Saris MHS UNO Modular 2-Bike Rack with Cargo Carrier - 2" Hitches

Video Transcript for Saris MHS UNO Modular 2-Bike Rack with Cargo Carrier Review

Hi everyone. Aiden here with etrailer. Today we're gonna be taking a look at this MHS kit from Saris. Now MHS means modular hitch system and this particular kit allows you to carry up to two bikes and a small cargo basket closer to the vehicle. So if you have the type to go out camping, maybe with a significant other or a friend need some place to put your stuff and your bikes, this could be a good solution for you. Let's check it out.

Now, something to know with this particular kit is that it can get quite heavy. The base can support 230 pounds and that doesn't take into account the empty weight of the basket, the empty weight of the base, things like that. So with that kind of weight on your hitch, you need to make sure that your vehicle and the hitch can support that kind of tongue weight. So it will limit you to probably some of your larger vehicles. And with that in mind, you want to know how much you can actually load onto the carrier because the bike racks in the cargo basket will have their own respective weight capacities.

So the basket can support up to 200 pounds. And the two bike racks back here can support 35 pounds per bike. Now if you maxed everything out, you'd be exceeding that 230 pound total. So some things to keep in mind, let's say you maxed out your bikes, 2 35 pound bikes, you would only be able to load the cargo basket up with 160 pounds. So there's a little bit of math you're gonna have to do if you wanna be safe with this, but just make sure you're not overloading it or your vehicle.

But where things get finicky with the weight capacities and having to do all the math to make sure you're not overloading anything, I do think that MHS makes up for in the fact that it's a pretty unique option because it allows us to carry both cargo and bikes. So this is definitely something that I would personally use. My wife and I like to go camping quite frequently on the weekends, just small little trips out and about. And a place to put things like our tent, our coolers, some camp chairs, just a little bit of stuff to get us through the weekend and be able to carry bikes with us would be a really big benefit because typically it would be limited to maybe a basket in the hitch, roof bike racks on the top or vice versa, a box up top and a bike rack in the hitch. This lets you get it all to the ground and makes it a little bit more easy to reach.

