Saris MHS UNO Bike Rack for 4 Bikes - 2" Hitches - Wheel Mount

Video Transcript for Saris MHS UNO 4 Bike Rack Review

Hi everyone, it's Evangeline right here at etrailer. Today we have the Saris MHS four bike kit. This is a kit consisting of the MHS3 plus one base, along with four UNO trays. This is gonna be a great way to carry around bikes of different shapes and sizes, but still keep within the modularity of the Saris MHS. We'll take a look at those different features right here. If you're not yet familiar with the MHS, it is Saris' modular hitch system, which allows you to mix and match for different trays, accessories, and add ons to create the best kit for you.

This specific kit is what I would recommend looking into if you wanna carry up to four bikes. Because of the versatility of the UNO tray, most bikes are gonna be totally fine on this rack. Now you do have some exceptions and things you do have to consider though when it comes to things like weight capacity. The first two slots on the three plus one base have a stronger weight capacity. With the UNO trays, you can carry two 60 pound bikes.

Now your rear two slots are gonna have a 35 pound bike weight capacity no matter what type of tray you have. If you have a bike that weighs heavier than 60 pounds, well the option for you is to switch out one of your two UNO trays for a DUO tray, which will then bump you up to an 80 pound capacity per bike. But still 60 pounds, still a very decent capacity. Ideally, if you're carrying around more bikes, hopefully you also have more friends to help you out with using this rack. While this is gonna be lighter than your DUO trays, it's still gonna be a lot of weight that you're gonna have to maneuver.

So I have my friend Ed here who's gonna help me out with tilting this rack away. He's gonna support the bikes while I reach into the handle, pull that handle and just let this rack drop down to a tilt. This is gonna go pretty far down, so if you have a vehicle with high hitch height, awesome. If your vehicles are a bit lower to the ground though, you might make contact. Thanks, Ed.

