Yakima Second Level Bike or Cargo Carrier Hitch Rack, Rear Vehicle System Base for EXO SwingBase - Accessory Only, EXO TopShelf

Hitch rack is awesome, it locks in place, swings out so you can access the bottom rack or the truck bed. Great for travel and every weekend when heading to the boat with coolers or fuel tanks.

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So I thought this two tier rack was going to solve my problems for my Class B motorhome. Provide additional external storage capacity and a rack to hold two bikes. In practice I fund the solution to be unusable. The rack with the bikes on the top tier swing back and forth valiantly. I put a strap from the top of the rack to the hitch safety loops, which reduced the swing, but didn't eliminate. Just a slight dip in the road had the rack bouncing valiantly. I had to keep a constant eye on it since I thought the rack or my hitch might fail at anytime. I was only able to relax once I arrived home again.When I removed the cover over the bikes I found significant damage. The two bikes have 20" tires, which the specifications indicate are supported, yet they both front tires went through the rack holder, see photo.I contact Yakima, they said the bike could be ejected because the wheel mount wasn't far enough back. The bike went through the rack, it wasn't ejected. The never address the front to back swing or bouncing issue I raised. For me the rack is unsafe!

The product's commercial videos and photos show a 2020+ Q7 with GearWarrior mounted on the TopShelf, giving people the false impression that the system works perfectly with the vehicle with that setup.Well, that setup blocks my Q7's trunk door from opening when the system is fully swung out, aka "basecamp mode". If you want to open the trunk door with that setup, the only free option is to leave the TopShelf in a half-spun position, which is not secured by any latch. Switching to GearWarrior for the TopShelf has the same issue.Unlike SwingBase, which does not block the trunk door even with GearLocker installed, the TopShelf blocks the door and has non-retractable arms. After each trip, you will need to disassemble it with a non-standard hex driver.Overall, it has introduced more complexity and concern to the originally great system with only SwingBase. I would rather choose to put my stuff in a roof box than a GearLocker on the TopShelf.

We have two fairly light mountain bikes on top and there is excessive wobble. The lower level cargo box is not fully accessible with the hat ch open and the bikes above. Was this product fully tested?

The system has tremendous versatility so we're glad to have it to carry 2 mountain bikes above the carrier box. There's a lot of torque on the swivel point of the top shelf which bending the pin and attachment point. The bikes move a lot when we're driving on rough road with our RV. The handel bars of the bikes can hit the back window. We put the smaller bike towards the back door so there's more "wiggle room".

I have the two tier system with bike rack on top. Way too much wobble, something needs to be added to stabilize the top rack.

They should fire the person who engineered this product. I bought the system to put a box on the bottom and bikes on the top shelf. The top shelf and the bike mount for it do not keep the bikes steady at all. The bike get thrown around violently while traveling down the road causing damage to both the bikes and the back of my van.