. And obviously you can tilt this from left to right and you can also move it from front to rear. And the cradles themselves have four points of contact for the strap itself, so you can move it around as you see fit. And inside the cradle, there are a couple of grooves that kind of hold the bike up away from the cradle a little bit, so that allows room for a cable so they do not get mashed up against the frame. And the other cradle here is the one with the anti-sway cradle. You can see how the arm comes down. And actually when this does that, it actually acts as a lock a little bit. It actually tightens up on the crossbar to keep the saddle from moving from front to rear. And when it is folded up, you can move it left and right pretty easily. And the best part of the bicycle rack is built-in bottle openers - great for the end of a long ride. And that covers our review of part number Y02424 from Yakima, their DoubleDown Bicycle Rack.