So why would you tilt a rack away Well, if you want access into your hatch trunk area, cargo area, here on our truck, we can open up our window and lower our tailgates. Because of where the rack sits, we do get pretty good clearance, but because of where the bike sit in our case, we come and make contact against the derailer. Still plenty of clearance to reach into our truck bed to grab whatever we need. And for most SUVs that have hatches and doors, you've got plenty of clearance to get into your cargo area. So if you have a friend to help you out with tilting the whole rack away with the bikes, it's nice to have that option. When you bring it back up, it snaps into place and you are ready to drive. So that is a lot of weight you may have to deal with. Just the weight of the bikes alone, max out is gonna be 190 pounds. That doesn't include the weight of the trays and the rack. So before you go any further, please double check your tongue weight capacity of your hitch on your vehicle to make sure it can maximize your Saris MHS experience. So what types of bikes do you have Because chances are this can carry them. It is a front wheel mount rack, meaning there's zero frame contact, no need for frame adapter bars. You can carry tire widths of up to three inches wide with this and you can have a wheel base of up to 50 inches. So most bikes of different shapes and sizes are gonna be fine with this style. Each rack has a rear wheel strap that ratchets down when you secure the rack, but also slides for those different wheel bases. Up front you have your front wheel mount and there's two different levers you are gonna have to consider. The first one is the one that secures your bike's wheel. And if you notice something a little different with this rack, it's gonna be where it sits on your bike wheel. And the reason for that is it locks in one position, 45 degrees because that matches where the cradle is down below. So you have that weight shifted towards the cradle making for a better fit, but you can also work with this other trigger. This one allows you to adjust your mast up and down. When you need to load or unload your bikes, you can go ahead and let that drop all the way down to the ground, giving you that greater clearance to grab your bikes and to go. But before we really get into it, let's see it out in the real world and take this for a drive. Now you can see that when we do maneuver around different things and go over bumps and down the road, everything stays together. You have that front wheel mount really holding tight against those front wheels, preventing those handlebars from shifting around. That rear wheel strap helps keep the backside of the bike down. So even when we exit a driveway, everything stays in place. Yesterday it might be a little bit of shifting around, but that's really just the shifting of the rack. Totally normal for a bike rack. I'm very confident after driving around that everything's going to be secure. Now when you get this, you are gonna have to do a little bit of assembly. Fortunately, it's very easy and straightforward. You're gonna have your trays and then you're going to have your add on. All of them are going to use these same security torx wrench or torx tool in order to tighten down the important bolts. So for the trail, it's simply a matter of loosening the collar in order to remove it from the rack or when you attach it, you just fit it over one of the three plus one slots, fit the lever into its holder and tighten that down with your security tool. For the add on, you are going to have to install the plate first, but after you install the plate, it's straightforward from there. The plate goes on, you use four bolts to secure it to the plate underneath. And then those four bolts are what you are going to slide and then clip your add on brackets into, tighten down those four bolts and that's it. You now have a four bike rack. The add on is gonna take up that room above your handle, which makes it a little tricky to tilt away as well to fold up. So I do recommend reaching underneath, making sure your hand is between that protective bracket and then pull. You can let it drop if you wanna tilt it away, you can lift up to fold. Folding up, you have two options. The first is gonna be your angled position. Since you have the UNO tray sticking a little bit further up, this is gonna be your best bet for most vehicles so you don't make contact with the car. In the case of our truck though, we are able to push this up to the even more compact position, straight up and down. So whichever one fits better for your car, go ahead with that. For clearances, because your add on sits even closer than that, unless you have a curve like we have on a camper shell here, you probably would need to use this in that angled position. So whether you have bikes on or bikes off, this is gonna take up a lot of room behind your vehicle. So some things to remember is if you have this unloaded but folded up, are you gonna have clearance issues or view issues of your rear window and of your taillights The UNO trays are a bit more compact so you have better chances of your taillights being seen. The next thing you have to think about is when your bikes are on there, or if this is in a down position, whether you're at the trail head, you're parked at the grocery store, you're just driving out and about, this is gonna take up a lot of room behind your car and you do have to be mindful of those parking spaces to make sure you're out of risk for other people driving up and making contact. This has a two inch shank that fits into your two inch hitch receiver. What holds everything in place is gonna be your anti-rattle bolt. This tightens down into your hitch and lifts a wedge on the bike rack to reduce that rattle and wobble. You are gonna need a five eighths inch wrench. We have extras here at etrailer if you wanna buy one along with your bike rack, you're also gonna have a lock for the hitch and your base is gonna have four extra lock cores that you can attach to your bike racks. That way everything is keyed alike without having to get anything extra. By the way, those four lock cores are gonna go right here on the front hook of your UNO trays. They're gonna arrive empty, so just grab those and pop them right in when you're ready to secure your bikes. All in all, I really like the versatility of the UNO trays and them on our three plus one base. Makes for a great way to carry around four bikes. I do wish that I could offset the bikes just a little bit more because we did have slight clearance issues with handlebars and seat posts, but that's gonna be normal for pretty much any four bike platform rack. Now if you are looking at just a platform rack for four bikes and you're not interested in modularity, what are your other options Well, if you want to go super duper light, there's a Hollywood Racks Destination four. That's gonna be super easy to lift and carry and insert into your hitch receiver. However, that one only has a weight capacity of 35 pounds per bike. For your options, there's not that many that offer you 60 pounds for two bikes and then 35 pounds for your outer bikes. If you do have those heavier bikes, this is gonna be something worth considering and giving the opportunity to expand or get a DUO tray for your extreme heavy bike applications gives a lot of points to the modularity of this system. So there's pros and cons to every rack. I like the modularity, I like the versatility, but the trays are a bit lighter, so definitely a lot more maneuverable than having the DUO trays on there. Something I might recommend looking into is the Saris hitch dolly. That's gonna be a little shank attachment that has two wheels and allows you to roll your bike rack around your garage, get it up to your vehicle, and from there you can have a friend lift it up into your hitch receiver. This saves having to drag the entire rack from one point to another and it might save you a little bit of effort too. That's a quick little add on you can get for this bike rack. But other than that, just double check your hitch capacity again and make sure that your vehicle can carry this rack. All of these pieces are available individually. If you wanna look into them, you can check out our review videos where we really focus in on each component. If you want to carry around cargo, check out the MHS cargo basket. If you need that greater weight capacity and that larger wheel mount style, check out the MHS DUO. But right here, right now, you just saw the kit consisting of the four UNO trays and the MHS3 plus one base, creating the MHS UNO rack for four bikes right here at etrailer. My name's Evangeline and I hope you enjoy the journey.