And again, if you don't need a ton of cargo space, this could be a good solution. But on the flip side to that, this is a modular system. So let's say you don't need the basket all the time, you could pick up two extra Uno trays and convert this to a four bike carrier. So if you're the type of person to go out biking with a bunch of friends or family, and sometimes you need a larger capacity for bikes, that's an option too. Be sure to check out the other kits available on our website and you can always pick up these items a la carte. So if you wanted to get this kit and add bike rack trays to it later, you could. Now with this all loaded up, you do have the ability to tilt the carrier away from the vehicle with your stuff loaded up. Now I'll say that with just a grain of salt because this is quite heavy and even though we don't have this fully loaded up right now, the weight of everything and how far it tilts does make it pretty cumbersome. I can do it alone, but I don't know if I would want to if I was really maxing this out. And that does allow you to say, for our truck, have very close access to be able to open up our tailgate fully. I'd probably scoot the cooler back just a little bit, but for a vehicle with a lift gate, you'd be just fine. But for me, this is where the MHS starts to lose me a bit because access to the back of my vehicle, especially on a camping trip, is really important. And with this being a bit more difficult to do, I can't say I would want to do it all that often. For me, that's where something like the Yakima EXO system becomes a better option. While it is a more premium carrier, it has a swing base and it makes it a lot easier to operate and get away from the back of your vehicle, allowing access to your cargo when you need it. Now with the tilting and of course lifting it back in place, I already said it's gonna be heavy, but if you can avoid lifting or tilting by the bikes, that would be ideal. And that's part of what makes this so difficult is by grabbing some stable point on the bike rack or the handle down below, it's gonna just be hard to lift because it's not as easy to reach. But by grabbing on a stable point, it takes that stress off of your bike frames and I would strongly recommend that. With all that in mind, let's get a closer look at the bike tray. These trays are gonna be their Uno tray and it's gonna be a front wheel mount. So right up there by our front tire is the primary method of holding a bike down. It means zero frame contact, so good for your carbon frame and your alternative frame bikes. And like I mentioned earlier, only 35 pounds per bike. And that's just because these are mounted to the outer two slots of the carrier. And if we we inchesre to, like I mentioned before, convert this to a four bike rack, those two inner Unos could carry up to 60 pounds. So they would be e-bike compatible in that configuration. But with the cargo basket like this, not gonna be possible. So there's something to be aware of. And the secondary point of contact will be at the back tire, which is just a wheel strap that holds that wheel down. And if need be, whenever we're hooking this up, it does slide back and forth to accommodate for different wheel bases. To get your bikes unloaded, it's just a matter of undoing that back wheel strap first, pressing the button, and pulling the ratcheting strap out. And for the front hook there's gonna be two buttons, one on the hook, which will let you push it up and then one on the arm because it does lock in right here. So you need to push that and get it out of our way and we can just lift the bike up and out of the cradle there. So pretty easy. The hardest part for at least this outer bike is just the high lift because it does come up quite a bit, but you shouldn't be putting too heavy of bikes in here. So hopefully it's not too bad, but just repeat that for your other bike. So with the way this three plus one tray works is the main base gives you three slots for accessories, one for our bike rack and the cargo carrier takes up two and they just wrap and clamp around this base, which is really solid and that's what gives you your main attachment. Where it gets the plus one part is this add on accessory slot where you could add an extra bike rack, converting it to potentially a four bike carrier, if you have all bikes or in this kit, a two bike carrier. The one thing with that plus one is that it sits up quite a bit higher like we saw earlier, but also really close. The spread here isn't great. From the center of one tray to the center of another, you've only got about eight and a half inches. And what that could mean is bike to bike contact. Ours we inchesre sitting quite close together, but we didn't have any major issues with fitment because this sits so much higher than the first one. Hopefully that alleviates any contact issues between seats and handlebars, but it's just something to be aware of that if you are looking for just a really good bike rack first and the cargo carrier secondary, you might just consider not worrying about this and just getting a standard hitch mounted bike rack. Moving on to the basket, there's gonna be plenty of tie down points around here because we've got this tube steel construction throughout. Now the upper tube is gonna be pretty thick, so not very friendly for a hook, but wrapping a strap around like we've chosen to do with cam buckle straps is gonna work perfectly fine and give you plenty of places to secure your cargo and keep it nice and solid. So that's not gonna be going anywhere. Now if you do need cam buckle strap, so we want to pick some up, I'd strongly recommend the etrailer cam buckle strap kit. It's gonna work perfect for a cargo carrier like this. It's what I use for my own and it's gonna have spots to wrap up all of the excess strap and keep it tied up so we don't have any loose bits going and flying down the road. With the cargo unloaded, we can better see a couple things like the inner dimensions of actual usable space on this basket. Front to back we're working with 16 1/2 inches of space and going side to side we're gonna have 46 1/2 inches. So a pretty decent amount of space in there. I mean you saw all the stuff we had loaded up more than enough for a cooler and maybe a small duffel bag, maybe some luggage, things like that. We can also better see the locations that the basket is clamping onto our base. And whenever I fold this up, we'll see this a bit more in detail and it's worth mentioning that if you wanna learn more about what that MHS base is capable of and more about how it works, you can certainly check out our full review on that three plus one base. Evangeline did that video and she did a fantastic job explaining the capabilities and the different options with that base. And I know I mentioned earlier that this is a big carrier, but some measurements are in order so you can see how it would size up on your own vehicle. From the center of the hitch pin hole to the furthest point out on the bike rack, which would be that outer tray that's gonna be 57 inches. So you can take that same measurement to your own vehicle measure from the hitch pin hole out and that's where it would sit. So you're adding a lot of length to your car and as you're driving around pulling into parking spaces, you just gotta keep that in mind. Now the closest point again, from the center of the hitch pin hole to the closest edge of the carrier is six inches and that part of the base does slope up, so it's gonna be pretty bumper friendly. In my experience working with the MHS base, I've not really seen any instance where it's had a problem fitting on a vehicle, but it's still important to check for clearance. Now when everything's unloaded, if you want to fold it up to save space, you can. You're just gonna use that same handle at the bottom as you did to tilt it away. And there's gonna be two locking positions, one at an angle here. So depending on the fitment with your hitch in your vehicle, this might be your only option. But on our truck today, we can fold it straight upright too, and that's gonna give us a lot more space if we wanted to leave this in the hitch between uses. Now from the center of the hitch pin hole to the furthest point out is only 13 1/2 inches. Not too bad. And the closest point is a little bit tricky because every part's gonna be a little bit different, but the basket here is about five inches from the hitch pin hole. And I'd say that's probably the point to look out for because on most vehicles, that back hatch area is gonna start to curve in. So as you get to the top of the carrier where things do jut out a bit further, it should hopefully match the curve of your vehicle. So again, just something to watch for if need be. You've always got that angled position to give you the clearance you might need. Now at the bottom this is gonna work with our two inch by two inch receiver tube and come with a locking anti-rattle bolt that keeps things nice and solid in the hitch. And that lock is pretty simple to just click in place and lock up. It is going to be key to like to bike racks up top so you can lock up those wheel hooks and lock up the hitch pin all with the same key. Now as far as the MHS goes, I think it's gonna be a pretty okay option if you're looking to carry both bikes and cargo. And the reason I only say okay is because I just think there's better options out there. I think for a lot of people, if you already have a hitch especially, it'd be just as price effective to get yourself a roof rack and a basket for the top of your vehicle and get yourself a pretty decent two bike rack for the hitch. In that case, the bike rack's not gonna stick out near as far, and you are adding height to your vehicle, but you can just put some of your lightweight cargo up top. It's not gonna be the perfect solution for everyone, but that's the route I would explore, at least for me and my needs personally. A little bit of cargo for a camping trip, maybe on the weekend. And also wanting to carry bikes for the person that's using this all the time, doing some more involved camping trips, I know I mentioned the Yakima EXO system earlier and that is going to be a much more modular system with the choice between baskets and boxes for your cargo and being able to double those up if you wanted, or swap out for bike racks, ski carriers, or a variety of different camp kitchens. So there's just a lot more options there and if you are the type of person that camps all the time and needs that modularity, I think the EXO just does it a bit better. There's just not enough options for the MHS for me to really put it side by side with the EXO in that capacity. But with all that being said, if you don't want to get a roof rack, you don't wanna upgrade to the EXO, then this is your kind of middle of the road option. There's gonna be some quirks like the heavy weight and the limitations with the hitch, but at the end of the day it does allow you to carry two bikes and some cargo with the option to switch it into a four bike carrier with those extra trays if you wanted to down the road. So you do have some options there. But that was just our look at the Saris MHS Cargo basket and Uno bike rack combination here at etrailer. Thanks for watching.