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Hi everyone. It's Evangeline here at etrailer. And today we are taking a look at our Swagman XTC4 bike platform rack here at etrailer. So this bike rack may be an option for you. If you're looking for something that is really sturdy, really simple, doesn't have extra frills and bells and whistles that you may not be interested in paying for, and something that can carry around four bikes. So if you have your family, you have your friends, you all want to go for a bike ride.
This may be the platform rack for you. Now depending on your bikes, where they sit, what kind of frame it has as well as its wheelbase. You may have to make some of your own adjustments. What we had to do here was we switched around the hooks so that the shorter one was on this side. And the longer one was on that side, just because we have a children's bike right over here towards the end.
To make sure that you know what you're doing with the different frames and I'll guide you through the features of the bike rack. So we're going to take some of these bikes off so that we can take a closer look at our bike rack and see how it works. Now, this does have a weight capacity of 35 pounds per bike. So you are going to have to make sure that your bikes are within that weight capacity That's the average capacity for your normal platform and hanging style bike racks. But if you need a little bit extra more, if you have an electric bike, this might not be the best bike rack for you but for your normal bikes, this is usually enough.
Now, very important part of this bike rack are the wheel hoops. So these hold your tires into place, and they come with this rubber strap. So you're going to move this strap around your wheel and strap that down. So these can accommodate tire widths of up to 2.5 inches. But if you have a fat tire bike, that's okay, cause you can also get the extra or the separate adapter, which is going to create a larger wheel hoop that can accommodate tires up to five inches.
On each end of the wheel hoop are these knobs. So if you loosen these knobs, you can see how you can move your hoops back and forth to accommodate different wheelbases. Now, honestly, it's easier to move this over by right where that knob is instead of by the hoop itself. So if you have some difficulty, make sure you're holding in the right place. The XTC4 utilizes these ratcheting frame hooks. So these come down and secure your bike's frame. So notice how as you push it down, it ratchets down and you can't bring it up. Now, one thing about these hooks are that they are more for keeping your bike upright, than clamping it down. You actually don't need to clamp this all the way down onto your frame just enough so it stays in the upright position because what's actually doing most of the work are the straps around your wheels. Now with this frame hook style, if you do have an alternate frame bike, like a step through bike, a children's bike, like what I have here or a woman's bike with a really low frame, what you may have to do is get a frame adapter bar. So this is going to bring that level right up there, just so that you can clamp that hook down on it with no problems. Now, since this is a ratcheting arm where it goes down, but not up. If you do want to release your bike, there is a button right over there at the end of that hook. So you're going to have to press that in order to bring it up. Now, if you want to take your bike off, the first place you start are going to be at the wheel straps. So you're going to pull that wheel strap so that it comes out of that tab, holding in place and do the same on the other side. Once those straps are released, you can then go to the hook and press on it to release that hook from the bike's frame. One thing I do like about the XTC4 is how much clearance you have between the end of the bike rack as well as your vehicle, which is nice because then you can just stand right over here on the inside as you take your bike off. Depending on your clearance issues, one thing you can do is you can either just release this just enough to tilt your bike back in a way or if you need a little bit more clearance, you can take off the hooks completely. Now, if you need even more clearance to take your bike off or to put it on, another step you can take is to actually lower this mast. To do so, you just pull out that pin and drop down that mast. And look now at how much space we have to take our bike off. Now that we took our bike off, what we can do is now we have this pin that we had to tak
15 сен 2024
